Wild About Manly

Photography Competition Winner

Warren Wilson

Warren Wilson: I was surprised. I have to say I've never won anything in my life. Quite frankly, I was absolutely humbled and most pleased to have won the prize. It’s just fantastic. I want to thank Aroma Ki Day Spa,  Cunninghams Property and the MEC for sponsoring the competition.

O M: How does winning change your perspective on your own photography?

W W: I’ve been taking photos for quite a long time, all my life actually. I’m 61 years of age. I’m pretty well settled in the type of stuff I like to do but, I retired recently and now I’m able to indulge my passion for photography much more readily because I have much more time on my hands.

That enables me to perhaps be a little more creative than I’ve been because I basically have time to do it, you see, and certainly the win gave me more confidence. To put pictures up for a competition or to display them in any way, can be a fairly daunting experience for people who don’t do that sort of thing very often. It has given me a little confidence that my work is kinda not that bad, if you know what I mean.

O M: How have your peers and family reacted to your win?

W W: They think it’s terrific.

O M: How does the art of photography reflect your feelings about nature in Manly?

W W: I’m very fortunate that both my wife and I have great passion for nature, that’s an easy statement to make, but we certainly do. We in fact have purchased a property down the south coast from Sydney and we spend virtually every weekend down there

It’s a rural environment and what we’ve done is we’ve let all the trees grow and we’ve sort of improved it in that respect by not really doing anything. So we’re able now to experience our own sort of wildlife preserve. In addition to that we do a lot of scuba diving and scuba diving can be like rec diving or tech diving, all sorts of stuff, but our main purpose for scuba diving is not those technical issues but so that we can view wildlife underwater. The whole range of wildlife is something that is very close to both my wife and my heart. When I saw the competition in Our Manly it was right up my ally because it was a wildlife thing essentially in a very, very cosmopolitan environment. The opportunity to photograph wildlife in a cosmopolitan environment was a bit of a challenge, but very satisfying.

O M: Given the popularity of the competition, are you encouraged by local appreciation of Manly's natural beauty?

W W: I think so; I think that’s quite correct. Manly is still very fortunate because we still actually have a lot of natural bush land where things can grow, whereas in the suburbs of Sydney all that’s gone. It’s all housing.  We’re very fortunate we’re only a couple kilometers from Sydney in reality, but there’s still a lot of what was once coastal defense land and now is natural bush land.

I have a suspicion that that in itself attracts those kinds of people to the area. I’m only guessing, but I suspect you get a high proportion of people that live in the area are attracted to the wildlife.

O M:  Is there an image, scene, activity- a photograph you haven't taken, because of light conditions, lens cap still on, that you are still trying to get? What is an elusive image you still want to capture?

W W: That’s a very difficult question, Paul, to answer. I’m always carrying a camera with me now because I have the time to do this and I travel quite extensively to different parts of the world.

I love taking photos of birds. I have quite a collection of birds mainly because that’s one of the passions that I share with my wife.

I have a passion to try to take photos of simple everyday non complicated things and make them look very simple. Rusty gate hinges and common everyday objects that people tend not to even look at because we see so much of it. I try and capture it and make an interesting image out of are everyday things. The great uncaptured image would be something along those lines, a very, very simple thing, be it a piece of bark or a man made object that just looks very beautiful in its form and shape and with the light shining on it. A simple image captured like that always pleases me and if I could do something like that I’d be most pleased.

O M: Given the choice, where in the world would you most like to take your new camera?

W W: I’ve been a couple of times to east Africa and I will go back there, probably to Kenya or Tanzania. The wildlife in the Serengeti is stunning. It’s a beautiful place, beautiful people.

O M: I was truly amazed by the quality of submissions for the competition. I think it is a great honor that you took top billing. Congratulations again on an impressive feat.

W W: Paul I’ m humbled that you say that. That’s most kind of you. In fact the photo was taken only a block from where I live. I just happened to be down there one day and it was the late afternoon light and as photographer you know what that means. There’s lots of pictures of birds like the pied cormorant but they generally sit down low on the rocks and you generally have to point down and you take them and you get a black background but that one perched up in the late afternoon and so I was able to capture quite accidentally the light across the back of the feathers. As I was about to press the shutter this little guy turned his face into the setting sun which produced the highlight in the eye and sort of brightened up his face and I was very happy with the image.

I was very humbled and most grateful that I won because I’m not used to winning things.

O M: Well, you deserved it. It was a champion moment and those are very rare. But, if you’re a good photographer and your lens cap is off then you’ll get the shot. Congratulations.

Photo of Warren Wilson by Scott Williams - Essense Imaging Brookvale.