Size matters
IT’S NOT OFTEN we run a cover and major feature using mostly images from an amateur photographer. But when we decided to do a story on numbats we knew we’d be hardpressed to find anyone with a portfolio of photographs of the little mammals as good as that of Rob McLean. He fell in love with numbats about 10 years ago and began taking a serious photographic interest in them from about 2013, after he bought his first digital camera. We first met Rob when the conservation group he and his mate John Lawson helped found, the Numbat Task Force, was awarded our 2018 Conservationist of the Year. Rob, a truck driver and former stonemason, has always been passionate about animals, particularly native ones, and his first photos were of reptiles. But for Rob photography is as much about where he’s shooting as what he’s shooting. “You’ve just to get out there and do it, I mean you’re not going to find all these amazing creatures in your backyard.” He tries to go on trips into the bush a few times a year. “If I happen to get a decent photo or two while I’m there, then that’s a bonus.”
Being there was certainly the only way Frances Andrijich could get a handle on the subject of her assignnent. When she arrived to shoot Guido van Helten the day he completed his epic mural on Wellington Dam (see page 56) she was introduced to both the frenetic pace of the artist and the huge scale of his work. “The speed at which he worked – along with the high degree of athleticism demonstrated by him – was an amazing sight, and to remember that one man created such a huge work of art was awe-inspiring.
“Throughout the day, dozens of locals and tourists were entertained by the magnificent sight of the painting, with the very process of its creation unfolding before their eyes. Being a photographer, I was the lucky visitor who was able to watch this amazing artist up-close, speaking with Guido to learn of his fascinating process and choice of colour palette.”