Having lost the use of my digital SLR for a month, I feel I've made a wonderful return to the world of photography with my Mamiya 645 analog. These first two are of Julia who was my traveling companion during the photography void. The shot below is actually the last photograph I took with my digital SLR before it stopped working, and above is one of the first pictures I took with my Mamiya, but unfortunately the last of Julia as she and I parted ways soon after I picked up my camera from the post in Broome. 
Julia and I spent a month together traveling from Darwin to Broome, there we split and she headed to Tahiti to WWOOF at a pearl farm! Julia was a wonderful companion. An Alaskan native, here she is exhibiting her boundless fire expertise. Campfires were always a highlight in Australia, some of my clothes still smell of smoke.
Sam and I met in Broome through gumtree.com.au (Aussie Craigslist). I needed somebody to share travel expenses with, and so did he. Sam is from Germany and has been traveling for more than a year I believe, having spent eight months in Australia alone and Asia before that.
Luckily Sam also scored us a job at a watermelon farm south of Broome. We were both short on funds, and this gave us the chance to replenish. Ten, twelve hour days of watermelon picking is hard on the body, but good for watermelon know-how. Ever need advice on how to pick a good melon at the market? Give me a call. I'm happy to say that I did not grow sick of watermelon during my stay at the farm, and in fact I had a wonderful time.
Enough watermelons! We hit the road.
It turns out Sam loves photography about as much as I do. I got some great Facebook potential photographs from him, I was quite glad because photographers never have any pictures of themselves!
This is Kermit Pool at Karijini. It was a national park full of gorges and refreshing water holes. This gorge in particular was an adventure to discover, as you had to do a bit of climbing and swimming to get in deep.
It was cold.
Aside from beautiful refreshing waterholes, we also came across a fair bit of hot dry sand. These were left behind, not mine.
These shots were taken at Monkey Mia in Shark Bay. This was an amazing place where every morning the crew fed some bottle nose dolphins that would turn up like clockwork. We were assured that the feeding was only 1/10th of their required daily food intake, so that the dolphins did not become dependent on a human food source. We weren't allowed to touch the dolphins but we got in to the water with them at knee height. I even got selected to feed a pregnant momma named "Surprise." It was a beautiful moment for me.
There were lots of spectators all facing one direction...
Therefore lots of butts.
As Sam and I moved along we came across a free campsite. It was a long stretch of beach with dozens of RVs, motor homes, backpackers ect. camping amongst the dunes. But what we also found there were a group of makeshift vacation homes. It seemed to me as if these shacks were built with the intention of making a permanent residence in this beautiful and secluded free camp. The result was a little rag tag, but it made for some fun photographs.
There are lots of pictures in this series of shacks, but I'll post them all another time. One thing I'd like to emphasize is the number of free camps available in Australia. There are countless places where one can just pull over sleep, or if you felt so inclined you could set up camp for a couple of days or months on end. I don't think this idea of freedom is still available in very many countries these days.
We kept moving and kept finding beautiful places, day after day. Sam and I developed into quite a team, and he was often willing to stand into photographs that needed a human subject. He was camera aware and easy to photograph. 
Exploring some sand dunes I found a perfect emu track. I have a few pictures of emus, but their tracks really emphasize how bizarre these big birds really are. Don't they look like they came from dinosaurs?
Sunset on the dunes.
To make a long story short, Sam and I made it safely to Fremantle. I am staying here with family friends, and enjoying my time to the fullest. More to come later.
