nicduncan photography

My holiday – show ‘n’ tell

Nic — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 09:02:40 +0000

We’ve been home for over 3 weeks now but I’m still feeling rested after our amazing holiday through Western Australia. We were headed north but Steve was persuaded to take a huge detour through the goldfields and ghost towns of inland WA, adding around 1000 extra kilometres on to our trip, so I could finally visit Menzies and the Antony Gormley sculptures – 51 of them in all – on the salt lake that is Lake Ballard. It’s a long way from anywhere so it was always going to take an extra effort to get there. I had that feeling of meeting old friends, or friends of friends that I’d heard stories of for years. I was delighted to share their company and their space. The kids were even impressed enough to write in their journals that night around the campfire…though I think that was the first and last entry for either of them!

From there we continued slowly northto Karijini, discovering a couple of beautiful little camping spots along the way. After a week inland we made our way to the north-west coast – first up, a few days camping on the beach at Ningaloo where we spent the days fishing, reading, eating only when we felt hungry and washing ourselves and our clothes in the Indian Ocean. Then up to Exmouth to regroup…our first (much needed) showers since leaving home, a mountain of clothes to wash and the pantry and water tank to refill. And of course some amazing snorkelling along the Ningaloo Reef before flying the kids home. After leaving the little airport at Learmonth, Steve and I went to our favourite spot at Warroora where we tucked ourselves in behind the sand dunes and didn’t see another soul for 5 days. 5 days of reading, walking, fossicking and relaxing without hungry children to feed. We missed them at first…but soon got used to camping without them! After a quick restock in Carnarvon we spent a few days at Gnaraloo – one of Steve’s favourite surf spots – before starting our journey south and home.

Our final night on the road turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip for me when I realized we weren’t far from the Principality of Hutt River – another destination on my Must Visit One Day list. The principality was formed in 1970 when wheatfarmers, Leonard and Shirley Casley seceded from the rest of Australia – at the time they were disputing new wheat quotas and found a loophole in the law! Since reading about them years ago, I’ve been a bit of a fan of Prince Leonard and Princess Shirley, so I was thrilled to finally get to visit them. That’s Princess Shirley in the one of the final photos, standing outside the Principality’s post office and government buildings wearing her green cardy and slippers…when I asked if she had a tiara she said she only wore it for state occasions “you know, if we’re knighting people or something like that”!

Nichole & Rob – pre-wedding shoot

Nic — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 03:50:41 +0000

I’ve got lots of pre-wedding shoots happening this month – I’ve photographed 3 beautiful couples in the last 8 days. It’s such a lovely opportunity to get to know each other before the wedding day. These are a few of my favourites from my session with Nic and Rob…

Audrey & Darren – pre-wedding shoot

Nic — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 06:27:55 +0000

I spent a lovely couple of hours yesterday afternoon with Audrey and Darren who are getting married here in Denmark WA in January. Theirs is one of those beautiful international love stories – Audrey’s from Malaysia, Darren’s English and they’re living in Australia. Darren had proposed to Audrey earlier in the year at Madfish Beach during a camping holiday in Denmark, so with no family ties here in Oz, it makes perfect sense to have their wedding here too. And I get to photograph them

Heading north

Nic — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 03:20:28 +0000

We’re heading north to camp on the beach and wash in the ocean – Yay! We’re still making up our minds whether or not to let Ella get out of the car this year. She made the return journey last year in the Royal Flying Doctors plane after snapping her arm in half when she fell off the Tropic of Capricorn sign. An abrupt end to our big road trip!

I’ll be away until the end of July. Please feel free to leave me a message – I’ll get in touch with you when I get back

Catherine & Ian – wedding

Nic — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 06:50:37 +0000

Grace Barbe – publicity shots

Nic — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 01:23:37 +0000

I spent a day last week photographing WAMi award-winning Grace Barbe. Originally from the Seychelles but now based in Fremantle, Western Australia, she had spent the past month here in town as the Artist in Resident for this year’s Denmark Festival of Voice. We’d anticipated the shoot taking perhaps an hour or two but Grace and I had so much fun, we couldn’t stop! These are my favourites. Check out Grace’s website… www.gracebarbe.com

Bronwyn & Chris – wedding

Nic — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 02:15:32 +0000

I was delighted when Bronwyn and Chris approached me last year about photographing their wedding in Pemberton, WA. Pemberton’s a beautiful little town about halfway between my home in Denmark on the south coast and Margaret River on the west coast. I set off early on the most perfect autumn morning, and thoroughly enjoyed my drive through the old growth forests, encountering kangaroos and emus along the way, and looking forward to photographing at some new locations. The preparations all took place at the Old Picture Theatre and most of the photography between the ceremony and the reception (at Jarrah Jacks) was at Bronwyn’s grandparents’ property. I was in heaven…tall trees, rich autumn colours, old buildings, the setting sun and even Pemberton’s old, disused narrow gauge railway track running through the farm! And then of course there was Bronwyn and Chris

Lauren & Alexander – Wedding

Nic — Tue, 04 May 2010 02:00:58 +0000

What a beautiful day this was! Lauren and Alexander live in Lake Grace but came to Denmark with their families and friends to get married. Lauren and the girls got ready at the Celestine Retreat, the ceremony was in the garden at the Millar’s Creek B&B (which is owned by Alex’s aunt and uncle) and the reception was at Forest Hill Winery. The wedding took place the week before our arts project in Lake Grace so we caught up with Alexander’s parents, Geoff and Jill, while we were there and several of my photos were taken on their farm. Anyway, here are some of my favourite shots from their wedding day…

Our Secret River – Brave New Works #17

Nic — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 03:39:47 +0000

My previous post featured photos from North of Us, the project I was involved in for this year’s Brave New Works arts festival which took place in Denmark, WA over the Easter weekend. These images are from another project from BNW #17, Our Secret River – a collaboration between Denmark’s dancers, writers, actors, musicians, Albany’s Kinjarling Yallors and Perth’s Doorum Dancers…over 60 performers in all. It was a magical event set in the forest, with the late afternoon sun spotlighting the performance through the trees. Here are some of my personal favourites.

North of Us – Artists in Residence

Nic — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 06:03:03 +0000

A few weeks ago, 11 of us spent 8 days in Lake Grace as artists in residence…4 visual artists, 2 writers, 4 musicians and me as the photographer. We spent our days indulging in creativity, inspired by our new surroundings, the people we met along the way, and by each other. On our final evening there we had an exhibition to share with the locals what we had been doing. A beautiful evening of live music, sculpture, poetry and visual art (including a slideshow I’d put together using the images I’d taken during the week to the songs the musos had written and recorded), local wine and enjoying friends, old and new. The exhibition was repeated over the Easter weekend back in Denmark as part of the town’s annual Brave New Works Festival and we were delighted to be able to welcome along some of our new Lake Grace friends.

We live in a place where the forest meets the ocean and have almost the highest rainfall anywhere in Western Australia. Lake Grace is a few hours north of here, inland and surrounded by huge salt lakes. They’ve had no rain to speak of for 4 years now. It’s a harsh environment with huge skies and very beautiful in its own way…I fell in love with the gimlet trees. Oh, and a little fella I was lucky enough to encounter called a red-tailed phascogale – a rare marsupial

Here’s a few of the photos I took that week – some for the exhibition plus a few behind the scene shots I used in the slideshow