tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75483628776082348662012-01-16T17:54:30.430-08:00Journey through Australia's natural spaces and places with nature photojournalist Esther Beaton as she carries out photographic assignments for her premier clients and talks about the results.Esther Beatonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00552984450053941279noreply@blogger.comBlogger281100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7548362877608234866.post-79296647291659107352012-01-16T17:54:00.000-08:002012-01-16T17:54:30.459-08:00

I ran into some orchid hunters on the weekend and instead of doing what I was "supposed" to do, I played hooky and went out into the fields to play with my new friends. It was well worth the effort (fun?) because we may have stumbled on to something new to science.  Orchids are some of the most mysterious and mesmerising flowers ever. Part of their allure is in their behaviour. Behaviour? Plants

Esther Beatonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00552984450053941279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7548362877608234866.post-70745563668577482512012-01-02T00:02:00.000-08:002012-01-02T00:02:09.304-08:00

New Year's Day started out warm - at last. It has been one of the coldest summers anyone can remember. Insects have been low key so it was a delight to find them calling from above my head, as I headed out on my first exploratory bushwalk of the year. This late in the summer Green Grocer cicadas should have been finished but they were still singing their little hearts out.  I don't have a photo

Esther Beatonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00552984450053941279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7548362877608234866.post-18851464870389190332011-12-30T19:24:00.000-08:002011-12-30T19:24:13.515-08:00

I'd like to acknowledge a budding young nature and wildlife photographer, Mikaela Clews. She won the Young Encourage-ment award at the recent Gosford Council photo competition.  Mikaela Clews deserves a lot of credit for getting out into the bushlands around Gosford, New South Wales. The aim of the photo competition was to portray how nature is on the city's doorstep. Mikaela got hold of a young

Esther Beatonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00552984450053941279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7548362877608234866.post-46518774581473659582011-11-24T18:34:00.000-08:002011-11-24T18:34:36.235-08:00

I have been humbled. I saw visuals today that impressed me. But more so, they were accompanied by words - words that encapsulated my life story. Maybe the story of all my lifetimes. It was only yesterday I was speaking to a friend about the uplifting power of nature and photography and this video lands in my inbox today.  Do you like TED? The speakers on that program are all equally spellbinding

Esther Beatonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00552984450053941279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7548362877608234866.post-50109716849558536382011-11-18T20:28:00.000-08:002011-11-18T20:36:45.539-08:00

Isn't the camera in the iPhone the coolest thing? As a professional photographer I love to have a little snappy camera in my bag to grab the occasional fun shot. Or if I'm doing a reconnaissance for a shoot or a workshop I make "photo notes" with my iPhone camera. I simply love the picture-taking capabilities of an iPhone. It saves me the bother of pulling out the big gear when it's not really

Esther Beatonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00552984450053941279noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7548362877608234866.post-41577378286183004832011-11-16T01:59:00.000-08:002011-11-16T01:59:52.778-08:00

I hadn't planned to watch the arrival of the US President but when I saw the GG's yellow outfit I was captivated. I was so impressed by the welcome given to President Obama by our two gracious first ladies. And it was so low-key, just like every thing Australian - so casual, so laid back. I was so proud of the Aussies, despite my American roots.  I watched the poor journos and photographers and

Esther Beatonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00552984450053941279noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7548362877608234866.post-62777911865072705042011-08-25T02:53:00.000-07:002011-08-25T03:39:50.910-07:00

Did you know it is Keep Australia Beautiful Week? Sometimes ugly things are happening in the world and it's easy to despair. I wonder how people in London and other cities in England feel upon hearing the "Keep it Beautiful" motto. After the damage and chaos of recent weeks, just cleaning up seems an overwhelming task let alone attempting to recreate beauty. But as nature photographers we

Esther Beatonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00552984450053941279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7548362877608234866.post-34366918739717870742011-05-31T19:18:00.000-07:002011-06-02T01:23:12.433-07:00

June 1st announces the start of the whale watching season. Humpbacks and southern rights can now be sighted off the New South Wales Coast as they head north to breed in warmer waters. I've been blown away by this annual event ever since that June in 1988 when I carried out an assignment for Good Weekend magazine. It was unique not only for being a wildlife assignment (something rarely given

Esther Beatonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00552984450053941279noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7548362877608234866.post-24765473788839953622011-03-31T19:41:00.000-07:002011-04-03T20:51:42.839-07:00

Once upon a time, in a deep gully, protected by rocky wooded slops, lived a quiet community of coal miners. Today, apart from a few stones marking the ruins of their homes, lives an equally quiet community of local residents. But these aren’t human. They are secretive mammals, little known and little seen by most Australians, and most of them are seriously endangered. The only human residents

