Did I ever tell you I see alien spacecraft?

Now I have your attention you might be more inclined to read on.  I think they call this click bait or something.  But I am not exaggerating, I have seen strange lights in the sky. The last occasion was after a very nice twelve year old whiskey.  Now I know what you’re going to say, but it wasn’t the whiskey playing tricks with my eyes, it was more likely the Negroni or the beers or even the Chardonnay.  I was possibly abducted too because by the next morning I felt terrible.  I reckon the aliens may have used a strange elixir or truth serum on me.  Whatever it was, it wore off by mid morning because I vehemently denied to my wife I was hung over.  I felt I was walking like a cowboy too.  I hadn’t felt that way since my last colonoscopy. You don’t think they did that thing on me, do you?

So what does that have to do with my photography?  Well, this story has great significance, let me explain.

I am about to embark on a journey, a long arduous trek across the bottom of Australia.  A grand photographic adventure to the far reaches of the world.  All the while my trusty companion and confidant, Jen (my wife) (say it in the style of Borat) will be beside me, wait……. What?  You’re flying across?  How could you?  

I love nothing more than an endless road trip.  Australia is the home of long boring drives.  The most enjoyable part is holding your breath as you drive past another carcass of a kangaroo, the odd cow, camel, eagle, rabbit, wombat, snake, dingo, feral cat, thylacine, porcupine, platypus and red back spider.  The scenery changes every day from nothing much to even less and back to nothing much again.  The roads bend every hundred kilometres or so, once you have the steering wheel strapped to the brake pedal you can get an hours kip before having to pay attention again.   Of course the Nullarbor has some redeeming features, like the British nuked the hell out of it and if you drive south you will fall off a cliff and die.  They do have barista coffee at the roadhouse though and a giant fibreglass whale.  Man I am getting excited by the thought of a coffee!  Unfortunately the barista is generally a backpacker trying to avoid the law and doesn’t care about the beans or the right temperature of the frothy milk.  However, and I don’t want to sound ungrateful, there is nothing out there, it’s not Dunsborough where a new coffee shop opens every week.  I just appreciate that I have driven three days through hell.  Burnt beans and off milk will not taint my experience.

So what does this have to do with photography?

Absolutely nothing, but I do hope to take some photos of alien spacecraft that hang out on the Nullarbor terrorising unsuspecting tourists.  

"There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call... the Twilight Zone."

Let me know if you have seen strange lights in the sky!

(The real reason for my trip over East is to revisit the site of the photo above and make a new one. I shot this, on film, over 20 years ago and has been my most successful image to date. Autumn in the Alpine region of Victoria is really special.)

On a more serious note, I've been shortlisted for the 2025 Galah Regional Photography Prize, Australia’s richest photography competition for regional artists.

Selected from more than 1,100 entries across all corners of regional Australia, my image of Cable Beach is among 37 contemporary photographs to be shortlisted for the competition that has a total prize pool of $27,000. The aliens will want me then, for sure!!

If you are around Neram in Armidale, NSW, on Friday 2nd May, they will be announcing the winner and having a big party.