'It's like fishing': Local nature spot wins statewide photo comp

A Stratham man’s morning kayak trip has earned him a win in the 2023 Golden Lens photography competition.

Geoffrey Vardy’s ‘Pelicans at Wonnerup’ took out the Flora and Fauna category of the competition, which saw more than 230 entries.

“I often get down there, put the kayak on the water and have a look around. It’s one of my favourite destinations to photograph,” Mr Vardy said.

“My favourite is my bird photography, but you have to have a lot of time and patience.”

Mr Vardy was on the water for about an hour before the golden shot. In that time he got plenty of close-up snaps of the pelicans, but he said he felt this one was the winner as soon as the shutter closed.

“You can see the pelicans were coming in, and the sunlight through the clouds was a bit dramatic, and I had the pelicans in the foreground”

“I thought I had a good depth of field, so I closed the aperture up and it was just having a fast enough shutter speed so I could capture the birds without too much grain.”

“You never really know until you get home and have a look at it on a bigger screen, but it felt good.”

It was the first time Mr Vardy had entered the Golden Lens competition, which is open exclusively to WA Seniors Card holders.

Winners of all five categories will be featured in the WA Seniors Card 2023-24 Discount Directory when released later this year. Seniors and Ageing Minister Don Punch will also host the winners for a lunch at Parliament House where they will be presented with their awards.

For the retired outback cop, it’s a good excuse to continue chasing photos in some of Australia’s most beautiful landscapes. He’s only recently come back from the Pilbara, taking shots around Carawine Gorge.

“I travel all over the state. It’s something I really enjoy, taking my cameras and catching wildlife and nature.”

“Instead of sitting at home doing nothing, now I’ve got the chance to travel, I do it. I’ve got my own setup so I can go out into the desert for weeks at a time.”

“It’s a bit like fishing, sometimes you get one, and sometimes you don’t.”