Esther Beatonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00552984450053941279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7548362877608234866.post-51655587502270700922011-01-30T23:36:00.000-08:002011-01-30T23:37:17.977-08:00

The Outback when it is wet is amazing. When it floods and takes human lives, and livestock, then it is truly terrible. The damage caused by the recent Queensland floods was so so extreme because it mainly hit the heavily populated coastal towns. Further inland, the Outback towns are used to the river channels breaking their banks and most of the levies hold firm against the highest waters. In

Esther Beatonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00552984450053941279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7548362877608234866.post-22451939545736051012010-11-02T04:27:00.000-07:002011-03-31T19:55:46.427-07:00

I arrived at Cooper Creek, in South Australia's Channel Country, in the middle of this year's unusual rains. The scene I planned to photograph was grey and ordinary. But after spending an hour or two - and after I stopped whinging about the gloomy skies - the real beauty of the scene emerged. To get the story behind this photo, watch this video I recorded on the spot.

Esther Beatonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00552984450053941279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7548362877608234866.post-73704196030578059752010-10-06T19:03:00.000-07:002010-11-02T04:54:01.798-07:00

There were two sets of winners last night at Australian Geographic Society's Awards Night 2010: the official and the unofficial. The official award winners were conservationists and adventures, young and old. You can read about them here. But then there were the unofficial winners - like the photographers and editorial staff in this midnight hour snapshot (L to R: Paul Nevin, Ian Connellan,

Esther Beatonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00552984450053941279noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7548362877608234866.post-43610289248471180632009-08-31T22:15:00.000-07:002011-03-31T20:01:18.396-07:00

A recent media release announced that scientists had measured the most carbon dense forest in the world. No, it's not in the Amazon - it's right here in Australia and I know it intimately. I worked hand in hand, for over a year, with well-known ecologist David Lindenmayer, one of the team of scientists who made the discovery. (He's the figure in the photo providing scale for the giant trees.)

Esther Beatonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00552984450053941279noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7548362877608234866.post-88584275151444748572009-07-12T20:20:00.000-07:002011-03-31T20:04:13.888-07:00

One of my favorite topics to post is a photo from a student. I was chatting to Paul Collis after he and his wife came back from the Kimberley, Western Australia. They had printed out a selection of recipes from my photography cookbook to take along on their travels. Paul specifically wanted to try one of the step-by-step recipes on making silhouettes. As you can see from this image, Paul did

Esther Beatonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00552984450053941279noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7548362877608234866.post-48769409685127247702009-02-24T00:53:00.000-08:002011-08-25T03:05:57.918-07:00

In 1999, as I sat at this cafe in the centre of Marysville, I had no idea of the consequences of my upcoming assignment. David Lindenmayer and I were outlining the chapters of a new book, Life in the Tall Eucalypt Forests, and planning my shooting schedule for the next 12 months. Over the following year, I toured the ranges and forests beyond the pretty little towns and photographed the giant

Esther Beatonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00552984450053941279noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7548362877608234866.post-61391167429155731082009-01-31T15:55:00.000-08:002009-01-31T16:43:47.488-08:00

I was sitting an at Italian restaurant in Palm Desert, California with 10 members of the Desert Cities Coachella Valley Camera Club. As their guest judge, I had been invited to dinner beforehand. One of them asked what I thought of the movie "Australia". I figured it was a trick question so I carefully answered "I'm not sure if many Americans would find it relevant", which then launched quite a

Esther Beatonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00552984450053941279noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7548362877608234866.post-33893916606685763512008-12-03T21:16:00.000-08:002011-03-31T20:05:17.788-07:00

I've used Nikons all my career. That makes this article an impartial evaluation of the dream kit that Canon asked me to trial. It consisted of a Pelican case bursting with about $30,000 worth of pro gear. Let's start with the EOS 1DS III - what a brilliant camera! It's a bit of a Clydesdale in build but at least it won't fall apart. The controls are all in the right places and super-easy to

Esther Beatonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00552984450053941279noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7548362877608234866.post-61548557605747752542008-11-22T00:47:00.000-08:002011-03-31T20:06:32.123-07:00

When it is red. This month our Day Safari group headed out to photograph waratahs. These are stunning, large, red flowers native to Australia which appear during September and October - our springtime. They seem to emit a glow like an inner fire and stand out like beacons in the bushland around Sydney. When our group arrived and we parted the shrubs expecting to find a vivid, massed display, I

Esther Beatonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00552984450053941279noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7548362877608234866.post-18091908987719313052008-10-08T21:48:00.000-07:002008-10-29T00:01:01.505-07:00

