With so much of life based on electronic representations of reality, humans risk losing touch with nature. From web cams that offer views of wildlife to virtual tours of the Grand Canyon to robotic pets, modern technology increasingly is encroaching into human connections with the natural world. I believe this intrusion may emerge as one of the central psychological problems of our times. People might think that if technological nature is partly good than that’s good enough, but it’s not! Because across generations what will happen is that the good enough will become the good. If we don’t change course, it will impoverish us as a species.

People’s relationship to Planet Earth is like our leg’s relationship to our body. We are ecologically a product and likeness of nature, sharing “one breath” with all species. In each immediate moment of our lives exists the unadulterated creation process of the natural world. It is part of our personal biology, our natural origins and sensitivities including our faculty to register sensations, feelings and spirit. We are human and “Human” has its roots in “humus,” a fertile forest soil. This is not a coincidence, biologically, we are like humus. One teaspoon of humus consists of water, minerals and hundreds of other microorganism species: five million bacteria, twenty million fungi, one million protozoa and two hundred thousand algae, all living cooperatively in balance. This coincides with our bodies containing water, minerals and ten times as many cells of non-human microorganism species as human cells, all living cooperatively in balance.

Our lives don’t make sense and our problems flourish because industrial society does not teach us to seek, honor and culture nature’s sensory contributions to our lives. We learn instead to conquer nature, to separate from and deny the time tested love, intelligence and balance enjoyed by the natural world. On average, in industrial society we spend over 95% of our lifetime indoors. Early on, at home and school, we learn to stay indoors, to become attached and dependent on indoor fulfillment’s. We spend 18,000 developmental indoor childhood hours alone doing schoolwork to become literate. During this same period, on average, through our literacy and the media, we witness 18,000 murders. Most of us grow up not recognizing that in every outdoor natural area, like the wild area in a park or backyard, natural life is not murdering life. It is nurturing it. Throughout the eons, natural life has been wise enough not to commit murder as we know it. The natural world has also learned how to nurture and sustain life and diversity without producing garbage, pollution or insensitive abusiveness. Nature is an unimaginable intelligence, a form of love that we inherit but suppress.

What I’ve learned from nature is to engage in and teach a process that moment by moment produces a healthier future, a process that is spirit, peace and hope. The following images you’ll find in this blog show my appreciation and passion for being amongst the rainforest. I hope my images do this magical place justice, words cannot describe just how amazing this place truly is… Sit back and enjoy the images, and stay tuned for more updates, images and trip reports.

New England National Park

This series of images taken in the gorgeously lush New England National Park, on the New England Tablelands of NSW, Australia. The park contains a rich flora of over 1000 species of plants in an interesting variety of plant communities. Cold-tolerant open woodland of snow gum, shining gum and tussocky snow grass dominates the high altitude country around Point Lookout. Over the edge of the escarpment, cool temperate rainforests of Antarctic beech stand draped in hanging moss. The park is of international and national significance for its biological and landscape values. It was listed on the World Heritage register in 1986 in recognition of its outstanding universal value to science and conservation, in particular the importance of the area as a refugium that has allowed the survival and evolution of rainforest species over geological time.

Antarctic beech stand draped in hanging moss, simply phenomenal.

The Antarctic beech relates an important chapter in the story of the development of flowering plants and the break up of Gondwana. In the lower, warmer parts of the park, the sheltered valleys are occupied by subtropical rainforest of booyong, yellow carabeen and red cedar. Eucalypt forests containing Sydney blue gum, brushbox and tallowwood grow on the ridgetops and spurs.
Areas of health, swamp and malle complete the diversity of vegetation within the park.
A gentle flowing stream works it’s way through the valley as the dense mist envelops the forest canopy above.

Lots of mist and lush green moss really bring out the true essence of the forest.

Dangling most hangs throughout the forest, lots of close intimate details to be captured.

Styx River Headwaters. Intimate close up detail of a waterfall flowing over the cliff face.

Icy cold fresh water stream making it’s way downstream into the forest. This shot was taken just off the road on my way out to New England NP.

Five Day Creek splashes over cascades and waterfalls between graceful king ferns and mossy boulders. This is the spot which truly captivated and stole my heart. Not a soul around and pure blissful peace. Only the sound of the native birds and wildlife is all I could hear the whole day I was exploring the creek. Below is an image from off the trail.
6x horizontal panorama stitch, Five Day Creek.

These long fallen old trees made the perfect composition for me to work with. I explored this place for hours, scoping out different angles and trying some new techniques while out in the field. The possibilities and potential of this place is just never ending. I really need to spend a solid week camping and adventuring it deeper.

Same spot as the above image, yet different angle and POV looking back downstream.