Art in nature.

This is a small Fiddler Crab on the tidal flats near Broome.

My name is Peter Strain, I'm a photographic artist.The style of art photography I do requires that I mostly work alone on the remote intertidal flats and mangrove forests of Australia's Giant Tides Country, the wild Kimberley Coast.

This region is subject to tide variations of up to 10 meters. It is also one the most pristine and spectacular remote coastlines on earth - my office.

I work with fine art and anthropomorphic values in nature photography.

I call this photograph "Crab Eyes". The crab is only the size of a small fingernail.

Most photography of smaller animals in the Kimberley intertidal zone has traditionally been done by scientists with a taxonomic approach. Most scientists have it drummed into them in the first year of university that 'anthropomorphism is misleading and self centered and an anathema to critical science values'. Thus most of the photography of animals in the intertidal regions of the Kimberley coast where I do most of my work has been unclouded by 'the attribution of human values' and unsullied by aesthetics and emotion - by scientists. And there hasn't even been enough of that.

The Kimberley has been described as.....

...... the land that time forgot.

Because I am actively seeking fine art photography values, I get to work with the awe and beauty I find in nature, rather than to record nature 'dispassionately' as the marine scientists are bound to do.

Mind you, you don't meet a lot of dispassionate marine scientists on this coast

What sets me apart (for better or for worse) is that I seem to have developed a particular penchant for anthropomorphism with an almost comical inclination. I don't fit the conventional molds of Landscape Photographer or Wildlife Photographer, but I do work with......

.......Art in nature on Australia's amazing wild Kimberley coast.

There just isn't much written material about the niche of fine art photography that has captured me. It is in exhibiting and getting other people's responses that I learn the most.

This website is intended to get beyond simple gallery exhibiting and to engage an audience while the website and collection grows.

It's a great, but sometimes unsettling, feeling when you look at one of your own photographs in a gallery - and still wonder where it came from. Maybe this site will give us all ...

...a chance to understand art and nature better through photographic art...

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Photography art in nature is truly awesome...

... within the real meaning of 'awe'. Awe is an emotion, it is what I aspire to capture with my photography. Photography Art is mostly about expressing an emotion or feeling. 'Awe' implies that it is greater than my understanding...

...beyond the grasp of my imagination even.

The wild Kimberley coast provides endless opportunities...

....to photograph within nature on a scale beyond description

....the rest is technique and practice - endless wonderful hours in a vast 'office' - over a thousand kilometers of mostly pristine coastline in Australia's remote northwest.

A lugger off Cable Beach on the Kimberley coast

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Fine Art Photography in Nature...

...I believe has the hallmark of a distinct art movement of our time. Perhaps one of the most awesome art movements of the digital age. I'm in. New digital cameras have created greater freedom to express how we work with the camera. For me, it is a world of aesthetic beauty and fascination coupled with access to truly awesome photographic opportunities in nature.

If you think I am over using the phrase 'truly awesome' here, I haven't got across to you well enough that the nature values in the Kimberley really do evoke a true sense of 'awe' I'll give you my sentiment one more time in its complete form...

...Working with photography art in nature on the remote Kimberley coast is truly awesome.

I hope this website will, over time, convince more people of the awesome nature values of the pristine parts of the Kimberley coast; but I have to admit that this website is probably just as much about me creating a platform to build my own understanding about fine art photography in nature. Of course it is also a digital gallery to show some of my work and the work of others.

This is Kootji. He is a snail that lives in a mangrove forest on Australia's remote Kimberley coast. He thinks he is auditioning for the bar room scene in Starwars.

This is taking fine art photography to new levels of modern anthropomorphic fantasy, clearly influenced by the world of cinema and television cartoons...

'''Who would have thought we could create Starwars like characters from photographic art in nature....

This picture is shot on location with a natural sky background. But it is really art illusion, simply because of how the photographer chose to depict the animal. It is at once an animal in nature and a 'fantastic' creature of the imagination. There are many more of these in the "Creatures of the Giant Tides" collection which will feature in some sections of this website.

Scientists avoid anthropomorphism....

.....Photographic Artists can revel in it.

Watch this site grow, in content and understanding, maybe with some input from you. Hopefully we can get away from some of the old staid views of gallery art to explore new possibilities of fine art photography in nature.

Fine Art photography can be many things - even fun...

......oh and did I mention 'truly awesome'?

This imaginary character is Ian. I found him sitting on the branch of a mangrove tree. His real day job is as a tree snail, he is about the size of a fingernail. While it is a real animal, the photographer and the viewer see it as a fantasy creature. Macro photography art in nature.

This is unashamed 'anthropomorphism' by the photographer. Art photography can be fun as well well as aesthetic. This site will endeavor to examine how various styles of photography depicted within the site fit into the world of fine art photography.

While you are here - bookmark this homepage, so you can return to the journey.