Likoca

Galahs are common enough across the Australian bush that it's easy to walk past them. Get close and the pink-and-grey is almost absurd in its intensity, especially against a muted scrubby background. This one was perched on a boulder and had the crest up, alert to something nearby but not alarmed enough to move. A clean side-on view with the whole bird sharp and the background well clear.

Perched on a rocky rise beside a barbed-wire fence, this small kangaroo held its ground and stared back. The overcast sky flattened the light and kept the background clean.

One flower open, one still closed tight in pink. The hairy green sepals and the way the stamens push forward suggest this is viper's bugloss or something close to it, a plant that regularly goes unnoticed until you get right down to it. The deep violet petals sit clean against a soft green background, the whole thing sharp where it counts and gone to blur where it doesn't.

A crested pigeon settled on a rusted barbed wire fence, the dark spike of its crest sharp against the soft green blur behind. Red eye bright, wings folded neat, it held its position long enough to fill the frame. The wire and post give it a rougher backdrop than you'd expect for a bird this tidy-looking.

A single geranium flower shot close enough to show the fine hairs on the stem and the individual stamens fanning out from the centre. The petals shift from deep violet at the edges to a softer pink-purple where they meet the base, and a tightly closed bud sits just behind. Good detail in the texture of the calyx at this magnification.

A large wind farm spreads across rolling green paddocks, the turbines standing well above the treeline with a low ridgeline of bush behind them. The sky is heavy with cloud but the land below is vivid green. One turbine in the foreground towers close enough to show the full scale of the rotors against everything behind it. Good country for wind, by the look of it.

A red Ixora cluster mid-bloom, a few florets already open to their four rounded petals while dozens of buds still wait on long red stems. The shallow depth of field throws the surrounding leaves into a soft green wash, keeping every detail of colour and texture in the flower head itself. This photographer has worked Ixora at Crystal Creek across pink, peach, orange and yellow varieties — the red is a good addition to that set.

A storm rolling across a wide coastal plain, sun breaking through a gap in the clouds in long silver shafts. The foreground is still wet, a shallow flood pool sitting across the pasture below the ridgeline. Farmland stretches out in a patchwork of green well into the distance, a low mountain range just visible on the horizon through the haze.

A multi-storey residential tower in blue and white, half-swallowed by the canopy in front of it. Curved balconies and louvred shutters run up the facade, with rooftop greenery spilling over the upper levels. The trees push in hard from both sides, making the building feel less like a city block and more like something the tropics are quietly reclaiming.

A young-looking Australian magpie holds its ground in the grass, head turned sideways, eye sharp and amber. Ground level gives you the full profile, the bold black and white plumage reading cleanly against the soft green behind it. These birds are confident to the point of pushiness, but this one paused long enough to be worth watching.

Concrete piers and a riveted steel deck stretch away into the scrub, the structure filling most of the frame when shot from below. A young eucalypt has pushed up between the pylons, its canopy level with the crossbeams. The monochrome treatment flattens the sky into a pale wash and pulls out the texture in the weathered concrete. A working structure, well past its prime. #likoca

Layered red sandstone walls close in on either side of a shallow creek, with a small waterfall threading down the rock face at the back of the gorge. Scrubby eucalypts and tufts of green growth cling to the gaps between boulders, a patch of blue sky just visible overhead. The creek runs thin across flat rock shelves, pooling slightly where the bigger boulders block the flow.

A single wildflower growing out of dry red earth, the kind of small colour that stops you mid-stride in country where everything else is brown and dust. The petals run from pale lavender at the tips to deeper purple at the base, ringing a dense yellow disc. Shot close enough to blur the scrubby background well out, which lets the flower do all the work.

Murray Bridge, waterside. The Pacific black duck stood at the grass edge long enough to show off the iridescent blue-green speculum panel, which in most field conditions stays tucked and invisible. Brown scalloped plumage reads almost chocolate against the pale blurred water behind. Common bird, less commonly this close and this still.

Murray Bridge, on the Murray River. This Australian pelican was cruising close in, unhurried, with that yellow-ringed eye sharp even at distance. The black-and-white plumage is pristine and the long pink bill gives away the species immediately. A common bird along the Murray, but one that holds its ground in front of a camera better than most.

Photo taken at Olary, South Australia

Anhingas lack the waterproofing that most waterbirds have, so after a dive they have to stand and dry their feathers in the open air. This one found a bare branch with good sun exposure and spread both wings fully, tail fanned out below. The iridescent black plumage picks up bronze and silver in the light, with the long yellow bill and pale throat standing out sharply against the dark body. A patient bird to photograph — they hold the pose long enough to get the shot.