This is Twelve Mile Beach. It is the campsite we stayed at when we first arrived in Hopetoun. Like many places in Western Australia there are no free campsites within a certain distance of the town. Twelve Mile is far enough out of town that you can stay there for free. I had to wait a couple of weeks to get a shot of a full moon to composite in. As it is a local shot I may get it framed for The Deck Gallery but I do not know how well photoshop trickery sells in print. What do you think?

This is a composite of Fanny Cove, Roo Sign and Frame Heads. It is going to be used as a design for a Stubby Holder which is a neoprene sleeve which Australians use to keep their beer cold and hands warm. Although all the images are from Western Australia I have tried to make it as generic as possible so it can be sold all over Australia. Any comments are welcome before it goes into mass production this week.

We have been quite lucky recently as every time we have had a Friday off together it has been the hottest day of the week. This week Chris and Carole from The Deck gave us use of their 4×4 for the day so we could explore some of the more remote areas East of Hopetoun. This is Fanny Cove in the Stokes National Park which can only be reached via a 4×4 track. I’m sure our van would not have got far and given the lack of traffic it could have been a long wait for rescue. The Toyota Landcruiser made light work of the terrain giving us the chance to snorkel this secluded cove.

This was taken at the groyne in Hopetoun yesterday. Fishing is a popular sport in Australia and there are usually around a dozen people fishing at sunset in Hopetoun each night. The time here has flown by and its hard to believe we are half way through our six weeks work here. We have both really enjoyed working at The Deck and will miss it when we go. I’ve been updating The Decks Website this year and have just put the new site online. I have a few more bits to add but most of it is there. Let me know what you think.

This is Native Dog Beach in Bremer Bay which we visited after Christmas. Bremer is the nearest coastal town to Hopetoun if you travel west. It looked close enough on the map but involved a 320 mile round trip around the Fitzgerald National Park. In hindsight it was a long way to go when Hopetoun is surrounded by miles of white sandy beaches. It was good to give the van a run as its not moved for a fortnight but we will probably stick to more local attractions for the rest of January while we are living here.

Today we left Australia‘s Goldfields and entered it’s Wheatbelt. This image was taken in an area between the two. It shows two of Australia‘s environmental challenges. Fire and the rising salt level caused by historic deforestation. We camped at a place called Kokerbin Rock which has the title of Australia‘s third biggest monolith after the famous Uluru and Mt. Augustus which I had the chance to climb 15 years ago in my first visit to Australia. Tomorrow head East to the wonderfully Australian named Bruce Rock before heading south to The Deck in Hopetoun where we will be working over the festive period. 

This was taken on the way to the Stirling Range. Since then we stopped at the micro town of Borden and met a very helpful fellow traveller called Alan and his pet chihuahua Kira in a very fine custom made ’85 kombi. On the other hand we have seen and met dozens of Harley Davidson riders on their way back from a 1000 strong Rally in Margaret River. One thing they all have in common is the genuine friendliness of Australians. We took another detour yesterday to Bremer Bay to capture some stock shots and bumped in to a group of professional photographers called 90 degrees 5 shooting the same beaches. After quizzing them about how survive as a Photographer in Australia we headed back inland to Bravensthorpe. The landscapes in Australia are full of colour. Even the roadside offers many possibilities of Red, Green and Blue. These signs warning of Kangaroo, Emu, Wombat, Camel and some which I have yet to identify are all over the highways. The only thing we have hit so far are countless insects. We saw our first Emu and Snake yesterday but each encounter was too brief to capture. We are looking forward to arriving in Esperance on Thursday.

This image was accepted for Stock Photography at Shutterstock and is available for high resolution download here.

Since we left Augusta we have travelled East into the heart of Western Australia‘s forests. It’s hard to believe we will soon be crossing the Nullarbor which is named after its lack of trees. The native trees here are all types of eucalyptus but you would not know it looking at them as they vary from tall white barked trees to ones which resemble oak. This shot was taken as we cooked our diner on the free Barbecue in the National Park surrounding The Gloucester Tree which is a 61m tall tree which was regularly climbed to look out for fires. A job which is now done with light aircraft.

This image was accepted for Stock Photography at Shutterstock and is available for high resolution download here.

This is Stockton Lake near Collie which was our third camp site after stopping at Ironstone Gully Falls last night. Those of you who know Australia will realize the meandering route between sites. This is largely due to the need to pick up various provisions and water as well as the occasional desire to use toilet more substantial than an eco hole in the ground. We have found all our fellow campers to be very friendly, knowledgeable and helpful. So far they have also all been Australian. This is a big advantage of camping over the backpacker hostel route. This lake was created from an old coal mine and is now a Recreation Area for all manner of water sports. I only know this from our camp site neighbour who worked here when it was a mine. As I write this we are heading towards Pine Plantation Picnic Area Camp site. I am planning to fit a cigarette lighter socket to the second battery in our van so I will not be limited to posting images while Karen is driving. I suspect I will not be forgiven if I flatten the main battery with my laptop and we are unable to start the engine in the morning.

This shot of the Perth Skyline was taken at the end of our first day in Western Australia. The 30 hour journey to Australia via Singapore went fairly smoothly with the exception of Heathrow security who almost caused us to miss our first flight by holding us up when they discovered the metal in Karen’s leg and then swabbing my phone for explosives. It was raining when we arrived at 1am but it had all cleared by the following morning. At this point I would normally go into the all details of how this image was shot and processed however while we are travelling this Photoblog will be more of a Travel Journal like the Egypt Blog rather than A Photoshop tricks and tips study. If any regular readers wish to know how images were created please leave a comment and I will be more than happy to go into the details and the Photoshop layers used.

After removing all the logos and trademarks from the building this image was accepted for Stock Photography at Shutterstock and is available for high resolution download here.