Des Paroz

Landscape and astro photography enthusiast from Canberra, Australia

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

Travel

Prague Sunset

It is astounding that it is almost four years since I captured this image of an epic sunset in Prague, Czech Republic. Captured from Powder Gate, I love the way the Y-shaped intersection below leads the eye towards the city’s iconic cathedral and castle in the background. Prague is

Iceland

Hjalparfoss

The first waterfall we visited during our 2019 Iceland Trip was Hjalparfoss—a very pretty double waterfall on the road to Landmannalaugar in the Icelandic Highlands. This waterfall is the point where two rivers join up after snaking together through a lava field. This is the second image I am

Europe

London’s Eye

Also known as the Millennium Wheel, the London Eye stands almost 140m tall on the banks of the Thames River. It opened in 2000 and was the world’s largest Ferris wheel. Today it remains one of the largest in Europe and is a very picturesque part of the London

Canberra

Carillon Sunset

A lovely sunset at the National Carillon in Canberra, with the iconic Telstra Tower ever prominent in the capital's skyline. I used both the Skyfire feature in The Photographer's Ephemeris and the Skylight app for iPhone in working out where to head for this shoot, and

Landscape Photography

Road to Mt Perisher

Mt Perisher is the largest of the mountains that make up the Perisher Ski Resort in the NSW Snowy Mountains. This image was created after the end of the ski season, and the road was clear of snow. View this image in my Photo Gallery, on Vero, Flickr or on

Travel

Walter Peak

Located on Lake Wakatipu in New Zealand’s Otago region, the Walter Peak High Country Farm is the tourist destination of the TSS Earnslaw, the only remaining commercial passenger-carrying coal-fired steamship in the southern hemisphere. We took the voyage on the Earnslaw from Queenstown as a way of getting a

Southern Highlands

Manning Lookout

Spectacular rock formations on a hidden gem of a hike near Fitzroy Falls in the NSW Southern Highlands. This image was made at an overlook not far from the trailhead, in the early part of a spectacular hike along cliff edges, through a rain forest and down into a hollow

Photography

Tom Watkinson's Excellent Weather Course for Photographers

Weather is such an important part of landscape photography, and there has been a real surge of great weather prediction websites and apps that photographers can use to predict great conditions, such as fiery sunsets, fog and snow cover. The tools available are amazing, but the real art in prediction

Hiking

A Budderoo Hike in the Fog

Sometimes hiking is about the destination, but on this day the promise of spectacular scenery was replaced by beautiful fog. This hike was all about the journey, and the journey was great. We traveled to the NSW Southern Highlands and got up early for a hike in the Budderoo National

Hiking

Fitzroy Falls East Rim Track

One of the many spectacular viewpoints on the East Rim Trail at the NSW Southern Highlands' Fitzroy Falls. A spectacular trail that takes you through a variety of terrains and environments. A really fun walk that provides easy access to several brilliant lookouts with views over the valley, and

Canberra

Telstra Tower Sunset

Canberra has some amazing sunsets, and this view of Telstra Tower with the Brindabella Ranges in the background provided a wonderfully orange sky. Captured from Mt Ainslie, the setting sun to the side of the scene cast golden rays across the tower. View this image in my Photo Gallery, on

Snowy Mountains

Stormy Valley

We had the opportunity to do some snowshoeing twice in 2022, with this time in early November being a late season unexpected opportunity, courtesy of the #Snowvember cold snap. On this occasion we started from the carpark above the Charlotte Pass Snow Resort and hiked up Mt Stilwell. We started

Snowy Mountains

Snowgum Blue and White

Australian snowgums are commonly found in the higher parts of the Australian Alps. Some of the species have spectacular colours in their trunks and branches and it is worth slowing down to find the most colourful and interesting compositions. We found this beautiful snow gum on a snowshoe adventure on

Iceland

In the Lava Fields

A hike around Landmannalaugar took us past some interesting lava fields with amazing ryolite mountains as a backdrop. I spent some time, on and off, working on this image to get it to match my vision of the scene. There were no big changes, just quite a few small edits

Hiking

Overlooking Blue Lake

This is one of the amazing hikes from Charlotte Pass in the Kosciusko National Park. The hike starts with a sharp downhill section, then a double crossing of the Snowy River before a long, continuous uphill climb, with another river crossing. Spectacular views of the Blue Lake are the reward.

Travel

Drama in Myhavn

The colours of Copenhagen's Myhavn become even more saturated under a stormy sky. We visited Denmark briefly following on our epic adventures in Iceland. Image Data * C: Panasonic Lumix DC-G9 * L: Panasonic Leica DG Vario-Elmarit 12-60mm f/2.8-4 * E: Lightroom Classic Around the Web View this image