Australian Light

Light is everything. Recognizing the gift and knowing how to react makes extraordinary pictures of ordinary subjects.

Text And Photography By R. Ian Lloyd

Published March 1, 2005
Updated June 30, 2016

The quality of light on the continent of Australia is a real and worthy subject. The land mass is the size of the continental United States, but populated by only 20 million people, mostly settled in five main cities around the coast. That leaves vast areas of Australia without industry or pollution. The nearest continent is pristine Antarctica. The sunset image on the opening pages of this article is taken from a vantage point looking out on the Indian Ocean and the next land that the sun will touch is East Africa thousands of miles away. The result is a clarity of light that’s extraordinary, perhaps something that Americans experienced years ago.

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