I’m still in awe as to how quickly the thunderstorm that I was saturated in built up. The clouds still appear to be light and fluffy, not at all like that of the low dark clouds one associates with storms.

About 30 minutes later I was running back to camp when a thunderstorm appeared to pour water onto the land. It was possibly one of my more stressful moments in photography as I was placing the waterproofing of my camera bag to the test of an unrelenting torrential downpour. Upon opening the camera bag, I found my camera to be completely dry much to my relief.

This is the township of Leinster as seen on the morning of fly-in day, the start of a working week. A lot has been said about FIFO and its effect. What’s FIFO? It’s an acronym of Fly-in/Fly-Out where workers of an organisation are flown in to work for a period of time and then flown out for R&R while another crew is flown in to take their place. It’s a common system in place in the Western Australian mining scene. Rosters vary across industries and sites.

It’s not a lifestyle for everyone and at times, it is far from easy. I have to admit to being selfish when I accepted the job over summer. I hadn’t discussed it with anyone. I just went out and did it. I wanted to get back out on site working after completing a Graduate Diploma in Extractive Metallurgy just as the global economy was grinding to a halt. not the world’s greatest timing on my part but then again, I didn’t go into the mining industry for money. It’s been part of my life for so long, I don’t know any different.

Would I be so selfish in the future? No. I have been discussing the real possibility that FIFO work is on the horizon with a close circle of trusted friends and letting others know of my plans. While I know it’s going to result in missing out on special occasions and not being around as much as I would like to, this is something that I want to do.

I remember it being dry and dusty when I found the track leading into the bush. About halfway down, I felt a sharp drop in temperature which was soon followed by an increase in humidity. A storm was rolling in, and fast. I knew it wasn’t in front of me so I turned around and was faced with a wall of red. I took this shot just before the heavens started to open up. Subsequent photos have raindrops all across the images.

In the back of my mind while taking the photo, I was thinking that I had only just upgraded to the Nikon D90 and that it wasn’t quite what I had in mind when it came to testing out its capabilities.

This was yet another photo shoot that ended with a fast packing up of gear and a run back to camp.