Tom M. Wilson

I have just been in the wet, tropical north-east of Australia for the last two weeks. The next few entries of photos are named ‘Big Earth’ in honour of the latest album by Taikoz, the Australian drum ensemble of which Riley Lee is a part. I saw a performance of Taikoz at the Cairns civic theatre on my second night in the area and this event of floating smoke and giant drums was a fitting opening ceremony to two weeks travelling through the rainforests and reefs. The music of Taikoz has has the virtues of stillness, depth, simplicity, force, and spaciousness. Good nature photography should aspire to the same virtues.

Coral gardens I saw on the outer edge of the Great Barrier Reef came in yellows, purple, reds and blues.  David Suzuki published his autobiography this year (2006), and in it he writes of going to the outer reef from Port Douglas, as I did to take these photos.  Suzuki laments the decline in the reef’s health he’s noticed over the years.  He also speaks of a moment where he watched his eighty year old Japanese father and young grandchild floating together over coral such as this, with intent and delighted faces, as one of the happiest memories of his life.   

A photo looking southwards from Green Island, off the coast of Cairns. What lies off beyond the shelving ledge of coral?

The light is saturated in green in the forest north of the Daintree River.

Looking down over the forest to the Coral Sea I am almost part of the tangle of life.

The trunk of this palm by Cooper’s Creek is vibrant with colour.