Luke Tscharke – Portrait of a Photographer

Matt Payne

Matt Payne is a landscape photographer and mountain climber from Durango, Colorado. He’s the host of the weekly landscape photography podcast, “F-Stop Collaborate and Listen,” co-founder of the Nature First Photography Alliance, and co-founder of the Natural Landscape Photography Awards. He lives with his wife, Angela, his son Quinn, and his four cats, Juju, Chara, Arrow, and Vestal.

mattpaynephotography.com

When my friend Alex Nail (whom I regard to be one of the best judges of landscape photography) recommended the work of Luke Tscharke (pronounced Sharkey), I immediately looked at the work with gusto. What I found when I perused Luke’s website was a finely curated set of images from an often-underrepresented part of our world, Australia. I of course had heard of Luke’s work before since he has won quite a few awards over the years with his fine images; however, I have not spent a great deal of time digging deep into his galleries to give his work the justice it deserves. Naturally, having never been to Australia myself, I found myself really intrigued by the variety of scenes, compositions, and climates that Luke has been able to photograph there.

Wineglass Bay

The Channel

To fully appreciate Luke’s photography,