I was feeling great after a successful afternoon’s shooting the previous day, a relax and a great couple of swims… I was up early and managed to pack up most of my camp at around 5am. I started making coffee and breakfast but decided to set up the camera for a little bit of pre-dawn astro photography as I was so early! I drank coffee and snacked whilst I was shooting several long exposures waiting for the sun to come up.

I didn’t shoot that sunrise from Rocky Gully. The area didn’t excite me in terms of photographic opportunities!

Leaving Rocky Gully that morning I had to wear the fly net again - the second time during the trip. I really think it’s something to do with cattle - the stronger the evidence of cattle (including being able to smell them!), the higher the prevalence of flies! After an hour or so of wearing it, I’d decided it was safe to remove it….. and then proceeded to swallow a fly. Haha!

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….

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….

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).

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.....