Discovery Photographers 
Discovery Photographers
The Discovery Photographers Community is for imaging professionals, amateur photographers and artists committed to developing their visual skills. We provide courses, photography tours, training and collaborative methods of information to advance your skills.
Experienced professionals lead all the courses so excellent technical information is guaranteed in all our tutorials.
However it’s our adventures in the landscape and the discovery of your own expression of its narrative that provides the catalyst for developing your skills. We work with the National Parks and Wildlife Service and their Aboriginal Discovery Rangers who provide our tours. They relate an intriguing cultural and traditional perspective about the land through their traditional stories and activities. National Parks and Wildlife Service Rangers also provide relevant geological and historical information.
The Australian landscape provides some inspiring visual images. We deliver the knowledge and experience to help you capture images that tell your amazing stories as you discover the depth of this vast landscape on our tours.
Workshops and Courses
Shot in the Snowies: 2010 Summer Workshops Discover this ancient land beyond its colonial past. This rugged landscape, better known as “The Man for Snowy River country”, has a special beauty even more deeply revealed in the stories from its long time aboriginal inhabitants. In our summer program you will have access to locations in the vast high plains areas of Kosciusko National Park to express your story of this majesty. More details here in our Photography Workshop calendar... View the latest photography course & workshop schedule here... |
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The Discovery Photographers
Murray van der Veer
Murray’s career begins in northern NSW where he trained as a photojournalist. This rural beginning gave him a great start in photography as well as the opportunity to explore the landscape that he loves and the connection with the lives of the people within it.
Today Murray is a photographer well established within Sydney's commercial & advertising photography marketplace and his portfolio includes images from his work for clients including Lexus, RTA, St George Bank, Fairfax, Citibank/One Port, Suncorp, Play-station, Lindt Chocolate, Cadbury's, Hahn, Macquarie Bank and the new Sydney Hilton and many others.
Murray trained in traditional photography and now works with both traditional and digital technologies. Being one of the first photographers in Australia to begin to master the post-production techniques essential to digital photography he is well known for his skills and lectures in this area, however his work remains true to the essential principles taught in the traditional photographic mediums.
The focus of his commercial work has always been a combination of studio work and beautiful location imagery. His focus has again returned to photographing people and the landscape, but with a new vitality given by the creative scope offered in digital photography. This has allowed him to integrate his interest in creating images that have an underlying symbolic expression to create an emotional response.
Murray has taught for several years at the Australian Centre of Photography, and tutors photographers to develop their photography skills as well as lighting techniques, digital imaging and photoshop. Murray specialises in landscape and portraiture photography, and has been running photography courses in conjunction with the National Parks and Wildlife for several years.
Mark Lang
Born 1943 in Pakistan to British Army parents and educated in England Mark Lang emigrated to Australia in 1969 and worked as one of Sydney’s foremost advertising photographers for fifteen years before choosing to photograph the Australian landscape instead, an interest that he has pursued for the past twenty-five years.
Moving from the city to live on the North Coast of NSW, he had always wanted to shoot a book dedicated to the Australian bush, and eventually sold house and land to travel Australia for seven years during which time he spent some considerable time with an Aboriginal elder in Kakadu who influenced him deeply, changing his perception of the landscape totally.
“I would like to think that in my work there is a sense of the spirit in the land. That in every rock and tree there is an awareness of a presence just as tangible as that of a human form, and that everything we see in the landscape deserves our love and respect.”
René Vogelzang
René Vogelzang's passion for landscape photography is driven by the exploration of his sense of place & belonging. Born in Holland before emigrating to Australia as a child, he has a fascination with the spiritual and emotional impact that different landscapes have on each of us. René has lived in Holland, Belgium and France for extended periods and travelled & worked extensively throughout Asia gaining an insight into the influence of different cultures and environments on our connection to the landscape and its stories.
René's background in engineering, IT & telecommunications brings a wealth of technical experience to his photographic work, in particular to the application of digital capture and post-production.
About the Aboriginal Discovery Program
Education through hands on Learning
Northern Kosciuszko National Park is steeped in Aboriginal Cultural Heritage and holds a strong spiritual connection with the Walgalu and Wiradjuri people.
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The Aboriginal Discovery Rangers provide hands on learning experiences in a natural bush environment where participants will discover the secrets of Aboriginal culture through the telling of dreaming stories, hands on activities including the making of traditional bush tools such as bush rope, stone axe, boomerangs and coolamons. As we walk, talk and tour in the stunning environment of Kosciuszko National Park participants will be treated to the taste of the bush and learn about Aboriginal bush tucker and traditional bush plants used for medicinal purposes. |
The educational tours are delivered by experienced Aboriginal Discover Rangers with a focus on creating understanding, building awareness and developing appreciation of Aboriginal Culture in the Snowy Mountains. Programs are suitable for participants including Preschool, Primary, Secondary, TAFE levels and are available in two hour, half day or full day learning experiences designed to support the educational outcomes of school based curriculum's.
Further information and details of the NPWS Discovery Programs including fees please contact 02 69477025
or email to discovery.tumut@environment.nsw.gov.au.