In late September, I was again visiting the lovely Namadgi National Park to photograph the Alpine Dingoes (Canis lupus dingo). However, this time, I was heading to a slightly different location, where I had often seen dingoes transiting through, including a pied dingo. I really want to get a good photograph of the face of a pied dingo, because the orange eyes agains the black fur looks stunning. I love photographing all the dingoes, but that shot is definitely one that I want to capture.

4 October is World Animal Day! A day to raise awareness about animal welfare, so as to make the world a better place for animals - which, I believe, will make the world a better place for us people as well. It is marked on 4 October because that is the feast day of St Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals. World Animal Day was first celebrated in Germany in 1925, when 5000 people attended and it has grown since then. The theme for this year is, “See the world through their eyes.”

In August, coming back up from the south coast of NSW to Canberra, I tried Araluen Road for the first time. It is a mainly dirt road, with some very narrow sections but it was a beautiful trip. Having just rounded a bend while ascending, I suddenly saw this Eastern Blue-tongue Lizard (Tiliqua scinciodes) sunning itself on the road. I will admit, that my car was actually over it when I stopped - the crash alarm on my dashcam sounded due to the suddenness. I carefully reversed back, hoping that I hadn’t run over the lizard. Fortunately, it was still fine, and surprisingly relaxed, its front legs were still resting backwards. My photography eventually made it move off the road, which I didn’t feel too bad about, because another car came past while I was taking pictures, so I am not sure how long the blue-tongue would have survived where it was.

This Chequered Swallowtail (Papilio demoleus) was fighting against a strong wind at Namadgi National Park. I had seen it flying around but the wind kept carrying it away. I’m unsure what flower it was feeding it on in the photograph, but I am glad it stayed still long enough for me to take a photo.

With the warmer weather the reptiles are back out in numbers in Namadgi National Park, especially Cunningham’s Skinks (Egernia cunninghami). It seems that once the sun has started warming up the valley, the skinks emerge from their crevices and sun themselves. They don’t go far from their preferred crevice, and they appear to have very good senses. I may be several metres away but the skink is able to detect me and disappear down its rock crevice. The adult above shows the spiky and keeled scales that the skink can use to help wedge itself into a crevice. If a predator tries to dislodge the skink, it can inhale and use those scales to help wedge itself tightly agains the sides of the crevice, making it impossible to move. Although, they are known to sun themselves in groups, I have so far only seen a pair out sunning on a rock. They are omnivores, eating both plants and small invertebrates.

This is the female Alpine Dingo (Canis lupus dingo) that I have photographed a few times now and these images are my favourite set of her. She is so beautiful. Although that morning gave me a good reminder to not get complacent around wild predators.

In mid-August, on the way back from Namadgi National Park, I came across a group of Eastern Wallaroos (Osphranter robustus) in a farmer’s field. The wallaroos seem to love this field and I often see them there. On this morning, two males started fighting. It was a stop-start affair but eventually one hopped away and I thought it was over. However, that male didn’t understand the idea of to the winner goes the spoils, because after a little while he hopped over to a female to start sniffing her and grasping her tail. Probably to check to see if she was ready for mating. The other male wasn’t happy and came bounding over. The female hopped away from the two fighters. She watched them once, but basically returned to eating the juicy green grass. One male lost again, but I wasn’t sure which one it was, and this time he hopped away to where he decided that eating grass was better than mating with the female. The other male also ate grass where the fight had been and didn’t bother the female.

After that great experience photographing James Vandersteen, I thought that I would look for some Alpine Dingos (Canis lupus dingo), although, I didn’t hold much hope because it was already past 10AM and warming. However, walking up the valley, I heard dingoes howling well before I could see them. Then, from a distance, I saw one lying down, and another one sitting on a rock. The one of the rock was on a rise, and I thought she would make a nice picture. Unfortunately, the sun was not lighting her evenly, but she was still a beautiful sight perched on the rock. I was shooting at 800mm so that I didn’t get close to her and stress her. I also didn’t go too far because the dingoes were between me and the trail further into the valley. Because I didn’t want to disturb them, I turned around and left.

A very big thank you to Gus Macfarlane, one of the team of wonderful rangers at Namadgi National Park. I reached out to the park to ask for assistance with my dingo project as part of my Photography Diploma at CIT. If possible, I wanted to photograph a ranger because of the key role they play in conserving and managing the park’s dingo population. That was how I met Gus on a Tuesday morning at the Namadgi Visitors Centre. We had already emailed a number of times, with Gus, even sending me photos of possible sites for the shoot.

