Wanderer returns

I like how the lamp resembles the sun...or maybe the moon!

Desert Island Coral

Tideline

Mangrove fruit on a deserted island
Northern Territory Coastal Waters

Scuttle!

Some beach biota

Forest kingfisher

Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark...

Crossing the Bar, Alfred Tennyson

Nabulwinjbulwinj....go on, try to pronounce it!

Dangerous spirit who eats females after striking them with a yam.
Seriously, hitting chicks with a yam?

Landscape

The ancient landscape of the wet-dry tropics. Ubirr - Kakadu National Park

Rock Formations

I loved the look of these rocks, they almost look like sinking ships

Typically Australian

Mataranka, NT Australia

Wallaby

Katherine Gorge, NT Australia

Apostlebirds

mean looking creatures, but funny!
They get their name from their tendency to hang out in groups of about twelve

Litoria meriana

Jim Jim Falls, Kakadu - Australia

Butterfly mirror

Symmetry in nature

Space Age Views

A very retro set of binoculars, Darwin Australia

Waterfall

everybody take a picture!

Northern Territory birdlife

I lived in Northern Australia for about 12 years in total, and spent a lot of that time out in the bush, surrounded by amazing colours, diverse nature and raw beauty. I was always interested in photography, and have had a camera kicking around for as long as I can remember but like a lot of people the cost of film could be a bit offputting when you were still working it all out.
I had so much fun cramming in 13 lost years into a one month holiday, but at the same time I quite regretted that I hadn't go into photography earlier. It was amazing to see how much easier it is to photograph wild birds in Australia as compared with Europe. All of these shots used nothing more powerful than a 200mm lens and a bit of cropping.



Striated pardalote - open eucalypt woodland, Litchfield National Park



Egret at Yellow waters wetland. Kakadu National Park



White bellied sea eagle along the coastal mangroves



Sulphur crested cockatoo in a flowering woollybutt tree


Whiskered tern
Lame joke from the boat guide:
Why do you always see terns in pairs?
Because one good tern deserves another (groan)

Life's a beach

Life's a beach, originally uploaded by Nyx.

I have to admit that this isn't a very original idea as far as photos go - it's pretty holiday brochure material! But it was a reason to test out my new polarizing filter on an Australian tropical beach.

Sunset

Sunset 1, originally uploaded by Nyx.

A beautiful sunset but a frustrating photo when it came down to capturing the true colours. The water was a very vibrant turquoise, and the sky a very vivid pink - it seemed that I could either capture the water colours or the sky, but not both...

To the beach

Genius, originally uploaded by Nyx.

I've been to the mindil beach markets so many dozens of times, but on this one occasion I visited as a real 'tourist' and snapped the things I must have walked by without noticing so often before.

Sunset and palms

Sunset and palms, originally uploaded by Nyx.

A typical tropical sunset

Don't drive on the grass

Humourous photo of the day, originally uploaded by Nyx.

Only in Australia!
Mostly it's just a humour shot, but I also like the long shadow patterns.

green ants brigade

green ants brigade, originally uploaded by Nyx.

The detail that makes this shot for me is the angry ant right in the middle

Simplicity

Gratuitous desktop wallpaper image, originally uploaded by Nyx.

It's certainly a drag that nature images such as this one, however beautiful, ultimately come across a bit 'desktop wallpaper'.

ibis

ibis, originally uploaded by Nyx.

Another chance to use a polarising filter - definitely comes in handy in the harsh Australian light. I am finding, however, a much larger colour variation in the photos I took with this filter on different computers. If the monitor isn't calibrated right they come out too blue, too dark, or both...

Forced macro

dragonfly, originally uploaded by Nyx.

Using a non-macro lens to take a macro shot is difficult to say the least! It certainly isn't as close in as a standard macro shot, but it was a chance to test the limits of my telephoto lens in taking pictures of small objects

chasing butterflies

chasing butterflies, originally uploaded by Nyx.

In its original state, this photo was pretty flat, but at the same time the blurriness seemed to really convey the flighty silliness of a little girl chasing butterflies. With the contrast levels giving highly saturated colours, the image worked much better overall and I was able to salvage what would've been a throwaway picture in its original state.