Well, I've had a big adventure! I 'just' finished my seminar series with Kodak, "Great Recipes for Wildlife Photography". Although the tour ended three weeks ago, it has taken me this long to handle all the jobs that had piled up in my absence.The talks were a great success with record crowds at each venue. In Melbourne and Sydney the overflow had to sit in the aisles! Thank you so much to all of

Esther Beatonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00552984450053941279noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7548362877608234866.post-65668442188841317232008-09-30T22:06:00.000-07:002008-09-30T22:30:11.587-07:00

As part of my recent tour around Australia and New Zealand, for the Kodak seminar series, I gave presentations at various photographic colleges. While visiting the various campuses, I poked into some of the classrooms to see what computers were provided to students - to see what was the basic platform of the teaching curriculum. Once upon a time it would have been impossible for visual creatives

Esther Beatonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00552984450053941279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7548362877608234866.post-63453947220954798742008-08-29T17:27:00.000-07:002008-08-29T17:51:23.043-07:00

The question is moot. The deed has been done. Last week, as a community, we decided to euthanase baby Colin, the whale who had come adrift from her mother, and who had been sucking the hulls of boats moored in Pittwater, one of Sydney's harbours just a couple sea miles from my house. What a difficult decision - yet I have trust that it will lead to a positive outcome for future orphaned whales. I

Esther Beatonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00552984450053941279noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7548362877608234866.post-60125076625587371772008-08-25T15:27:00.000-07:002008-08-25T15:33:49.689-07:00

Kodak and I are touring all over Australia and New Zealand in September. If you or a friend is interested in wildlife and nature photography, here's an invitation to come along. Bookings are essential, so to attend this free seminar, you'll have to sign up. Just go to the front page of Kodak's website www.kodak.com.au and click on my name or on the bird picture and you'll see all the venues

Esther Beatonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00552984450053941279noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7548362877608234866.post-80936396217923108742008-08-13T00:33:00.000-07:002011-03-31T20:07:34.536-07:00

This little feller wasn't invited to compete in the high-wire gymnastics at the Olympics - probably due to unfair advantage. His type was born with extraordinary skills and an especially strong dose of pluck and courage built right in to his DNA. The female St Andrews Cross Spider, common in gardens, is a model of sexual cannibalism. Tiny, almost invisible males sit on the outer edges of the

Esther Beatonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00552984450053941279noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7548362877608234866.post-56113693079356324772008-07-30T21:06:00.000-07:002011-03-31T20:19:13.062-07:00

It's great when you learn from your students. The last Day Safari workshop was a big fun day out. We shot wildlife in the morning and waterfalls in the late afternoon. Participants quickly understood how to use different shutter speeds to create various amounts of "silkiness" in the waterfall. But my students taught me something about these waterfalls that I never realized before: the optical

Esther Beatonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00552984450053941279noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7548362877608234866.post-82020807737941144592008-07-10T23:09:00.000-07:002011-03-31T20:19:48.098-07:00

Can you ever become a good nature and wildlife photographer if you don't love ALL of nature? Some subjects are easy - the beauty of colourful birds and the majesty of wild scenics draw us into their spell. The camera just magnetically pops into the hand to record these beautiful moments. But how would you go if you had an assignment to photograph a collection of spiders? Personally, I found the

Esther Beatonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00552984450053941279noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7548362877608234866.post-42529613676234204382008-07-01T02:48:00.000-07:002008-07-01T03:27:46.663-07:00

One of the most significant environmental events in Australia occurred in 1983. And I was there. It was January, I was on my honeymoon with my French photographer husband, Jean-Paul Ferrero and I was on a mission to try my hand at my first ever photojournalism piece. We cruised down Tasmania's Gordon River and camped in old fishermen's huts. I photographed and interviewed protestors as well as

Esther Beatonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00552984450053941279noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7548362877608234866.post-30806136191051522852008-06-25T00:53:00.000-07:002008-06-25T02:22:39.173-07:00

Thanks to everyone for the great comments on my first blog post. I'm really stumped by who could be behind some of those quirky aliases!Instead of one of my photos, I'd like to post a winner sent in by Meredith Foley, one of my Day Safari participants. She's asked a question and I'm sure many of you have similar frustrations. "I'm still working enjoying nature photography and practicing all the

Esther Beatonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00552984450053941279noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7548362877608234866.post-83030593383366027092008-06-10T22:19:00.000-07:002011-03-31T20:20:34.384-07:00

Have you seen the latest issue of Outback magazine? It's published by the outfitter RM Williams. They manufacture such high quality supplies and clothing for stockmen that the clothes have now made it into mainstream fashion. The magazine is a lovely evocation of the life of country people in Australia. I guess it's a bit like England's "Country Life" toned down for us simpler, down-to-earth

Esther Beatonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00552984450053941279noreply@blogger.com8