Capturingdaily lifeinthebush

Senex Energy Wandoan Photo Challenge showcases faces and places of those on the land

Long gone are the days when almost everyone had “country cousins”. While older city dwellers fondly recall school holidays spent on farms and the lessons learnt about the different pace of life out there, many of their offspring can’t relate.

But the advent of smartphones and digital cameras is changing this by allowing people to capture images which share life in the bush with those who haven’t experienced it.

Gone are the days where you had to own a bulky camera and spend a small fortune on lenses to capture the simple pleasures of work and play on the land.

It was this change in technology and the strong budding photographic talent of locals which saw the first Wandoan Photo Challenge held in conjunction with the Wandoan Show in 2017. The competition was designed to showcase life within

100km of Wandoan as the crow flies and 79 photos were entered.

With a $5000 plus cash prize pool on offer and some incredible placewinning images over its history, the Wandoan Photo Challenge has a solid reputation as a competition which both amateur and professional photographers want to win and, just as importantly, it generates conversations among viewers about country people and places.

This year was no exception attracting 228 entries, making judging no easy task for Moree-born and bred photographer Heidi Morris.

Morris’s photography business, Lens of Rosie, was born out of her own journey sharing photos of station life on Davenport Downs in the Channel Country on social media for her Brisbane friends after leaving school.

She found judging a lot harder than she expected and had to review the photos multiple times, going away and then coming back with fresh eyes to look over them again.

“If I had my way there would have been fourth and fifth placings because the quality was outstanding!,” she says.

But pick she must and it was Guluguba mother and son duo, Chris and Layne Sinnamon, who placed second and first respectively in the Open Small Town, Big Country Category with images of headers harvesting paddocks.

Carly Baker’s image showing her son and his friends doing maintenance on a motorbike in the shed, which would be familiar to townies who spent holidays on farms, placed third. For Heidi, the place-getting images all evoked a response or an emotion which she feels the viewer will connect to.

JeffreyYateswon firstinthePeople’s ChoicewithDownfall suninGuluguba,left; andLayneSinnamon wonfirstintheOpen SmallTown,Big CountryCategory withChasingAcres, right.

“I was blown away with so many of these photos and they really are invaluable helping to build stronger connections between town and country,” she says.

“My hope is that they create a greater understanding of how agriculture affects everyone because it provides the food and fibre everyone needs daily, no matter where they live.”