The Margaret River Discovery Co’s Sean Blocksidge has a couple of kangaroos to thank after his 2016 photograph of the amorous pair in the Willyabrup moonlight won him the Tourism Australia G’Day USA award for the year’s best photo.
Selected from a pool of finalists, Blocksidge’s Sunset Kangaroos quickly went viral after he shared it with his ever-increasing social media audience in July.
The story of how the photograph came to be held much of the charm that quickly saw Sunset Kangaroos one of the most shared local images of 2016.
“I’d just helped rescue an abandoned lamb from the side of the road, which altered my evening plans, so decided to go exploring down a random bush track the lamb had led me on and go discovering,” Blocksidge explained in his original July 19 post.
“I’d been wandering around in the bush and looked back up the hill to see these two roos getting a bit amorous… And then it got about hundred times better as the full moon started to rise.”
Quiet panic ensued as Blocksidge hurried back to his vehicle to retrieve his camera, which in a stunning case of almost-Murphy’s-Law, began to malfunction.
“Years of clunking, sand, dropping, salt water, and lack of care were suddenly culminating to kill the camera at the very moment I needed it most.
“Probably the most nuts, beautiful scene I've ever seen and I’m not going to be able to share it.
“I fair dinkum nearly had a heart attack.”
Luck – or karma – appeared to be on his side however, and the camera burst to life just in time.
Blocksidge will now prepare to mingle with high profile Australian celebrities at the gala event in LA at the end of this month, and said he was keen to share the best of the region with the world.