PASTORALE

One of those typical medieval style country villages full of quaint lanes and half timbered houses, Chilham has become one of my favourite spots to visit on a lazy sunny Sunday afternoon. There are also pretty extensive walking tracks around the village as it's part of the South Downs Way. This quaint summer scene of grazing sheep and ripening apples was just too perfect.

FNQ

During my latest trip to Australia, I went on a quick 5 day dash over to far North Queensland. I haven't been here since I was a kid, and on the itinerary was a tour of the Atherton region, the Daintree and a bit of Barrier Reef action. Although the weather was mostly cold and overcast (well, except for in those first couple of pictures...) it was a pretty fun excursion...aside from the gut heaving excursion out to the reef which left half a boatload of passengers being violently ill, myself included (check out my sexy sea legs).

KINGS OF THE ROAD

Road trains are the most common forms of goods transport in Australia. Huge trucks cover large distances every week, and travel the length and breadth of the country.

UBIRR

It's been years since I've been out to Kakadu. Even when I was living in Darwin I'd gotten out of the habit of taking trips down the track, apart from the odd visit to Litchfield. To be honest I'd completely forgotten how amazing Kakadu can be.

CHILLED IN KATHERINE

Normally the north Australian dry season has warm sunny days you can set your watch by, years in advance. However this year was an exception to this rule and my jaunt to Mataranka and Katherine was mostly overshadowed by...well...a blanket of grey clouds. And not only clouds but ridiculously cold weather to boot (cue me and a few hundred other chilled souls ransacking the Target dept store in Katherine for some cold weather wardrobe accessories). I tried my hardest to avoid jersey fabric, but ultimately the inevitable happened.

KAKADU BIRDS

Striated pardalote - open eucalypt woodland, Litchfield National Park

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.

BURNING SEASON

Every year from around May until July is when most of the annual burning is done in the Top End. Once a landscape that was managed according to a long and unbroken tradition by the indigenous peoples of this nation, these days it's more of a ramshackle affair that tries to tie in modern science, traditional knowledge, diverse land practices and the problem of increased fuel loads from invasive grasses.

KENTISH

Well the last few weeks have been a bit of a blur! Between getting a job in the UK, going to Australia, finding some temporary digs (currently living in an uninsulated closet sized room for the next few months until I find something more long-term suitable), buying a car, having said car turn into a lemon before I even got it home, spending a fortune on getting the car fixed and plotting revenge on the scammy bastard who sold it to me, worrying about the puppy I left behind (it'll be a few months before I can bring him over), trying to get my laundry dry and learning a gazillion new things at my place of work (including how to go about fixing the database system that underpins about 50% of the work I have to do) - well, I have found a little time for eating and sleeping...