New Zealand

Above and Below the Clouds

Nowhere in New Zealand is the nickname of the land of the long white cloud more apt that around Lake Wakatipu on the nation’s South Island. The long, thin strands of clouds at various altitudes provide many opportunities to get some interesting and unique images. These clouds and their

Japan

Layers of Tori

The hundreds of red tori gates at the Fushimi Inari Taisha near Kyoto is among the most popular and most photographed scenes near the former Japanese capital. Being so popular, there are two challenges: capturing unique images; and capturing images without people cluttering the scene. The second challenge is the

Iceland

Skogafoss Emerging

Skogafoss is a truly spectacular waterfall. Standing over 60m tall, it is easy to take in the magnificence of these falls from the base, and to walk up to the top. This view is taken from near the adjacent visitors centre, and I really liked the image of the falls

Iceland

Black Church in the Gloom

Another view of the Black Church of Budir. With the low clouds over the surrounding mountains I couldn't do much with the sky, so focused instead on the waterfalls around the church, emerging from the gloom. Along with the clouds, the crowds presented another compositional challenge. There weren&

Landscape Photography

The View from Fan's Horizon

When we visited Coonabarabran in northern NSW in November we wanted to do a hike in the Warrumbungle National Park, a fabulous location for both landscape photography and bushwalking. With only half a day for a walk, we didn't really have the time to do one of the

Canberra

Celebration of NAIDOC 2020

NAIDOC Week is an important annual celebration of the culture, history and achievements of indigenous Australians. Normally held in July, NAIDOC Week 2020 was deferred to November as a result of COVID-19. One key aspect of NAIDOC Week in Canberra is the illumination of the National Carillon with a display

Canberra

Fire in the Canberra Sky

Canberra's Mount Ainslie is a wonderful spot for great cityscapes over Australia's national capital. It is always a good place to take in a sunset over the city centre (to the right of the photo), or over Parliament House (across the bridge to the left). With

Iceland

Bláhylur Blue Crater

One of the many amazing sites we visited during our photo tour to Iceland's Highlands area, was the blue crater of Bláhylur. Formed in a crater, the magic blues of the lake and the green hills in the background provided 'pops of colour' in an otherwise

Iceland

The Hidden Canyon

Known as the Hidden Canyon, Fjadrargljufur Canyon is a gem of a canyon located just off the ring road not far from the southern township of Vik. We had first seen this location in a video by Mads Peter Iversen, and it immediately took a place high on our list

Iceland

Photo Gear for Iceland

Icelandic people seem to have a lot of sayings that involve the weather. This is entirely natural when you live in a place where the weather is very dramatic and very variable throughout the day—leading to one of my favourites: If you don’t like the weather, just wait

Iceland

Eystrahorn

Located near to the more famous Vestrahorn in Iceland's south-east, Eystrahorn is another stunning mountain range rising 756m over the adjacent coastline. Driving clockwise on Iceland's ring road, the jagged cliffs of Eystrahorn were a distinctive landmark as we did the relatively long drive from Seydisfjordur

Iceland

Haifoss

Haifoss is an amazingly tall waterfall cascading into the Fossa River below. With a 122m drop, Haifoss is the fourth largest waterfall in Iceland. Located next another fall called Granni, Haifoss is in Iceland's highland area, en route to Landmannalaugar and near to the amazing Valley of the

Hiking

Mt Kosciuszko Summit Hike

Last weekend we made the hike to the summit of Mt Kosciuszko, Australia’s highest peak. At 2,228m above sea level, Kosciuszko is quite a small mountain when compared to peaks of Europe, Japan, North America or even our neighbour, New Zealand. We commenced our hike at Eagles Nest,

Travel

Behind the Falls

Among the myriad of waterfalls in Iceland, Seljalandsfoss is unique in that you can easily walk behind the falls to gain a spectacular view through the water curtain over the adjacent plains. We visited this site on a (typically) overcast day, and got some good images. The following day was

Iceland

Skogafoss

While Iceland has countless amazing waterfalls, a handful really touched me, including Kirkjufellsfoss, Godafoss, the Valley of the Tears, and the majestic Skogafoss. Located in the south of the island, between Vik and Reykjavik, Skogafoss is special in that you can walk right up to the base of a fall

New Zealand

Grand Valley

This grand valley lies near Queenstown in New Zealand's South Island and is a great example of the incredible hills and valleys that make up the Land of the Long White Cloud. I love the way that the road cutting through the valley disappears into the folds of

Iceland

Vestrahorn

The first time I saw images of Iceland's Vestrahorn I knew that I had to visit and photograph this magnificent mountain range. It is simply one of the most spectacular ranges right on Iceland's south eastern coast. Vestrahorn is quite accessible from the nearby town of

Travel

Autumn Colours in Kyoto

The Tenryuji Temple in Kyoto’s Arashiyama area is a peaceful temple complex with spectacularly beautiful gardens. The ponds provide stunning reflections, and in the bright middle of the day light, I found that eliminating sky and focusing on colours and the reflections made for stunning images. This is a

Iceland

Drama over Kirkjufell

Located near the town of Grundarfjörður on the Snæfellsnes Peninsula, Kirkjufell may well be the iconic image of Iceland. There is a reason this sight is so well photographed—it is very accessible, and has the ‘whole package’ of a distinctive mountain and two waterfalls in the scene (the second

Iceland

Lava, Light and Rhyolite

Iceland's highland region of Landmannalaugar is notable for the spectacular rhyolite mountains, valleys and hills. It is also known for several surrounding lava fields. For photographers, these features make for spectacular subjects, but a good photograph has a good subject and great light, and Landmannalaugar is also well

Iceland

Dark Skies over the Black Church of Budir

The Black Church of Budir is one of those Icealandic photography locations I had seen in various Youtube videos and guidebooks, and the look of this quaint, black, church intrigued me enough to ensure a side trip to visit the location while staying on the Snaefellsness Peninsula. This was early

Photography

Harbour Sunrise

One of the joys of living in Sydney is that you have a magnificent city scape, a beautiful harbour and many beaches and bushlands to explore. When I arrived on this morning, I was a little disappointed about the low cloud covering the horizon, but the pre-dawn glow was just

Iceland

Storm over Godafoss

Godafoss was one of the key photography locations that I was looking forward to seeing and capturing during our visit there in September 2019. I can’t remember exactly how and when I first learned of this stunning waterfall, but it certainly came up regularly as we planned our trip.

Hiking

Hiking Landmannalaugar

This is without a doubt one of my favourite images from our September 2019 Iceland trip. We visited the fabulous region on a day trip from Reykjavik, leaving very early, and getting back at around midnight. The day was quite overcast, largely with a soft, kind of boring sky. With

Iceland

Earth's Extremes

Today is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day so I wanted to present an image the shows nature at it raw finest. This was an image made over a valley between a lava field and the incredibly colourful rhyolite ranges in the Landmannalaugar region of Iceland's highlands. We