A dragon looming over a potential lunchtime snack has scored photographer Harrison Warne a prestigious national prize.
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The former Bega Valley local, now Queensland resident, was last week announced as the winner of the wildlife category in The Nature Conservancy Australia's 2021 Photo Contest.
His capture of an Eyrean earless dragon sunning itself in the west Queensland heat while a grasshopper perches perilously close was among five outstanding images taken by some of Australia's best wildlife photographers.
"The pose of the lizard and its soon to be prey is perfect. A very worthy winner," said judge Benjamin Goode when selecting this year's wildlife winner.
This year's TNC competition received more than 10,300 entries, with winners selected in landscape, marine, people and nature, and wildlife categories and an overall winner who shared in $16,000 in prizes.
Mr Warne said his photo was a lucky opportunity on a hot highway in western Queensland, near Winton.
"That wasn't an easy shot to get," he said this week.
"It was in February and I had started driving about 10am, it was already really hot.
"I'd never seen these dragons standing up before. I knew they did it, but hadn't seen it myself.
"While we were driving I saw a few of them all standing up, but it was in a roadworks area where I couldn't stop."
When the geology changed as he continued heading west, Mr Warne thought he had missed his opportunity to photograph the reptiles as they regulated their heat in the summer sun.
However, luck was on his side when 100km down the road from the bunch he'd seen from the car, a lone dragon posed on top of a red rock outcropping near the road.
"By this stage it was 42 degrees...but I wasn't really thinking about the heat I was just focused on getting the photo.
"I got the sun where I wanted it and very slowly crawled up on him."
Mr Warne said the region has enjoyed some recent rain so the grasshoppers were out in big numbers.
"The grasshopper was sitting there but he didn't seem interested. It looked like he had a full belly. He was just thermoregulating while digesting his meal.
"The grasshopper got lucky - and so did I! I only got three frames that had the grasshopper in and only one of those was in focus."
Mr Warne said he was honoured to be counted among the top wildlife photographers in the country with this award. Just the previous month, fellow category winner Scott Portelli had been announced as the Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year, arguably the country's most recognised and prestigious nature photography competition.
He continues to work as an ecological consultant, but has also been building up a film production company. Mr Warne was also the overall winner in the 2017 Nature Conservancy Photo Contest.
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