Back in February 2009, myself and 2 friends (Andrew Catsaitis and Andrew Murrell) met up at Sommersby Falls on the Central Coast of NSW for a photo expedition after a lot of heavy rain in recent days.

Only a month earlier, the three of us were again at Sommersby Falls, but this photo session was much better – the light was brilliant, the falls were flowing with much more water after a few days of heavy rain, and it even started raining heavily on us while we were there. It made for some tricky shots at times, trying to juggle the umbrella to keep the camera dry, while framing and focusing and at times, being almost knee deep in water!

Somersby Falls

For some reason I didn’t finish processing these at the time, and now, 10 months later, I finally made the time to finish processing these – and I’m glad I did. These are my best ever photos of Sommersby Falls.

Over the Ledge

In the next day or two, my favourites from the set will be available to purchase on RedBubble. Please contact me if what you’re looking for isn’t there, or if you need a digital file.

Bottom Falls Cascade

Please continue on to check out all 24 photos, and click on each image to see a larger less compressed version.

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On the morning of the 17th September 2009, I was headed out to Terrigal beach on a lovely clear pre-dawn morning to photograph the conjunction of the Moon and Venus.

When the sky became too bright for the conjunction, I took advantage of the lovely colours of the dawn to capture some images of the sunrise and a few impromptu waterfalls as large waves crashed over the rock ledges near by.

Terrigal Sunrise. Click image to see a larger version.

The pre-dawn colours were magnificent, as they reflected off the surface water on the rock ledges.

Dawn Waterfall Colours. Click image for a larger version.

Please continue reading to see the rest of the images from the session.

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Hi all

Back on the 17th September 2009, there was a lovely dawn conjunction of Venus and the Crescent Moon. I woke up early and was greeted to some beautiful clear skies, so I headed out to Terrigal to capture the pairing.

Click each image to see a 1200px wide version.

Venus and Crescent Moon at Terrigal. Click for larger image.

The data has been sitting on my hard drive for almost 3 months waiting to be processed, but I finally managed to find some time to finish them off. And I’m glad I did – I’m happy with how they turned out.

Continue reading to see all of the conjunction images captured in the twilight glow.

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Hi all

This image shows the Orion Constellation in its natural environment. It’s a widefield vista showing all the major components, including Betelgeuse, Rigel, the belt stars, M42, the Running Man, the Horsehead and the flame, parts of Barnards Loop and a faint display of IC 2118.

It’s only 35 minutes exposure, with no flats calibration, so it’s not as smooth as I’d hoped, but like all of my IISAC2009 images, it’s given me a glimmer of hope and something to aim for next time.

The Orion Constellation. Click image to see larger version.

The image was taken at IISAC2009, on the Friday night when my USB hub was playing up and I couldn’t control the camera from the laptop. I mounted my Canon 20D and my new 24-105mm L IS f/4.0 lens on top of my ED80 and pointed it at the Orion Constellation.

The exposures were guided through my 80mm refractor and the DMK21AU04, using PHD Guiding. The camera was controlled using the timer remote. The lens was at 47mm f/5.6, and each exposure was 5 minutes. Dark frame subtraction was done in-camera. 7 exposures @ ISO800, 35 minutes total data. No flats.

I’m really pleased with how the 24-105mm lens is performing – it’s a definite keeper and will definitely make a return to this part of the sky in the future.

Thanks for looking.

Hi all

It’s been a long time since I’ve had any images to post – fortunately that’s changing now.

We had some great skies up at Lostock at IISAC2009, and I was able to capture some widefield images and some experimental stuff. This image is the first I’ve had a chance to process since coming back, and it’s my first attempt at “light painting“.

It’s called “Milky Way For Sale” and was taken on Saturday night at IISAC2009. Click the image for a larger version.

Milky Way For Sale. Click image for 1200px wide version.

The Milky Way Galaxy was positioned beautifully above the mountain, and Andrew Catsaitis (RB) and I had a great idea for a novelty shot. Continue reading to find out how this shot was done.

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This image of the Full Moon (well, almost full – it was 99% illuminated) was taken on the 8th May 2009, using my Canon 20D attached to my ED80.

I took 136 photos @ ISO100, 1/125s exposure. All photos were stacked in Registax. The image was processed in Photoshop to reveal the different compositions of the geological formations on the Moon.

Saturated Colour Full Moon. Click for desktop resolution.

Continue reading for more information about the capture and processing of the image.

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I took this image of the 9-day old waxing gibbous Moon on Sunday night, 3rd May 2009.

The image has been colour-enhanced to emphasise the composition differences of geological formations. From APOD:

..blue hues reveal titanium rich areas while orange and purple colors show regions relatively poor in titanium and iron.

The Colour Saturated Moon. Click the image to see the large size.

Continue reading to find out how I captured and processed this image.

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Back in late January, I posted about Preparing for my First Wedding Shoot, and finally it’s time to follow it up with the actual results from the wedding!

The wedding was in early February but a combination of very busy weeks and weekends meant it took longer than I’d hoped to finally get through and process the (literally) hundreds and hundreds of photos that I took at the wedding. 

But they were fnally finished a few weeks ago and now it’s time to talk about what I learned and to present a selection of my favourite photos from the day.

Tanya and Marvin

Please continue reading to see more images and read more stories from the day.

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On the 10th January 2009, my son Jacob’s cub scout group went on a bushwalk through  Bouddi National Park , starting from the top carpark at Maitland Bay, heading down through the bay, up and across the coastline and coming out at Little Beach.

Coastline at Bouddi National Park

It was a nice walk on a  popular bushwalking track. About 5.1km 1-way, we passed a lot of interesting sights, including the shipwreck of the S.S Maitland at Maitland Bay (although the tide wasn’t low enough for us to see much of it) and some lovely trees, flowers and rock formations.

I took my Canon 20D along with me, and this post is just a few photos from the walk which have been sitting on my external hard-drive for too long. So, please read on to see the rest of them.

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For ages last night I sat in bed wondering where to go to photograph this marvellous sight… wondering if it would be cloudy, would it be clear, would the skies provide the same dramatic scenery as I was presented for the Smiley Face Conjunction, would I remember the spare batteries, my tripod, the remote switch, would the alarm wake me up or would I sleep through it?!

Luckily, everything came together for a beautiful morning of photography and I was able to capture some stunning images of the Moon, Jupiter, Mercury and Mars conjunction. 

Moon, Mercury, Jupiter and Mars Conjunction at Dawn

The image above is my favourite from the session, and was taken with the Canon 20D and Sigma 17-70mm lens @ 33mm, f/5.6, 2.0s exposure @ ISO800.

Please continue reading below to see more photos of the conjunction gracing the lovely morning skies.

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