Welcome to lifeunseen.com

My name is Nick Monaghan. I have been fascinated by insects, spiders and other invertebrates for as long as I can remember and I have been a keen photographer for more than 25 years, so it seemed only natural that I would one day combine the two passions and begin learning the art of macro photography. On the 25th of…

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Fitzgerald River National Park – Floral Wonderland

In my post about Lesueur National Park, I mentioned its extraordinary floral diversity and the fact that it contains 10% of Western Australia’s described plants. As impressive as that is, Fitzgerald River National Park on the state’s southern coast makes Lesueur look like a cottage garden. Not only does Fitzgerald River’s 330,000 hectares eclipse Lesueur’s…

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Stirling Range National Park – Nature’s Native Garden

Even before I set foot in Stirling Range National Park I knew I was in for a treat. Long before I thought about making the trek to Western Australia, I had read about the place and had heard people recount their trips to the park and there was never anything but glowing praise, so it…

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Lesueur National Park – an unexpected surprise.

Some of the best things happen by chance. When I was planning my 2018 Western Australia trip, one of my intentions was to stay in Cervantes, which is on the Coral Coast approximately 200 kilometres north of Perth, so I could be close to Nambung National Park and its famous Pinnacles Desert, but I was…

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Western Australia – Trip of a Lifetime

It has taken me a long time to write this post, partly because I have been distracted by other things, but also because I could never quite find the right words to describe some of the things I saw during my time in Western Australia. Better late than never, so here goes, although I still…

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Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park.

2016 was a year when I decided to tick another place off my bucket list. I initially had grand plans of heading over to Western Australia, but by the time I started some serious planning, I realised I only had two weeks of leave available, so I had to reconsider my options and find somewhere that wasn’t…

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The Art of Deception – part 2

In The Art of Deception – part 1 I showcased some of the insects and spiders that use camouflage to avoid detection by predator and prey alike. This time it’s the turn of the real liars – the creatures that steal the identity of others for their own gain. These are the mimics that I find truly…

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The Art of Deception – part 1

The invertebrate world is a dangerous place. It is a lawless world where life is cheap and where no creature can ever claim to be the true master. During the many years I have spent delving into the macro world, I have seen things that have made a mockery of my pre-conceived ideas about predators…

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Main Range National Park

If you ever decide to take a drive along the Cunningham Highway in southeast Queensland, whether it be travelling from Warwick to Brisbane or vice versa, there is an obstacle that must be negotiated along the way. Approximately 50 kilometers northeast of Warwick, forest-clad mountains rise sharply above the surrounding farmland and there is only…

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Taming the light

The biggest challenge I have faced since I first pointed my camera at an insect is getting the lighting right. It has been an ongoing battle for the past 10 years and I am still yet to taste complete victory, but through a lot of trial and error and a great deal of patience, I…

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Nature’s Jewellery Box

When I dropped in at Girraween National Park in October, 2014, I knew immediately that my two days there weren’t going to be enough, so when I headed north again in late October the following year, I booked five nights at the Murray Gardens Motel in Stanthorpe to give myself three full days to delve deeper…

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