david peart

Ah, the delights of dawn in Australia. Mangroves are such a valuable resource, and add such beauty to the coast here. Mangroves are actually an integral part of coral reefs – they provide the nurseries for reef fish and also act as giant livers, filtering out the heavy metal and silt that would otherwise kill coral reef systems.  Unfortunately they are not usually included in protected areas that encompass coral reefs – northern Queensland and its Great Barrier Reef are prime examples of this oversight.

It’s projected that the Great Barrier Reef will not survive beyond the year 2060.  This doesn’t mean that the sea life will disappear by that time, but that what will remain (algae, dead coral, different fishlife) will no longer be recognisable as a coral reef.  While that might not sound very bad, it is: the Great Barrier Reef plays crucial role in regulating rainfall in the northern part of Australia and as algae-based system will no longer perform that function. That is just one (very pragmatic) reason why we can’t afford to lose this particular ecosystem.  And don’t get me started on the rest!

As the name suggests, there is also a horizontal version of this image – both are available to purchase as prints, stretched canvases, or full framed wall art for your home or office.  Buy the vertical version here.   Or the horizontal (landscape) version here.

I’m back in Australia, and it’s been a welcome return to my natural environment roots. Despite the political machinations afoot in this country to put an end to it, Australia still assaults you with natural beauty at almost every glance. This is Red Beach, by local terms not particularly remarkable.

Little Guoguo was my last client in Beijing. Next week I am shifting my base of operations to Australia. Check back regularly for posts of a more natural nature!

I’ve been working on composite images again. This will be one of the last images I work on before I relocate to Australia next month. Spot the elephant!

Part of an advertising campaign I shot today for the Beijing Marathon to discourage people from urinating in public. The Chinese reads:

“Even children understand, but you don’t?”

In keeping with the infant-orientated slant of the last few posts, here is a particularly young child. Pregnancy shoots are fun.

How many of you have fantasised about doing this? Composite imaging is a relatively new endeavour for me. Many thanks to Teresa who modelled patiently.

Safran is a French company that has several joint venture operations in China. I’ve been doing a corporate shoot for them over the last two weeks, travelling from Beijing to Xian to Tianjin. Safran is involved in everything from the manufacture of Airbus parts to the management of facial recognition systems. Here, one of their local managers inspects a bank of servers that contain facial records of over a million Chinese criminals at the central police data centre in Tianjin.

When couples are (rightly or wrongly) allowed only one child, that child often grows up being treated with kid gloves (no pun intended). In this case however, young Gugu’s parents felt that she was happiest when she was being swung around the room by her legs, preferably in an inverted position. A fun shoot, with a fun family.

Taking a train in China can be an interesting experience. I’m shooting a project for Olympus Europe at the moment, centring on trains and the people who work and travel in them.