How would you like to win $3000 for one photo? The Chevron Focus Environment photography competition is an annual contest where the winners share $25k by entering photos in the three categories of sustainability, habitats and ecosystems and native species. It encourages Kindy to year 12 students to explore Western Australia’s biodiversity. The prestigious Harry Butler Award, named after the famous Western Australian naturalist, is given to one person with the best photo out of all the entries.
In 2022 I took up photography for fun and began to grasp the multiple aspects of taking photos, such as exposure, shutter speed, settings such as auto-tracking objects, and aperture. For me, the most interesting subjects to photograph were birds as they also pose a challenge due to their speeds and skittish nature. I started exploring a variety of fauna-rich areas including Margaret River and Exmouth where I was able to find birds, animals and breathtaking scenery. To identify and learn about the birds that I saw, I found apps such as Merlin Bird ID and Michael Morcombe’s Australian Birds. When I entered the competition in 2022 as a learning experience, I was awarded second and third place and $250, which encouraged me to continue this hobby to greater heights. ASC also received $750.
In 2023 I went back to the places I discovered, as well as going to new places. I repetitively went to the bird hide in Exmouth when I was there on holidays due to my previous success, but surprisingly on the way back to our hotel I found countless birds of prey such as white-bellied sea eagles. I took one winning photograph of an eagle plucking a Pink and Grey Galah on top of a termite mound. Although this was a gruesome photo, I decided to enter it and played around with different titles such as “Bird Eat Bird” and “Pecking Order”, but finally decided on “Apex Predator” which was apt because the eagle was perched on a termite mound.
On one of my orthodontist visits around Karrinyup, I noticed “Lake Gwelup Reserve Rainbow Bee Eaters” was nearby. These incredibly swift and photogenic birds started to consume hours of my time as I tried to find the perfect shot of one in flight. These unusual vibrantly coloured birds migrate to Perth in Spring and dig tunnels in the ground to lay eggs. As their name suggests, they feed on bees by first rubbing them against branches to remove the stinger but also feed on dragonflies and even scorpions. My winning photograph captures two Rainbow Bee Eaters sharing a bee which I named “Bee Sharing, Be Caring” inspired by Jacob Powell.
Caption: Rainbow Bee-Eaters, or “Birranga”, migrate to Lake Gwelup to mate and nest. They acrobatically catch bees in flight before carefully removing the stingers and sharing.
