The aim of the 2012 Genre a Month Photography challenge was for me to learn and explore different styles of photography. It’s working. I’m learning already.

I’m learning that with Wildlife Photography, the subject is often just out of sight:

Uncooperative Cows

Or the sun is in the wrong place:

Black Cockatoo plays hard to get in Belanglo State Forest

or it is fleeting and inconsiderately against a poor background:

When it does stay still you're in the wrong spot!

or worst of all, your subject runs away and hides in a big black hole!

Echidna last seen headed this way

On the positive side, I’m delighted that I can go out and spot a black Cockatoo – thank you Andrew. Better yet, I saw my first ever wild echidna!

Given Wildlife was proving difficult, I switched to the ‘Nature’ part of the challenge.

Here too, I am learning.

Learning that flowers are too small:

look too much like cauliflowers:

or cause Andrew to think he’s stumbled on an opium poppy growing in the middle of nowhere (a poppy maybe but an opium one… in a gravel ‘turn-a-round’ near paddocks of cows?)

Above all I learnt that if you take a 100 photos, if you’re lucky, you may find 3 you like. Here they are:

Belanglo State Forest: base of tree in dappled light

The tree above is a favourite because it is simple. I like the colour on the trunk. I like the shadows from the spindly branches above. I like the ‘cross hatching’ of the pine needle carpet.

Bertha the world is slipping!

The ‘tipsy’ cows just makes me laugh. I’m not sure why but in my head they have names like Bertha, Marge and Mildred.

Finally, my favourite shot of the day. A really simple photograph really. I guess I like the juxtaposition of man and nature in the one picture.

If you are participating in the Genre a Month Photography Challenge, please post a comment including a link to your efforts on this page.