Des Paroz

Astro

The Emu In the Sky

Known as Gawarrgay to the Australian First Nations Kamilaroi people, the Celestial Emu describes how many First Nations people viewed the Milky Way.

Hiking

Bob’s Ridge

One of the many hikes around the Snowy Mountains region of NSW is the Cascade Trail trail, which starts and finishes at Dead Horse Gap, near Thredbo. On this day we did the 10km return hike out to Bob's Ridge. There was a pretty heavy fog up on

Canberra

The Aurora Tree

Just south of Canberra is a famous tree by the side of a country lane just off the Monaro Highway. This tree has a fabulous vantage point looking to the south, providing a great place to observe aurora australis (the Southern Lights) when the conditions are just right. On this

Photography

Heian Shrine

The Heian Shrine is one of the iconic sites of significance in Kyoto. To get an image without large crowds requires an early rise or a bit of luck. Or some editing, as in this image, which had a number of people removed using Lightroom’s Generative Remove tool to

Photography

Gundaroo Star Trails

A single image star trail captured over a historic building near Gundaroo in Canberra’s north.

Canberra

Lake Burley Griffin Sunset

I have enjoyed some amazing sunsets around Canberra, and one of my favourite spots to photograph these events is this wharf on Lake Burley Griffin. This night in September did not disappoint with wonderful colours in the sky, and reflected on the surface of the lake. Image Data * C: Fujifilm

Photography

Ready Cut Night

Ready Cut Cottage in the ACT's Namadgi National Park is a wonderfully isolated spot in a Class 2 Bortle area close to Australia’s national capital. The skies here are stunning, and with a great perspective to the south there are great vistas of the Milky Way, with

Photography

Snowy Spencers Creek

A picturesque creek off the side of the road to Charlotte’s Pass in the NSW Snowy Mountains. Captured on a dramatic day a couple of years ago, I love the remnants of winter mixed with the freshness of spring. Image Data * C: Fujifilm X-T3 * L: Fujinon XF 70-300mm f/

Photography

Gondwana Nights

The Gondwana Observatory is a feature of the Australian Age of Dinosaurs near Winton, Qld, and one of four certified Dark Sky places in Australia. We had a visit there in September 2023, and really enjoyed the clear dark skies that can be found in outback Queensland. The Gondwana Observatory

Hiking

The Hike to Dead Horse Gap

The hike to Dead Horse Gap is a circuit from the Kosciuszko Express top station back to Thredbo. We did this walk at the end of May 2022, and it was the last chance that season with a big snow dump the following day. The hike is a little challenging,

Astro

Winton Machinations

Winton in Outback Queensland is a great place for nightscape images. The obvious place to shoot is the Jump Up at the Australian Age of Dinosaurs, but there are a number of places you can shoot right on the edge of the town. This image was captured in a park

Astro

Crux and Aurora

This past weekend provided an interesting night sky opportunity with clear summer skies and a chance of spotting some aurora australis. So I headed to the Williamsdale Road vantage point on the southern side of Canberra and set up two cameras—one shooting star trails and the other doing tracked

Astro

The Road to Burra

This oft-photographed tree lies on the southern outskirts of Canberra. With the city lights behind you, and a clear view to the south, this can be a great spot for shooting the Milky Way, star trails and perhaps aurora australis. The Milky Way was brilliant on this night, and the

Canberra

The Bush Capital

Australia’s capital city, Canberra, is colloquially known as the Bush Capital. Not only is it an inland capital in a land famously girt by sea, Canberra is also surrounded by the rugged bushland the country is known for. Much of that bushland weaves its way in from the fringes

Astro

Tangmangaroo Milky Way

The old Tangmangaroo Church is located in an isolated spot along the Lachlan Valley Way between Yass and Boorowa, NSW. A Bortle Class 2 location, this old church and graveyard have a south-westerly aspect making for a great Milky Way shoot late in the MW Core season. I like that

Canberra

Gibraltar Falls

Gibraltar Falls is a beautiful waterfall near Canberra in the Namadgi National Park. Namadgi makes up almost half of the total land of the Australian Capital Territory, and is a great national park with many great hikes, stunning scenery and some great dark skies for nightscapes. These beautiful falls are

Astro

Clouds on a Cloudless Night

On a relatively cloudless night on the southern side of Canberra, the Large Magellanic Cloud and Small Magellanic Cloud were prominent in the night sky. With the double star Canopus also clearly visible, these celestial features were features in the south. While the Milky Was brilliant in the Western Sky,

Prague

Prague Cathedral and Castle at Sunset

A wonderful sunset over Prague provided a stunning view of this cathedral and the distant castle. This photo was captured moments after my Prague Sunset image and was also shot from Prague’s Powder Gate. There was a wonderful golden light on the church, with nearby buildings shadowed. The visual

Astro

Winton Frontier

Winton is a birthplace of Qantas1, Australia’s national airline. In 1920, Winton was then, as it is today, a frontier town in outback Queensland and the birth of air travel connected it to the world. Winton is also connected to the universe as the home of the Jump Up,

Mountains

Mt Wheatley Cornice

Mt Wheatley is a popular snowshoeing and back-country location near Perisher Valley in the NSW ski fields. The trail starts from the Perisher Village but goes off in the opposite direction from the main resort. Snowshoe enthusiasts can get away from perhaps Australia’s busiest ski resort in minutes, and

Travel

St Stephens Basilica

St. Stevens Basilica is a World Heritage Site in Budapest, Hungary. On this day, there was a display set up in St. Stephens Square for a major movie launch, so our shooting options were limited. We walked around and found this vantage point, which allowed us to get a good

Iceland

Seydisfjordur

Seydisfjordur (Seyðisfjörður) was a unique stop on our 2019 visit to Iceland. A detour off the ring road, the town is the terminal point for the ferry that links Iceland to the European continent via the Faroe Islands to Denmark. A really scenic town in the east fjord-lands, Seydisfjordur is

Astro

Southern Nights

One of the great things about living in Canberra is the ready access to beautiful night sky locations away from the city lights. This image of the Milky Way, clearly showing the Emu in the Sky, was created by the side of Naas Road in the southern part of the

Photography

Rainbow over Porcupine Rocks

We set out on a 6.5km hike from Perisher Valley on what was a very windy and overcast day, with intermittent rain. It would’ve been easy to call the hike before we even started but we decided to press on and see if the weather would improve. Reaching

Sunset

Fiery Sky over London Arch

London Arch is a spectacular rock formation offshore of the Great Ocean Road, near Port Campbell in Victoria. The single arch pictured in this image was originally connected to the mainland by an additional arch washed away in 1990. Back then, the structure was known as London Bridge, but it