IT WAS MY FIRST Job for AG – a story
about the people that drive the nation’s
huge road trains. We’d arrived at the Hay
Plain in NSW at dawn. The landscape was
as featureless and flat as the road ahead.
The best way to capture the enormity of
the place was from above; I only had the
truck we were travelling in to stand on.
I climbed on the roof of the cab
barefoot – it was polished and slippery. I
had a look from up there but it was too
still and quiet. I needed movement to truly
capture the endless transit of a trucker’s
life. I asked the driver to drive at normal
speed. I had my back against the trailer,
and my feet glued to the surface of the
cab’s roof like a gecko’s feet to a window.
It felt like being on the bow of the Titanic.
Then the sun broke the horizon. To get
the truck’s bright paintwork and fittings
in the foreground, I used the widest lens
I had, a 30-year-old, 18mm manual lens
that I picked up at a garage sale for $20.
The greatest bonus of all was that the
shot was used to open the story. From a
technical viewpoint, this is just a snapshot- there’s no lighting technique and the
composition is simple – but it’s my most
memorable for the magazine.
Thomas Wielecki Road train AG 68, 2002
I WAS EXCITED to shoot a story on Purnululu in the Kimberley in
2006 because it was, and remains, one of my favourite places. The
beehive shapes are, of course, spectacular, but from a photography
point of view, they can be difficult to arrange into a balanced
composition. I spent quite a bit of time exploring various viewpoints,
looking for a scene that captured a sense of place and could stand
alone as a ‘hero’ shot. Once I found this vantage point, just to the
south of Piccaninny Creek, I knew I had a strong image, so I returned
in the pre-dawn light and was delighted when the resulting shot
was selected to be one of the journal’s earliest photographic covers.Nick Rains
Cover,
AG 86, 200792 Australian Geographic