Heather Smith, Leatherbarrel Creek (PLACES 2026)

Web:

www.sunsetsandflowers.com

Some campsites come with a view. This one came with a soundtrack you couldn't turn off, not that you'd want to. Leatherbarrel Creek runs alongside the campground in Kosciuszko National Park, and it is relentless in the best possible way. That particular pitch and rhythm of water moving fast over rocks, dropping into a pool, moving on. It followed us to sleep and was still going when we woke up. I photographed it with my iPhone, mostly because it was right there. There's something the phone does with moving water in low contrast light that I've come to genuinely appreciate. That slight painterly softness suited the scene far better than clinical sharpness would have. Converting to black and white wasn't an afterthought either. It stripped out the colour that wasn't doing anything useful and left the tonal contrast between water and rock, light and shadow, to carry the whole image. The snow gum trunks glow pale against the dark tangle of scrub. The cascade holds its brightness against the blackened rocks. The creek didn't care about any of my photographic plans. It just kept going.

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