Photography

Photography

All photos mine. Underground, above it, further afield, and the colour that makes the work worthwhile.

Dan driving a rotary hammer into a lit opal level underground. — Chasing the level. You follow the trace, not the daydream.

A tour group dwarfed by the walls of a large underground chamber. — The big chamber. It shuts people up, in the best way.

Helmeted guests searching an underground seam under ultraviolet torchlight. — Opal under blacklight. Cheating, slightly.

An excavator silhouetted over a spoil heap at dusk. — Last light, first bucket.

Dan standing beneath an excavator boom under the Milky Way. — Midnight on the claim. The best office ceiling in the country.

A night tour group in headlamps working at a lit mine face. — Guests on the night dig. Everyone finds something; some nights someone finds something.

The Milky Way rising above the orange wall of an opal cut. — Shot this from the bottom of the cut. No filter does that; the desert does that.

The galactic core framed between two walls of an opal cut. — The galactic core between the walls of the cut.

A streak crossing a star field above the mine wall. — Bonus streak. You wait long enough out here, the sky performs.

Dan beneath an excavator with the Milky Way overhead. — Midnight on the claim. The best office ceiling in the country.

A worn armchair beneath the window of a ruined stone cottage, in black and white. — Resting.

Tree limbs woven through the doorway of a ruined stone building, in black and white. — The tree got there first.

Two rock wallabies nose to nose on red rock. — Rock wallabies, Exmouth.

Two limestone sea stacks standing in the surf at dusk. — Gibson Steps, Great Ocean Road.

Rough crystal opal pieces flashing green and orange in a dusty hand. — The payoff. Rough crystal opal, straight from the ground.

A polished teardrop opal showing pink, red and orange colour. — Teardrop Coober Pedy.

A dark-base opal flashing purple, blue, green and red. — Dark Base Coober Pedy.

A carved freeform opal with green, orange and red colour. — Freeform, carved from Coober Pedy opal.

A dark-base freeform opal with pinfire colour. — Pinfire, edge to edge.

A dark-base opal with electric blue and green colour. — Blue-green on a dark base.

Boulder opal with red, green and blue colour beside a ruler. — Boulder opal. The ruler keeps the photograph honest.

A polished opal seam held in its host rock. — The seam-to-stone story in one piece.

A polished purple and blue boulder opal teardrop. — Purple and blue boulder opal.

Wet rough crystal opal chips flashing green and red. — Rough crystal opal. Straight-from-the-mine colour.

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