I'm always looking for places to go in the Top End region, new places to explore and photograph. I was recently looking for some information on Maguk (or Barramundi Gorge) in Kakadu National Park and although could find the basics from the Parks Australia website - http://www.parksaustralia.gov.au/kakadu/ - I found it difficult to find "real life" experiences on exploring and the location. When I say "real life" experiences, I mean blogs from travelers of where to go, when is best to go, different routes and walks, experiences on what people saw, what was great, where to look for certain things, etc etc. There's actually not much in depth, local information in a "kakadu blog" google search. What does show up are mainly short excerpts from people just doing the highlights of Kakadu as part of an extended trip.

Anyway. So what I want to start doing is sharing my experience and knowledge of these places in Kakadu….

A few weeks ago I bought the new Tamron 150-600mm f5-6.3 Di VC USD lens to use on my Canon 5D Mark III. I mainly shoot landscape and nature photography, and this lens was an upgrade from my Canon 300mm F4 L lens mainly for use on birds and other wildlife. The zoom range may also come in useful for me for more distant storm and lightning photography.

I was nervous to try out the new Tamron lens…

I’ve just returned from a hike in the Katherine region known as the Jatbula trail - a combined photo-trip/remote camping getaway! This walk is the first multi-day bush walk I’ve done in years and the first one my partner had ever done. The first thing I have to say about the Jatbula is that it was AWESOME! We loved it! The walk was really interesting and travelled through a variety of Top End habitats. Maybe we appreciated the varying landscape a little more than an interstate or overseas visitor, as we could really notice the smaller differences in the vegetation and the types of habitat as we were a little more familiar with the area.

We travelled through open woodlands on top of the escarpment, where we saw some amazing open views across hills, cliffs and buttes. There were monsoon pockets, bushfire-burnt regions, 2-metre high grasses, mushy marshy floodplains, amazing rock formations and colours, creek crossings and some of the best waterfalls I’ve seen in the Top End. We saw so many birds too (but thankfully only one snake and no face-to-face encounters with buffalo)!

For anyone considering walking the trail…

Last weekend was a public holiday here in the Northern Territory, and due to our light rain levels this year the Kakadu rangers and road-workers managed to get the awesome Gunlom pools open to visitors…

I am travelling overseas for six weeks, leaving on Sunday. By the time I return to Darwin, the wet season will be well and truly over and we'll be in to the start of another awesome dry season! Mindil Beach markets will be back on, and life will be hectic for another season. So, I thought I would take a couple of days to get some shots of the Katherine region….

A branch-i-licious bolt from tonight's storm….

Tonight's sunset from Darwin's Lameroo Beach…

And then, it passed.... And threw a few small CG's out as it went by:

The country surrounding Darwin has more than its fair share of waterfalls. Our landscape is patterned with rivers and rapids, gorges and escarpment. Our landscape goes through extreme seasonal changes: whilst our waterfalls are perfect for a refreshing dip in the dry season (as long as they are crocodile free, of course), they become a deathly torrent of raging flood waters in the wet season. Our waterfalls are some of our most loved attractions - loved by tourists and locals alike. So how do you go about photographing these natural wonders….

This is a question I get asked regularly, and there really is no answer (sorry!). The answer depends on you, what sort of landscapes you like shooting, what other gear you have, the environment you shoot in.... the list goes on….

Darwin will always hold a very, very special place with me - it is where I first became inspired to learn about taking landscape photos.

Don't worry, I'm not leaving town! I have many years to come, of photographing the NT. But I am very excited about getting out in to some new territory….

I know I haven't posted my "one's that got away" (my unseen photos) from November and December - that's because things with Christmas have been SO hectic I've not had time to take any photos, really. I think I only posted around 5 shots on Facebook for the month of December (usually around 30).

As most of you who follow me on Facebook will know, things have been a bit hectic recently and I have had very little time to get away to take photos. My partner and I decided to grab one night away whilst we could, before the Christmas rush starts! We left Darwin at around 5am, to get to Robin Falls (near Adelaide River, NT) for dawn. We were a little bit late, but turned out to be near perfect timing - we walked along the creek to the falls, arriving when the light was shining perfectly on the rock face. Bad news was, there was absolutely no water in it!…

Over the last few weeks, I have lost count the amount of people that have asked me "how do you take photos of lightning?".... It is a hard question to answer! I think my questioners expect a quick one or two sentence answer.... but it's not that easy (as anyone who has tried, will know).

Sure there is "luck" - a lot of the time you have to be in the right place at the right time. Sometimes it just so happens that you have a camera with you when out and about, a storm hits, and you get that "lightning shot" - you've got that one shot, and people think it's easy to get lightning bolts in photos. The challenge is getting another one.....

I have been meaning to announce this for a while - but time kept getting away from me, and all of a sudden it's nearly time.... after ten months in the making!

My first Coffee Table Book is due to be released next week!!