The story behind the images....wildlife
2027 Australian Wildlife calendar
Featuring 13 stunning images of native Australian wildlife from across South Australia and Victoria that transport you into the Australian bush every time you walk into the room, this calendar showcases the best of Australia's native wildlife, all photographed in the wild by me while exploring the amazing landscapes they call home.
This is my second wildlife calendar, the 2026 Australian Wildlife calendar was my biggest selling calendar ever, so it was only natural to go back for wildlife for another year, but this time focusing on the many portrait images I’ve captured.
Of course, if you didn’t know my 2027 calendars are now available, you can order here
Let’s work through the images…
Sometimes I feel like I know a calendar front cover image as soon as I see it. This was no exception. Photographed in the peak of last summer in Greenhill in the Adelaide Hills, this Koala was pretty content lazing on this tree while the bulk of the heat went past.
When I’m looking to compose a photo, having something like the tree the runs diagonally through the image, helps to put the koala on centre stage as the main subject of the image, particularly with its claws then point down to the bottom left corner of the image also. I also really loved the background on this image, it screams Australian bush, I think.
January, a Western Grey Kangaroo, this image was taken in Deep Creek National Park. The Kangaroo is standing on a ridgeline, with a deep valley behind.
On this particular morning, which I shared with my eldest son, thick fog rolled in behind to create the perfect background and separation for the Kangaroo from the background, there is absolutely no guessing in this image about what the main subject is.
Some months after this photo was taken, Deep Creek National Park was impacted heavily by a bushfire. I can only hope this beautiful roo survived.
February features a Grey-headed flying fox, a large native bat photographed in Adelaide. While I always found them fascinating, like many people we seemed to be raised thinking of bats as dirty, disease-ridden creatures. What I didn’t know, until delving into the world of wildlife photography was the important role they play, but also how heavily impacted they are each year during extreme heat.
I was able to witness the incredible phenomenon during summer of the flying foxes repeatedly skimming the water of the River Torrens in Adelaide in an attempt to cool down. Sadly, many of the flying foxes died due to the heat, with incredible Wildlife Rescue volunteers working tirelessly to save as many as they could.
March introduces us to the Pelican! Photographed at Goolwa on the Fleurieu Peninsula, I find these birds incredible, so big and majestic and watching them use their feet when coming into land on the water is remarkable.
April, possibly my favourite Koala image, captured at Brukunga in the Adelaide Hills and speaks again to always bringing the camera while I’m out in the car, because this was a pure chance opportunity.
I was on my way to my “real” job, when I came around the corner and this fellow was doing his best Koala walk across the road. I stopped of course, camera deployed ready to go, he climbed up the nearest tree and stopped and looked at me for quite a while, allowing me to capture this photo.
Framing is an important technique used when composing nature photos. With this image, if you move your eye away from the Koala, you’ll notice that the Koala in the centre is framed by the surrounding tree and leaves.
May brings us another short-beaked Echidna. If you’ve come to know me over the last few years, you’ll know Echidnas are my favourite Australian animal, and I’ve been incredibly fortunate to observe and experience many of them in the wild over the last few years.
Echidnas are generally on the move all of the time, and so from a photography perspective I enjoy capturing them “on the move” generally with a paw up. I like highlighting the intricate features of Echidnas that many people go through their entire life never noticing.
My daughter loves Echidnas also and so she requested that this image be on her birthday month in the calendar.
June is my month of the Kookaburra.
Nature photography is about constantly upping your game, competing against only yourself to continue to improve on your images and that is exactly what I’ve done here.
This image was captured in Belair National Park and here is how it unfolded.
Listening and noticing comes first, I can see and hear a Kookaburra hanging around in the local area, it’s moved from a few different trees but none of them provide decent framing, or they have a messy background.
When you’re looking for the next best image, you’re often looking at the detail like the background and whether that makes the image or not. Because the subject is one thing, but the background can completely take away from the main subject.
Finally, the Kookaburra lands on this branch, my view of it is clear, I’m close enough to be able to frame it up nicely and the background is spot on, success! Thanks Kookaburra.
July, my middle son is a huge lover of Wombats, in fact he was with me when I took this image as I’d taken him out with me to specifically find wombats in the wild for him to see and me to photograph. July is his birthday month, so naturally he asked for the wombat to feature here.
This is a Southern hairy-nosed Wombat, South Australia’s faunal emblem, but I find one of SA’s least well-known animals. It's not uncommon for people to believe South Australia doesn’t have wombats, “they’re an eastern states and Tasmania creature” and while they’re incredibly common and celebrated along the east coast and Tasmania, we have plenty of wombats in SA as well, and in fact we have two different species of wombats. The Southern hairy-nosed which are only found in SA and WA and the Common Wombat.
The 2026 calendar featured a Southern hairy-nosed Wombat also, and if you saw that image, you may recall it was incredibly dry and predominately dirt and rocks on the ground in the image. It was pleasing on this trip to see a huge amount of green growth in the area. I can only hope this supports healthy wombats into the next couple of years.
A Swamp Wallaby features in August.
I love Swamp Wallabies, they’re super cute, quiet and shy creatures. I’ve often known Swamp Wallabies to be quite solitary animals, but this image was captured in a conservation park on SA’s Limestone Coast where there appeared to be a family of Swamp Wallabies living.
They stuck together, resting and feeding under trees, even with some joeys amongst the group playing with their parents. I feel really fortunate that they allowed me to get close enough to capture this image and many others, because often I find Swampies are long gone before you’ve noticed anything more than a black blob in the distance.
I walked away thinking, “that was an incredible experience”.
September, a favourite Western Grey Kangaroo image of mine. I had sort of envisioned an image like this for a while; there is something about the head popping up over some bushes. In this case, the Kangaroo was feeding behind the bush, completely unphased by me and my camera.
I took a bunch of photos from the other side; they were nice but nothing to write home about.
As I walked a bit further along the track, bushes now between the roo and I, the head popped up and stared at me in this pose. Camera ready, I snapped the shot and took this image home.
There is a photography tip here, move around, don’t get caught up in the one spot, because there is likely always a slightly better image waiting from a different angle.
Ahhh…the Eastern Rosella is up for October, I don’t mind a bird photo every now and again and so when I was searching through my files to find something a bit different, other than a Koala or Kangaroo to finish off the calendar, I found this image sitting there waiting to be shown! This “guy” was photographed in Belair National Park and fortunately hung around just long enough for me to snap this shot.
November, another Western Grey Kangaroo, there has been a few in this calendar, but I think they’re all different enough to not be repetitive. I’ve called this image “Drenched” because quite frankly, this roo is absolutely drenched.
I found it feeding in the rain at Mt Lofty in the Adelaide Hills, fur soaked, but I loved the detail it created. If you look hard enough, you’ll also see the rain drops falling in the background.
Our final image, for December, is the sparkling Sulphur-crested Cockatoo. Another Belair National Park image.
I’ve talked a bit about framing in this blog post, but this image really has no framing at all. Its all about the lone branch featuring the main subject and then this amazing sparkling background behind. That is all natural in the background with the sun shining through the gum tree behind.
I truly hope you love the images in this calendar as much as I do, thanks for reading.
Tim
