Hi all,

  Kelly and I have returned from an extended stay in Australia and a week in New Zealand.  I was impressed by quite a few things on our trip.  The gum trees, especially the ghost gums, were beautiful.  The landscape ranged from mountains to desert.  It included the bush and the beach.  The oceans (Pacific and Indian) were beautiful and the color of the water was spectacular.

  The single most impressive object was Uluru (formerly called Ayers Rock).  It was a huge, and I do mean huge, rock in the middle of the desert.  It was a 6 mile walk around the base.  The sunsets were spectacular there as was the night sky.  

The city of Sydney was wonderful as are the people of Australia.  However, as a photographer, one thing stood out above all.  And that is the light, especially the evening light of Australia.  It was golden.  It was like some sort of golden maple syrup was poured over everything.  I am told that the ozone layer above Australia is gone so maybe that has something to do with it.  It also, I am told, is so rich because of Australia's distance from the equator.  Whatever the reason, it was beautiful.

Ok, you may ask.  Where are the pictures of this wonderful light?  Well, I have been putting some on my personal facebook account so if you are on facebook, you can see them there.  The problem is that I took about 7800 images.  And that doesn't count the videos.  I am working on them day by day.  I have the first cut done and am choosing through the second culling.  The work only begins when you take the shot.

The trip reminded me that photography is about line, shape, color, and form.  However, above all, it is about light.  Good light can turn a good composition into a great image.  It can be the subject of the shot.  It can bring life to textures and depth to your image.  The light is the thing.  Look for light and use it to say what you want to say.

I will continue to work on choosing shots and editing them.  This all takes time, but be assured, I will have a set of shots from Australia when I have chosen a manageable amount.  Until then, look at the light.