A big thanks to James Vandersteen, a PhD candidate at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), who came out early on a Monday morning to Namadgi National Park so that I could photograph him. I didn’t know James prior to this, and I had reached out to him because he is currently researching the dingoes in the park, so I wanted to include him in my final project for the CIT Photography Diploma. He was absolutely fantastic, and nothing was a bother for him. We met at the Yankee Hat Walk Carpark and took some photographs nearby. He was such a genuine person with a real passion for his research. He can also see all points of view in the discussions about how to manage dingoes in Namadgi National Park, and his research is there to us understand the ecological role of dingoes in Namadgi. The ACT government is funding his research and James is now about to spend a year, analysing all the data and writing up his research. The policy makers in the ACT government will be the ones ultimately balancing up various interests but James will ensure that they have the best data and research to base their decisions on. I had a fascinating morning chatting with him, and I had to remind myself a few times that I was actually there to take photographs of him for my CIT assignment.

In late August, I was down at 1080 Beach on the south coast of NSW, and starting to get worried if the H5N1 bird virus had already impacted some of the seabirds there because I had not seen many around, despite there normally being plenty. However, walking along the rocks, I came across these four Sooty Oystercatchers (Haematopus fuliginosus) together. They were standing on the rocks while the tide was ebbing. Sooty Oystercatchers normally prefer this type of rocky shoreline, while the Pied Oystercatchers are generally on sandy shores.

Roland Breckwoldt’s Dingo: The true story of Australia's most maligned native animal is an easily accessible, encyclopaedic book about all aspects of Australia’s dingo. Whether you want to know about its evolution, natural history, biology, persecution, cultural role, etc; it is all covered in this book.

In mid-September, I was fortunate enough to have another amazing encounter with the beautiful Alpine Dingoes (Canis lupus dingo) of Namadgi National Park. When I photograph dingoes, I generally use a Canon RF 200-800mm F6.3-9 IS USM Lens, normally at 800mm to keep a safe distance from the dingoes, and to reduce any stress on them. In an attempt to further reduce the stress on these dingoes, I have also been regularly visiting this area over the last couple of months so that they became accustomed to my presence. These photos are part of a project that I am working on for my photography diploma at CIT, with this folio highlighting the need to conserve these beautiful animals.

This Swamp Harrier (Circus approximans) was initially on the ground when I was walking through Orroral Valley along a part of the Australian Alps Walking Track. I didn’t notice it until it called and took off quickly. Once in the air it circled around until it gained height and then glided further away, over the Orroral River. It wasn’t on a nest because it was well away from water, although it may have just dived at some prey.

I am very happy to say that three of my photographs were Highly Commended in the Animals category of the Mono Awards 2026. Last year, two of my images were commended, so I was very pleased to receive the notification that I had done better this year. Like most photographers, I take images because I like them, but it is nice to know that other people, especially leading international photographers, think that my images are also interesting. Many thanks to the judges of the Mono Awards 2026 and a big congratulations to the winners who created some inspiring works of art making want to get out there to keep making images.

OK, I admit, that these are not great photos. They were taken at a distance with my 200-800mm zoom at maximum zoom and cropped in. While I wouldn’t normally post low quality images like this, I thought that it was interesting subject matter. These photos were taken at around 8:40 in the morning and show what I think was a male Alpine Dingo hunting an Eastern Grey Kangaroo. The dingo chased the kangaroo down a hill and was about a body-length and a bit behind it. The kangaroo already seemed to have some blood on it, and the photo shows that its left toes were bent up at about 90 degrees when its feet were kicked back, not very natural. It looked like it had already been wounded by the dingo.

In mid-August, I came across three Alpine Dingoes eating an Eastern Grey Kangaroo, which they had likely very recently killed. I was able to watch them feeding for a good hour. It was fascinating to see them consume the carcass, and targeting the easy to access parts, rather than areas that I thought would have more meat. I was also interested to see how there was a possible order in which the dingoes ate the kill.

I want to express a big thank you to the National Zoo and Aquarium for helping me out with an assignment I am completing for my Diploma of Photography at the Canberra Institute of Technology. One of the two final folios that I am creating is on the conservation of the Alpine Dingoes in the ACT. I contacted the Zoo because I knew it had Alpine Dingoes and I also knew that the Zoo plays a key role in educating the public about the importance of dingoes. I asked them if I could photograph a keeper and a dingo. Sophie, one of the animal coordinators at the Zoo, got back to me very quickly and said that they could assist.

On Sunday morning, while driving through Namadgi National Park, I noticed movement at the side of the road. Fortunately, it was early morning, so there was not much traffic and I was able to pull over to the side of the road and flick my emergency lights on. I had just noticed a Common, or Bare-nosed Wombat (Vombatus ursinus) walking along the edge of the road. It was still safely in vegetation, and not trying to cross the road. I initially used my long lens to take photographs but the wombat was still, so I used my wider lens to capture more of the background.

In late July, while we were eating lunch at a food truck establishment at Bungendore, I couldn’t help but photograph the House Sparrows (Passer domesticus) that were also getting a feed there. They had made themselves very much at home, and seemed to be thriving.