It's wild...
- tmcneilly5
- Sep 6
- 7 min read
I distinctly remember, it was 2023 and I was in New Zealand on a photography workshop, we were traveling through Fiordland on our way to Milford Sound, it was raining and Fiordland had come alive….literally hundreds of waterfalls popping up all over the place.
We stopped in a valley to capture the towering mountains of Fiordland and the hundreds of waterfalls, I’d had my heart set on these types of photos for months….this was my moment, but we also stopped here to photograph the Kea, a native and endangered New Zealand Alpine Parrot.
As the workshop participants got to work capturing amazing photos of the Kea, I went about taking a bunch of photos of the towering waterfalls, I didn’t take any photos of the Kea, not a single one, because “I’m a landscape photographer, I don’t take photos of birds” I told myself and others.
Fast forward two years and in the words of Phil Collins, take a look at me now as I release my first ever wildlife calendar for 2026.
It feels like a momentous thing for me, releasing a wildlife calendar, because I completely underestimated the pure joy from immersing myself into wildlife photography, observing our native animals in their natural environment going about their lives and then often sharing a moment of eye contact with them right before pressing the shutter and capturing something truly magical.
This calendar also has a much deeper meaning of connection for me as much of my wildlife photography this year has been while on adventures with my kids and we’ve had some of the most unique wildlife experiences that I could never have imagined.
If you’ve got this far and didn’t realise my 2026 Wildlife Calendar is now available, you can order one here.
So, to celebrate the release of my 2026 Wildlife Calendar, lets go on a bit of an adventure and explore the back story behind some of the images in the calendar.
Cover photo:
An early morning visit to Morialta Conservation Park in the Adelaide Hills. This Koala was very active on this particular morning, posing perfectly for me to capture this shot. I was able to get myself quite high up to almost match the level of the Koala in the tree and frame the image up nicely with the branch moving diagonally through the frame and the sunlight coming in from the top right.
I chose this image for the cover because of the framing and because it just screams native Australian wildlife to me.
Echidna
My kids and I were visiting family in Victoria. We had seen an Echidna in this area before, so my eldest son and I went for a walk through the local conservation park, keeping a keen eye out for these elusive creatures.
We walked for an hour with no luck. Until we returned to our starting point, only for my son to find an Echidna wandering through the scrub.
The Echidna had moved itself into a nice little hole to wait for us to go past, so we sat ourselves down, made ourselves calm and quiet and within 5 minutes our little friend made its way out and moved through the area burying its nose into the ground in the hunt for ants.
The Echidna moved around us for a good 30 minutes, I was snapping away lots of close-up shots when much to our surprise the Echidna started walking directly towards where we were kneeling on the ground and came right up to the two of us. The Echidna touched both of us on the leg with its beak, clearly sussing out what we were up to and whether we were concealing ants, I’m sure.
It was a goosebumps moment, such an incredible buzz to experience this moment with an Echidna in the wild and it was such a great opportunity for my son to see how making ourselves safe to other creatures is such an important thing. The Echidna was not threatened by us in any way.
Two hours we spent with the Echidna, as it wandered all around us searching for ants and providing the most amazing poses for me to capture, particularly as the sun got low in the sky and provided some beautiful golden side light.
400 photos later and we watched it move on from the area.
This image was recently featured by Australian Geographic on their social media account.
We still talk about the amazing experience we had together and how in reality, such an experience both from the perspective of wildlife photography, but also the interaction is very rare.
What’s better is we were able to capture the moment on video. If you haven’t seen it, have a look here.
Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat
A wombat had been on the list of wildlife to photograph for a little while, I just can’t get enough of wombats, so on the same Victoria trip as the Echidna experience, I headed east into the Yarra Ranges area where I know the common wombat is very….common.
I managed to see plenty of them in the area after dark, predominately along roadsides and so the situation wasn’t conducive to capturing an image of one.
On my final morning, to my delight, I came around a corner at 8:30 in the morning to find a wombat grazing on the grass on the roadside in an area where I could stop. I popped off a heap of photos, but I noticed that the wombat looked to be covered in crusty mud over its sides and face.
It wasn’t until I showed someone the photos that they let me know the poor wombat was actually suffering from mange. I didn’t know this was a thing and so I didn’t report it at the time, I feel terrible to be honest, but it was too late to report it as it was gone from the area when I went back hours later.
I recently made a donation to Wombat Mange Management in Victoria for this reason.
So alas, no wombat photos that are suitable from that trip.
I knew wombats were a thing in South Australia also, but not as prolific perhaps as the common wombat in places like Victoria.
A bit of research told me that actually, the Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat is common in parts of South Australia that aren’t too far from where I live. I also learned that the Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat is the faunal emblem of South Australia…. the things you learn.
So again, my eldest son and I headed out very early one morning into the northern Murraylands of South Australia in search of wombats.
We found plenty of evidence of their existence in multiple locations, plenty of burrows and warrens, plenty of fresh footprints and poo but no wombat sightings for the morning.
It wasn’t until late afternoon that we decided to head back into the Brookfield Conservation Park and we spotted a wombat, out of the burrow catching some sun. It was a shy one and disappeared back into the burrow very quickly.
We parked the car and went on foot through part of the park when we caught a glimpse of some ears catching the late afternoon sun behind a small dirt mound. We moved closer and saw this healthy-looking wombat standing outside the burrow enjoying the sunshine also. We crept up quietly, and I found a position where I was comfortable with my zoom range and a decent composition in terms of the photo.
The Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat was curious but cautious of us, we kept our distance, but observed it for about 30 minutes, before we tried to move slightly and off it took.
It ended up being one of five Southern Hairy-nosed Wombats we saw that afternoon, but the only one who was willing to be photographed.
Another incredible opportunity, I’d heard of people trying for months and months to try and spot, let alone photograph a Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat in South Australia, so I’m hugely grateful to capture the images I did on my first visit.
My son and I commented on our luck, experiencing both the Echidna and Wombat in such a short space of time.
Rainbow Lorikeets
Another memorable moment, with all three kids this time, in Morialta Conversation Park in the Adelaide Hills. The kids were having a great time exploring, there were lots of Rainbow Lorikeets and Koalas around.
I spotted these two Rainbow Lorikeets head into the hollow on this overhanging tree, if only I could capture them coming out to hit the jackpot of “capturing Rainbow Lorikeets coming out of a hollow” ….it’s an actual jackpot you know!
Anyway, the kids see me stop on the track, I’m poised ready with the camera, pointing at a tree branch, I convince the kids that I’ve just seen two Rainbow Lorikeets head in there and that this could be THE shot if I capture them coming out.
To my surprise, they maintained the attention span of longer than 30 seconds and supported me with eagle eyes to let me know the second they appeared.
My arms started getting sore and I briefly lowered the camera, when my eldest started making a “bird call” with his hands…..boom, two heads pop out of the hollow, “Dad, dad” they yell as I madly get the camera back up into position, frame up the shot, make sure I’ve got focus and burst dozens of images to capture the right one.
The whole thing was over in a matter of seconds, but this is the result.
Apparently, it was my son’s “bird call” that made them come out and I owe him 50% of the image sale profits!
The moral to the story is, don’t box yourself into a particular genre or style, regardless of whether its photography or some other life activity or life in general, there is so much to experience outside of what you believe is your current style or norm. Give it a try, you may just find what you’ve been looking for right now.
These are just a few of the wildlife images I've been able to capture this year. You can view the full collection of them in my new Wildlife gallery here.
Until my next blog post,
