In the third instalment of our series on great photo locations, Peter Eve reveals his secrets to shooting the lush landscapes of Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory.
My favourite spot to shoot is Kakadu – all 19,800 sq kms of it! Only about 250km from Darwin, there is sealed road for most of the way, and it’s one of the more easily reached locations in the Northern Territory. It has so much to offer visually. That said, the visual feast is offset by the thought that the photographer is no longer the dominant predator and may become the feast!
Rent a tinny (pack a couple as well) and make time for Yellow Waters. Launching onto the billabong pre-sunrise gives you time to find a good spot to shoot. It’s quite hard shooting from an unstable platform so always give your companions warning before you shoot so they can all stay still. Looking over the vast wetlands, with low sunlight playing through the rising and swirling mist and a four-metre estuarine crocodile in the foreground is quite a heady mix.
After the light gets higher there is the wildlife to concentrate on. A visit at the end of the ‘Dry’ sees quite a concentration of birds. My favourite is the Little Kingfisher. The afternoon could see you positioned at Nawurlandja lookout watching the sunset over Nourlangie rock and the surrounding valley ringed by the Kakadu Escarpment. Nourlangie and some of the formations along the escarpment are landmarks for creation stories which the local inhabitants have passed down for thousands of years. A site a hundred kilometres or so away has recently been dated with human habitation as recently as 40,000 old.
One of the most frustrating things which can happen is that you’ll just get into a position for a glorious shot and you’ll look through the viewfinder and then - disaster strikes - the lens and camera will have a thick layer of condensation obscuring the shot! This can happen if you’ve had your camera gear in the hotel air-conditioning with you. My solution is to leave all my gear in the bathroom, which usually isn’t air-conditioned overnight, so it stays relatively warm. Happy shooting, and I do hope to see you up there some time in the future!
Little Kingfisher. Despite their colourful garb these guys are pretty hard to spot and then to sneak up on, being only about 12 cm in length. Canon EOS 5D Mark III with Canon EF 500mm f4L IS USM and 1.4x III Extender Total focal length 700mm. f/6.3, 1/320s, ISO 400. No flash. Handheld in 4.7m boat. Image by Peter Eve.
Estuarine Crocodile. Whatever you do don’t fall in. Barramundi sashimi? Canon EOS 5D Mark III with Canon EF 500mm, f4L IS USM and 1.4x III Extender Total focal length 700mm. f/6.3, 1/400s, ISO 400. No flash. Handheld in 4.7m boat. Image by Peter Eve.
