I love the Australian landscape. Some of my earliest memories are of camping trips and picnics to the less trodden parts of country and coastal Victoria, wandering among the gum trees and wildflowers, taking a dip in a mountain stream or just lying back and soaking up the atmosphere and aromas of the Australian bush. My parents’ love for the outdoors rubbed off on me at an early age and is now a fundamental part of what keeps me ticking. There is nowhere I feel more comfortable and connected with the world than when roaming through a eucalypt woodland or rockhopping along one of our high country streams.
Photography has been a constant companion to me for the last forty years. My first camera, a Kodak instamatic, was a Christmas gift back in 1970. From there I progressed to Mum’s old rangefinder, and as soon as I could afford it, a shiny new Praktica SLR and some cheap lenses. Film and processing were expensive for a teenager, so after inheriting an old black and white darkroom setup, I began processing my own photos. I still have a box of old black and white prints from that time.
After finishing high school, and after much navel gazing, I opted for a career in science rather than photography and headed off to university to study zoology and marine biology. With a new degree under my arm, I decided to see more of Australia and worked for short periods in Tasmania and New South Wales before moving up to Queensland and landing a position with the state Fisheries Department. Twenty years on, and after some great experiences as a fisheries research technician and biologist, the time came to devote my time to my two real passions in life – the great Australian outdoors and photography.
The images on this website show the Australian bush and beach as I see them. The galleries are works in progress and will be updated and added to for as long as my two legs will carry me and my camera to out of the way locations. Two of my favourite places, Girraween National Park in Queensland and Gibraltar Range National Park in New South Wales, figure prominently in my portfolio because it was while wandering through these rugged landscapes several years ago that the idea to return to photography full time took a firm grip. Most of the coastal images were captured in the beautiful Sunshine Coast area in Queensland, close to where I live.
The BLOG will also be updated regularly with practical information and tips on how I go about my photography. I don’t claim to be an authority on landscape photography, but years of hiking and taking pictures have given me some useful ideas about how to make things work in your favour in different situations.
Photography has always provided the means to bring a little piece of the outdoors home with me. The images on this website are intended to bring a little piece of the outdoors home to a wider audience who might not have the opportunity or inclination to camp out in frosty New England nights or hike long kilometres to a distant peak before dawn to watch the sun rise.
I hope you enjoy looking at my photographs even half as much as I enjoyed taking them.
Bob Simpson
