stars – ptanphoto

Stars before the moonrise

June 11, 2017Posted in Landscape Photography, Photography, Travel PhotographyTagged astrophotography, Australia, Batemans Bay, NSW, stars, travel2 Comments

We are lucky to have escaped the relentless rain in Sydney. Down south in Batemans Bay for the long weekend, where we went kayaking with dolphins, and spied the tell tale spouts of whales in the distance, and also snorkeled the bracing waters of Guerilla Bay.

It’s the full moon this weekend, but we had an hour between dusk and the moon rise, so we made the most of it by heading the to quiet cove to drink in the stars. The last of the clouds had dissipated, and overhead, the milky way shone through, brightly. In the horizon, we could make out the faint red glow of the still hidden moon. Life is beautiful.

Camping in the Blue Mountains

May 29, 2016May 29, 2016Posted in Landscape Photography, Photography, Travel PhotographyTagged astrophotography, Blackheath, Blue Mountains, camping, Katoomba, Lithgow, Lithgow glow worm tunney, milky way, NSW, outdoors, photography, stars, SydneyLeave a comment

Since we’d planned to meet our friends at the Three Sisters Lookout at Echo Point in the Blue Mountains bright and early Sunday, we decided to make a weekend camping trip out of it. The extra time allowed us to make the drive to check out the glow worm tunnel over in Lithgow. It’s a short trek, or at least we chose the short route, but we didn’t realize that the 30km drive to the start of the trail was over a dirt track, so by the time we arrived, it was close to sunset already. No matter, we were armed and ready with our headlamps.

Woot. Happy to have finally shot the glow worms. They’re quite a bit smaller than the species in New Zealand though.

Perrymans Lookdown Astrophotography-5252 — It had been raining and overcast most of the day, but the stars finally came out to play at night. The lookout at the start of the Perrymans Lookdown trail

Perrymans Lookdown Camping-5268 — Our campsite at Perrymans Lookdown. Brr, we’re no longer used to the cold. It went down to 1 deg C at night. In our previous life in Chicago, that would have been positively balmy!

We met up with two of our friends bright and early at Echo Point, then decided to do the short trek down to Wentworth Falls.

Weekend in the Blue Mountains

September 14, 2015September 14, 2015Posted in Landscape Photography, Photography, Travel PhotographyTagged astrophotography, Blue Mountains, friends, hiking, Jenolan Caves, NSW, photography, stars, Sydney, travel1 Comment

This past weekend, I did a girls’ trip with two old friends to the Blue Mountains for a spot of hiking and just plain old good times together. We hiked the gorgeous Grand Canyon route and the crowded Three Sisters lookout.

In the evening, they indulged me in some astro photography, and patiently posed for over an hour as I struggled to get the composition just so. 😀

On Sunday, we also made the drive out to Jenolan Caves where we did a 1.5 hour tour of the Orient system, and then a stroll along the river where we chanced by a wallaby and its joey calming munching on grass by the banks.

I loved every bit of the trip. Thank you for all the memories.

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