Taken whilst visiting Litchfield, Northern Territory, Australia. These guys were everywhere. Anyone know their scientific name? My super brainy friend, Smathi, tells me this one is a Painted Grasshawk, Neurothemis stigmatizans stigmatizans – male.

The Mindil Beach Markets is a Thursday night tradition for tourists to Darwin. There one can find everything from Gypsy Jewels to Roadkill Tucker – yes, food made from roadkill (emu, kangaroo, lizard, etc). By far the biggest Darwin market, there are lots of nibbles, arts, and crafts. Good fun for the first several visits.

This photo was taken in August 2008 when we did a 4,500 km drive from Adelaide to Darwin. This particular spot was near one of the Mataranka Thermal Pools, a couple of natural hot springs about 420km south of Darwin. If you ever have the chance to visit Mataranka (population 400) there really isn’t much else to do but swim these springs, but they are worth the visit. They are a constant 32 – 34 degrees Celsius year round. The water is crystal clear, and there are only fresh water crocodiles, not the life threatening salties – they don’t like warm water, apparently.

On our way up from Adelaide to Darwin (4,000km!) we visited Ayer’s Rock. This picture was taken on the first day we visited, just as the sun was receding.

During this first night, we went cheapo and camped at the resort. Unfortunately my air-mattress went flat, and it was an uncomfortable night. What did we do? We booked into the most expensive room at the resort the next day! Woohoo!

The Olgas are a group of rock formations near Uluru. For such a well frequented tourist destination, I was surprised that I had never heard of them before – I only learnt about them when we were at Uluru, and they were in the background.

Taken on our American trip. If any New Yorkers could kindly tell me which bridge, it would be much appreciated. Looking at the EXIF, this was not bad for a hand held photo on a boat at 1/25!

Taken on an autumn day a couple of years ago when we visited New York. This park must be fantastic for the local residents. I guess we often take our parks for granted, coming from the ”City of Gardens” where parklands are an integral part of the infrastructure (our parklands are three times the size of Central Park, even though the city is much smaller).

I think it is a sea sponge, although I stand to be corrected. Taken whilst walking around Henley Beach, near my house. I was specifically beach-combing that day, after reading Chromasia.

A winter night at Henley Jetty. I was so impressed with Henley Beach that I later bought a house near here.

A juicy succulent found at mom’s house whilst testing out the then new (now sold) Nikkor 70-300mm lens.