Adrian Stavovy, Emu Walking (ENTRIES CLOSED - MINIMALISM)

I photographed this on the South Australian stretch of the Sturt Highway, travelling from Renmark towards Mildura after crossing the Nullarbor. Spotting a mob of emus, I slowed down as seeing them in the wild is still a rare thing for me. Further along, a solitary emu crested a low ridge, silhouetted against the sky. I pulled onto the verge and quickly captured a couple of frames before it disappeared over the rise. The distinctive 'Stobie' pole — steel and concrete, unique to South Australia acted as a natural framing device, giving the scene scale and perspective. I'd have liked another 5% of the foreground field and more sharpness of the emu but otherwise I like the starkness, and slightly surreal edge of the image, and the memories of outback Australia it personally evokes. Minor linear masking adjustments were made to exposure, whites, blacks, clarity, and colour on both the field and the emu. I photographed this on the South Australian stretch of the Sturt Highway, travelling from Renmark towards Mildura after crossing the Nullarbor. Spotting a mob of emus, I slowed down as seeing them in the wild is still a rare thing for me. Further along, a solitary emu crested a low ridge, silhouetted against the sky. I pulled onto the verge and quickly captured a couple of frames before it disappeared over the rise. The distinctive 'Stobie' pole — steel and concrete, unique to South Australia acted as a natural framing device, giving the scene scale and perspective. I'd have liked another 5% of the foreground field and more sharpness of the emu but otherwise I like the starkness, and slightly surreal edge of the image, and the memories of outback Australia it personally evokes. Minor linear masking adjustments were made to exposure, whites, blacks, clarity, and colour on both the field and the emu. Olympus OM5 Mark II, f 8, 1/1000, 125mm, ISO 400

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.