Natalie Hampel, The Pinnacles (Single Shot 2018)

Firstly, I would like to dedicate this image and every following image shot in Western Australia (WA) to my grandmother, Omi. She is the matriarch of our family and an inspiration. It took us 8 hours and 2 flights to get into Geraldton and we arrived as the sun was setting. It was a long trip and I was concerned for Omi. She is 88 years old and only recovered from pneumonia two months ago as well as a knee replacement four months before that! I wasn’t sure how she was going to handle the flights let alone 5000kms of driving we were about to start!! I planned everything precisely, with her at the forefront of my mind, but, to our surprise, the flights were a breeze. Our plan was to stay in Geraldton for three nights to rest and prepare our vehicle for the trip. On the 2nd night of our stay I was lying in bed thinking about how amazing Omi has been and then it hit me. For years I have dreamt of visiting The Pinnacles and although it was not part of our plan, the next morning I suggested we go on a minor 500km detour to see them. She did not hesitate and jumped on the opportunity to go even though she had never heard of them. The drive south was beautiful, a photographer’s paradise and Omi did not even need a break to stretch her legs! I was so impressed. The National Park has a 4km loop to drive around and see The Pinnacles. We stopped shortly after we began, jumped out of our car to walk amongst the hundreds if not thousands of them! We were in awe of the landscape. Some looked like fish, others like people and even elephants. If you use your imagination you could see so many different animals. We shared with each other what we could see and we both could not stop smiling. Towards the end of the loop and several hours later I saw out into the distance these rocks with a very different look about them. I pulled over and ran out to photograph these formations.

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