General News
12 June, 2026
Snapper pops up at right moment
MIKE Reed was popping up around the Loddon capturing images of community life over the King’s Birthday weekend.
MIKE Reed was popping up around the Loddon capturing images of community life over the King’s Birthday weekend.
Mike and fellow members of the Image Chasers photography group were starting on the next phase of assembling a portfolio of images to be displayed in the Calivil Hall over the Loddon Arts Trail weekend in October.
He spent the long weekend popping into shops and calling at events in southern Loddon towns, the community breakfast in Tarnagulla having him fuelled for a day in the field on Saturday.
“My focus is on people but there’s another great arts trail idea I’ve had and that’s photographing the letterboxes around the shire,” he said.
“They are among some wonderful roadside art that I’ve found travelling the shire.”
Mike armed with camera last month went to the Boort Football Netball Club’s rodeo night and Wedderburn Historic Engine and Machinery Society swap meet.
“I try and find the right person at the wrong time - I’ve a warped sense of humour,” he said.
Mike has based himself at Dorothy and Colin Silke’s historic Rostrata at Murphys Creek while building his contribution to the exhibition portfolio.
Fellow Image Chaser Helga Salwe. who was married to noted Australian newspaper cartoonist Michael Luenig, will shortly base herself in Mitiamo capturing photographs for the exhibition.
Salwe has exhibited widely and is held in numerous public and private collections, including the National Portrait Gallery, The National Library of Australia and the Epworth Art Foundation. She previously spent 15 years documenting life in a small rural community in North East Victoria where she lived on a farm. The images depict the beauty, simplicity and peace of country life, as well as drought and bushfire.
Michael is also drawing inspiration for his next book RIP while travelling Loddon roads.
“The book will capture roadside memorials on country roads.” Michael said Image Chasers was a small group of enthusiastic photographers. “We’re not a camera club in the traditional sense. We don’t worry about the camera people use, it’s the images.”
Read More: Loddon Shire