My wife, Karen, and I made a 3-week trip to Australia in the fall of 2013. Our goal was to see the tropical rain forests of Far North Queensland and the Top End (near Darwin), and to observe and photograph as much wildlife as possible. As a college student 30+ years ago, I was fortunate to spend 5 amazing months traveling throughout Australia with 20 other biology students studying natural history, marine biology, anthropology, etc. Naturally, I was excited to go back Down Under and look for familiar birds and mammals, but we especially hoped to see platypus, a tree kangaroo, and a cassowary. We scored excellent views of all three, and I got good photos of a platypus and Lumholtz’s tree kangaroo.
Platypus in Peterson Creek, Yungaburra, Qld.
All of these images were made with a Nikon D600, a Nikon 70-200 mm VR f/2.8 lens, and some with a Nikon AF-S 1.7x tele-converter. The full-frame 24 MP D600 is great because it enables cropping without losing much sharpness.
Lumholtz’s tree kangaroo, near Milanda, Qld.
It is difficult to cull over 2,000 images to a dozen or so, but I did my best. The images shown here represent some of the diversity of the incredible wildlife that inhabits Australia. Enjoy!
Short-eared rock wallaby, Litchfield National Park, N.T.
Rainbow bee-eaters, Litchfield National Park, N.T.
Saltwater crocodile, Yellow River, Kakadu National Park, N.T.
Jabiru stork, Kakadu National Park, N.T.
Agile wallabies, with joey, Kakadu National Park, N.T.
Little red flying foxes, Carnarvon National Park, Qld.
Black / Swamp wallaby, Carnarvon National Park, Qld.
Laughing kookaburra, Carnarvon National Park, Qld.
Whiptail / Pretty-face wallaby, Carnarvon National Park, Qld.
Eastern gray and agile wallaby mob on the beach, Cape Hillsborough National Park, Qld.
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Male Papuan frogmouth on a nest, Daintree River, Daintree National Park, Qld.
Coastal lowland rainforest with Australian fan palms, Daintree National Park, Qld.
Happy 2014!
