Page 45 - Australian Photography Dec 2020

LEFT: The Cocos Keeling Islands are filled with vibrant and spectacular giant clams (Tridacna maxima). These blue clams were photographed in a breeding facility on West Island. They were around 10cm long at the time, and can grow up to 40cm. I held my camera above them and photographed straight down. After a few shots, the clams sensed my finger moving and closed up so I walked away with what I had. This is my one surviving shot! Canon 5D, 65mm focal length. 1/640s@ f9, ISO 640.
RIGHT: There’s only one creature on the planet that makes me shudder: big hairy spiders. When my friend, Michael, wanted photos of Cuddles, his bird-eating spider, I think he knew I’d be horrified. But I’ve always found my camera to act as a buffer (maybe more of a mental one than a physical one) so I was able to photograph Cuddles easily and without fear. As I leant forward to take a shot, Cuddles was startled by this big giant looming over him, and pulled in his legs. I felt bad that I’d scared him and saw an adorableness in his vulnerability. It flicked a switch on for me – how ridiculous to be afraid of Cuddles! Canon EOS-1D X Mark II, Tamron SP 90mm F/2.8 lens. 1/200s @ f13, ISO 125.
PROFILE: ALEX CEARNS
ALL CREATURES
AND SMALL
GREATPicture this: you’re face-to-face with a bird-eating spider the size of your hand. The room is tiny, it’s hot, and you have to get as close as you can because it’s your job to capture every inch of the little guy’s personality with your camera while his owner breathes down your neck. Sound like the stuff of nightmares? It’s just another day in the office for Perth-based pet photographer
Alex Cearns isn’t just our best-loved pet photographer, she’s also someone who has tirelessly given back to her community. We talk portraiture, personalities and paying it forward with Australia’s master of animal photography.
BY MIKE O’CONNOR
| 45 | DECEMBER 2020 | AUSTRALIANPHOTOGRAPHY.COM
Alex Cearns OAM.
Today, Cearns’s successful pet portrait business,
Houndstooth Studio, stands as one of Australia’s most well- respected, and she has won hundreds of awards for her photography from all over the world. It is remarkable because photography isn’t her first career and is something she only began taking seriously just 14 years ago.
“It was my interest in animals that came first, well be- fore the photography,” she explains, speaking down the line during a rare break from shooting at the studio. “I’m an only child and I grew up around animals my whole life. In many ways they were my first friends.”
And although a lifelong love of animals would later be- come key to her work, it’s also a world away from where she started out – 14 years with Western Australia Police, and five years with the Federal Government before deciding photography could be a career that might just have legs.