The Sunday Telegraph Feature

It doesn't happen very often that one of my photos ends up in the newspaper but usually I know about it before it gets published. Not so this Sunday. One of my Instagram followers messaged me about my Bay of Fires (Tasmania) Star Trail photo in The Sunday Telegraph. First I was surprised because it came completely out of the blue. Then I got annoyed about them printing my image without permission or even notifying me but once I had a copy of the newspaper in my hand, I realised how they got their hands on my photo. I entered the David Malin Astro Awards a few weeks ago and although my photo didn't make it into the final, they must have liked it and sent it to the newspaper to promote the awards which will be announced in 2 weeks (roadtrip to Parks in regional NSW coming up).

Read the story behind the photo here on my Instagram page or click here for the full screen version

Canon Feature: No One Sees It Like Jan

This came completely out of the blue which made it even more special: Canon Australia featured me in their monthly 'No One Sees It Like [Canon community member]' series in which they showcase 9 photos of one of the Canon Collective member's and ask them to answer a few questions about their photography journey.

I spent 2 long nights answering these questions and trying to come up with something meaningful. The comments below that post then proved it was worth the effort as many people felt inspired by what I said and made them realise it's not always the gear that matters.

Click on Canon's Facebook post below and read the caption next to each of the images to see what I mean.

Thank you, Canon Australia (especially Jenn Cooper)

Autumn Blue Mountains Adventure

After 2 weekends in a row at home, I had to go out on another adventure. I left Sydney Friday night and drove through the Blue Mountains to Lithgow on the other side. After a disappointing sunrise, the real adventure began with a visit of a glow worm tunnel at the end of a 30km dirt road track. In the evening we witnesses and amazing light and fire show in Lithgow as part of the LithGlow Festival. It didn't end there though as the clouds finally opened up at 10pm which allowed us to shoot some astro before we went back to the glow worm tunnel at 1am in the morning. Eventually we managed to catch some sleep at 3am on the backseats of our cars in a car park in Lithgow.

The next morning started with a lovely bit of sunshine. We drove up to Mount Wilson to see how the colours of the leaves in the have changes and to visit one of the famous gardens.

Click here to see the full story and behind-the-scenes photos from this amazing autumn adventure in the Blue Mountains

Vivid 2018 - Featured on Groupon

For the second year in a row, one of my photos was used to promote Groupon Australia's Vivid Shop as a background image to set the tone. Shot from the 25th level of the Shangri-La Hotel Sydney, the photo shows Circular Quay and Sydney's famous icons, the Sydney Harbour Bridge on the left and the Sydney Opera House on the right, with illuminated ferries and commercial vessels cruising around the harbour.

Several of my images have also been used as main images for individual deals as supply for Vivid photos is limited and can't include the Sydney Opera House as the main subject due to their F=filming and photography policy. Luckily there are plenty of other photo opportunities around.

See Groupon's Vivid 2018 Shop here.

Wandoan Photo Challenge 2018 (Results)

While visiting Miles, a small rural town in Queensland 6h west of Brisbane, over the Christmas break, I discovered a flyer on the local notice board for a photo competition in a nearby town. I thought I could give it a go and started to think about possible compositions that look interesting and where taken within a 50km radius around the town, which was part of the conditions of entry. Unfortunately it was too far away from Mile where I was staying to be there for sunrise or sunset or drive out in the middle of the night for astro. However one day on the way back from Banana (a place that really exists 3h north of Miles), we noticed a massive storm on our right while the sun was slowly setting. As soon as we found a good place to stop, I jumped out of the car and took a few snaps of this unusual rain cloud.

Luckily where we stopped was within the 50km radius of Wandoan so I was able to submit this shot into the photo competition. Results were published last week It was well worth the effort as I not only won the 'Places' category but also became 2nd in the People's Choice category. 

Click here for more details: Wandoan Show Facebook post