Getting that cover shot of the Holland Track, Western Australia

If you are a regular regular reader to my blog you might remember that we took a trip along the remote Holland Track south of the Western Australian Goldfields back in April.  If you missed it you can read about it by clicking here - Holland Track - Following the goldrush prospectors


The Holland Track is one of WA's great 4WDrive treks. It lies within the environmentally significant Great Western Woodlands which covers sixteen million hectares and is the largest and healthiest remaining Mediterranean climate woodland left on earth. 

I wrote about our trip for Go Camping & 4WD Adventures Australia magazine - Go Camping on Facebook  - and my story was published in their August-September 2013.

I was excited to see that they used one of my pics for the front cover! You can see the original image below on the left and the cover on the right.  Contrary to what I wrote about capturing cover images in my February blog post - What makes a good magazine cover - they used a horizontal photo, cropped to vertical. You don't always know what the design editor is looking for. So take lots of pics, from different angles and view points. Even though I always say your choice of camera is not important, just get the shot, using a good quality camera with a high resolution image will increase your chances - especially if the magazine decides to crop. But see how the image allows for the magazine's mast head, and space to tell prospective readers what articles they will find in the magazine.  I think what might have won this image over was the camper trailer in the shot.

The image I thought they would use for the cover, they used for the opening page to my article. You can see it below here. They have cropped slightly, but the big section of mud at the bottom of the shot has allowed them to print the first part of the article over the image for the opening page. 
When I presented entered this image at my photography group last month, I didn't receive a very good response for the judge. But I am reminded, that judging is subjective, what one person likes another might not. In this case I have been rewarded because the magazine have published and paid for my shot. 

Of course to get a shot like this you need to first "see" the shot before you take it, and then get out and prepared to stand in the mud and take lots of shots to get that one shot that the magazine will like. 

You need to travel with people who support you and are prepared to stop, wait and be patient while you take pictures. It can add quite a bit of time onto your trip if you are stopping to take photos. My husband is used to that call to "stop the car"! Numerous times I have been left on the side of an outback road while I wait for my husband to drive ahead, or back and then drive towards me so I can get a driving shot.

 As you can see the Holland Track was very muddy when we travelled in late April so you need to drive according to the conditions. It is best to travel the track during autumn and spring not during winter or after rain, and you should travel with others. The track was a variety of mud, sand, rock and gravel and in places corrugated and tightly winding with scrub and trees right up to the edge of the track (impairing driver vision ahead), or hanging low over the track. 

Of course I couldn't get pics like this alone. My thanks go to my husband who drives me where I want to go, to my eldest son and his family who went with us and who have travelled the track before so had had experience of it, to Ryan Butler, the DEC Goldfields Regional Fire Co-Ordinator for background information and who I quoted in the article, and to my youngest son who travels with us with good humour, well mostly good humour. Without them a trek like this would not be possible for me. 

Tracks like the Holland Track are also a fantastic way to introduce children to bush camping, nature and history, and gets them away from the TV and computer games. There is plenty to play with out in the bush!  Two more pictures from my article.

- Where is it? – The 4WD only section runs in a north-easterly direction from 56 km east of Hyden on the Hyden-Norseman Road to Victoria Rock Road, 78km south of Coolgardie.  

-  Distance - Broomehill to Coolgardie is 731 km. 4WD section east of Hyden to Victoria Rock Road is 170 km.

-  Including travel from Perth you can cover the Track over four days, so be prepared to camp. It is a very achievable trip for people wanting a remote 4WD and bush camping experience close to home.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have enjoyed this little review of my Holland Track trip. If you missed the original you can go back and see it by clicking here - Holland Track

I hope to bring you pics of our next camping adventure soon. 

As Jack from Perth who we met on the Holland Track and  who has been exploring lesser used tracks for over 35 years says  “There is always another track isn’t there.”

You might also enjoy - 

Cave Hill, Burra Rock and Woodlines
Camping with heritage - Karalee & Boondi Rocks
Bob Cooper - Australian survival expert




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