Australian Nature Photography: New South Wales & The Blue Mountains

We had been hoping to go back to Australia this year, but that obviously hasn't been possible. However, it did get me thinking about our last trip there, to New South Wales and the Blue Mountains, in 2017. As a result I took a look through my photos from our previous visit, and thought they'd make a nice blog post as a collection together. I've reprocessed most of them since I originally shared them, and I also found a few uncut gems that I'd overlooked the first time around - so there's some new ones in here too. I've put the landscapes at the top, followed by some classic Australian wildlife.

I'm going to keep the text to a minimum as I'd rather this post was just a collection of images. I want them to form a kind of flowing mural, portraying the feel of the vast landscapes and characterful wildlife we encountered in NSW. For more detail on the photos, locations, logistics, etc, check out my original blog posts. Anyway, I think there are some really nice shots in here. Hope you enjoy them too.

We were based in the Blue Mountains, which is a beautiful region of mountains and eucalyptus rainforest. It's very tourist-friendly, and there are loads of "Look-Outs", as they call them, which offer breath-taking views out across the canyons and forest. I made a map of my favourites here. This first set of landscapes are all grand views from these tourist view points.

The vast majority of the trees in NSW are eucalyptus, or "gum trees", as they're known colloquially. It's the evaporation of the eucalyptus oil from these trees, which mixes with the morning sunlight and humid air to create the "Blue Mountains" effect, that gives the area its name and is illustrated in the two landscape photos above. Gum trees are a family consisting of several hundred sub-species, many of which are only subtly different from the next. They have an appealing grey-green leaf colour, and are so dense in places, that I was able to create whole texture boards of "treescapes".

Australia has some truly iconic wildlife, and it was a fantastic experience to be able to get so close to much of it. As usual I was playing around with different lighting effects, to get something a little different from the standard portraits whenever possible. All of these were taken in the wild, and I'd love a chance to go back to try more like this.

I think there's a good handful there that I hadn't shared before, which is nice. Plus many others which I think look better now than when I first shared them. I have a tendency to go back and tinker with old photos when I have some down time, as my style and taste evolves over time. It's also very easy to overlook a good photo initially, in preference for one which resonates with the recent emotion of being there. Years on, I judge them with with fresh eyes, on a more graphical basis, and so my preferences often change as a result. So it's always worth revisiting photos from previous years.

If you'd like to see more photos from this trip, you can find my original four-part Australia-trip series here, which also contains more information about the subjects and locations I photographed.

And of course, most of these photos are available in print as wall art. If there's one you're after which isn't in one of my main print galleries, just get in touch.

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George