Mildura Campus

Katrina Kulik

I left for what I had been calling the "summer of a lifetime" on June 3. My journey began in Fiji, where I studied for 8 days. I then travelled to New Zealand, before arriving in Australia. Honestly, I love it over here, but by the time July 7 rolled around, along with my bad experience getting to Mildura, I was ready to be home. But, that all changed when I was introduced to all of the other people here to experience and help with the Edge of the Outback Summer Photography program. Our group consisted of 20 girls and 1 guy - who by the second week said "Welcome to the minority. You know you've been here too long, when you sit down to pee." None of us knew one another before arriving in Australia, we all came from different areas, but somehow we all just clicked. The bond we created made all of us miss our homes and our friends there so much less. We called ourselves a family. The people, both students and staff, made this program an amazing experience.

Our travels through Australia led us to abandoned towns, national parks, sand dunes, and sheep shearing sheds. In these places our only task was to photograph - hard life I know! We got to photograph and explore sacred land and see places that many other tourists don't get to see. The views can't even be described. The group as a whole seemed to favor the entrancing beauty of the Great Walls at Mungo national park. But, the views were astonishing everywhere and in many cases you could see for miles, sounds like a beautiful photo right? It does, but no photo could even begin to capture what I was seeing. This was frustrating. I enjoyed close-up's of the elements composing those ravishing scenes. When we came back and began downloading photos, I saw how other students captured the scenery in ways I couldn't seem to do. My pictures from this trip seemed like such a disappointment. But as we discussed the trip, I realized there are so many small things that make up the huge landscape and everyone sees them differently. Some people focus on the people interacting with the landscape, some focus on the trees, some the sun etc. That is when I decided to choose pictures that focus on the textures from nature and non-natural elements that make up the "big picture" I saw on our trip.

Every student came to Australia with a fondness for photography. It was amazing to see although we all have similarities, shared such a close bond and photographed at the same places, we all had different views of nature. All of our photos are very different from one another and truly show the numerous ways to see nature. This trip has made me appreciate photography, nature, people and their way of seeing "the big picture" so much more. This summer seriously was the "summer of a lifetime," and I am not ready to leave anytime soon!!!

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