Western Australian Fungi

Think wildflowers and most people don't think Fungi, yet these are an important part of the bush and do some really important jobs like helping with decomposition. Unfortunately, there are very few scientists studying our native fungi and as more of the bush is cleared, we lose knowledge of this fascinating flora. And unlike the so-called wildflower season that lasts for many months, July is basically the key month for fungi activity. Oh, and before anyone asks, you have to be really careful about eating any of these. Apparently some are as deadly as any snake bite, even worse.

Western Australian Wildflowers

With wildflower season started, it's probably the right time to expand the stock endevours to include a specialist image library as well as the generals. I won't reveal which garden / flora specific library we are 'negotiating' with at present, but the wheels are in motion to have them as the exclusive source for our endemic Western Australian flora images. More details in a future post.

Ah the Perth Wheel !!
Just because every other city in the World has a big wheel or a big eye or a big banana or whatever, someone in the Perth City Council figured we needed a Big Wheel. There's a few photos of this monstrosity starting to get about, but this is a bit of a different approach.

Continually looking for new angles in and around the city. I stil reckon the Bell Tower is a waste of space, but this angle took my fancy for some reason.

Photos of Perth

City traffic heading out to the southern suburbs at rush hour - kinda' like the heart of the city bleeding out at the end of the day. Yes, I should have been a poet.

Winter wildflowers

In recent weeks I've had several people approach me whilst out bushwalking or exploring local nature reserves. These people are all experts of course and insist that I should return in the springtime for the 'Wildflowers'.
Hmmmmm !!
Yes, springtime is peak season for our unique Western Australian wildflowers, but if you look closely and follow the signs, it's quite amazing what is around at any time of the year.
The small white flower - with a diameter smaller than an Aussie 5 cent coin - was blooming in the desolated Yanchep Rose walk trail area where the only other vegetation was green re-growth after the summer bush fire.
The small tube like flower is Astroloma ciliate, spotted in my local Craigie Bush.

Aboriginal Art

This is all a bit of an experiment really, but through family connections we will be putting selected images of genuine Aboriginal artwork into the stock portfolio over the coming months. This subject is a tricky one, as Aboriginal Art from certain regions of Australia has been over represented, used for financial profiteering and more, while many really good artists haven't been able to get a look in. No, we are not setting out to re-invent the wheel, but will be trying something that hopefully might give something back to some genuinely talented people. This is being done 'within the family' so to speak and any image license sales will see proceeds go back to the artist.

Point of focus

I couldn't pass up this opportunity at the Kings Park State War Memorial. That single poppy on the wall in amongst all those names sure says something visually. I actually seperated the poppy and turned the background into black and white ... had a go at sepia toning the wall and names, but it didn't look right.

Photographing endemic flora in natural surroundings is fine for the most part, yet I do like the concentrated detail possible from a cut out. Having my own native garden with an amazing Eucalyptus Lehmanni tree helps, but I've made a little home office backdrop set up after a visit to Lyncraft. It's a great way to keep native flowers still too ... into Photoshop and using selection tools yes, but I've just discovered the power of edge modifying tools by accident. I really need to go do a Photoshop course instead of finding these tools by accident, eh ?
And it goes without saying that you wouldn't go picking native flora out of the bush for this kind of endevour. Just wanted to make that point :)

Invasion of Privacy

You never know what's going to pop out of a Banksia flower sometimes. This little Lampropholis species skink just stuck his head out the other day and had a good look around at the new Tamron SP AF90mm f2.8 being aimed at him (or her !). Hand held, deep breath, squeeze too... no time to set up the tripod as the little creature, although curious, was a bit nervous. Still managed to get the shot up to 5100 on the long side and through QC on the mighty Alamy.

Yanchep National Park

Yanchep National Park isn't exactly pretty these days following the summer bush fire that swept through the park. Still makes for good photography opportunities though.

Perth city, Western Australia

The city skyline of Perth, Western Australia, is set to change rather dramatically over the next ten years and from a stock photo perspective that means having the most up to date images as all the new skyscrapers go up (World economic crisis and varying State Governments 'negging on deals aside ...). We are following all of the new Perth development from a photography perspective quite closely and have many images from unusual or un-common angles offering a new and refreshing perspective. We still have the traditional Kings Park vistas by the bucket load of course !

Western Australia's native or endemic Eucalyptus trees are flowering like crazy around the place right now and we're naturally adding these to the growing endemic Western Australian flora data base. We have an Excel file already under construction,
with file numbers, a size key for varying dimensions of image and more.


One aspect to the cataloguing of our native flora images is the correct latin name. Keep an eye out for more on our catalogue of native Western Australian flora images in future posts.

Stock Photography

I've made the decision to use this blog more for my stock photography endevours, as we near the 700 image mark with Alamy and 550 files with Gekko Images. Most in this business would agree that it is not a good time to be trying to grow and expand, but I have been researching some other non-exclusive outlets and considering direct marketing through a dedicated website. Lots to think about and consider in the weeks ahead.

Our first stock sale for the new year and it's Ben Bray in the Castrol Monaro TD from a season back. Editorial use of course, but curiously for an educational book in the US of A. Wish they had photos like that in my school books when I was a boy ...