The year started with a short trip to the Victorian High Country, with time at both Mount Buffalo and Mount Hotham.

We visited the USA for a three-week road trip to parts of California, Arizona & Utah during the northern hemisphere spring.

The first stop of this road trip was Joshua Tree National Park, which was very rewarding to photograph, as there were plenty of interesting looking Joshua Trees, Yuccas and rounded boulders. The next stop was the correctly named Grand Canyon, where we made a mistake of staying in Flagstaff, which meant very long and boring drives to visit the Grand Canyon, albeit that did allow for detours through Wupatki and Sunset Crater Volcano National Monuments. On the way to Monument Valley we stopped briefly at the fascinating Navajo National Monument, before arriving in time to do the Monument Valley Loop Drive, which apart from the initial descent from the carpark was not as bad as I had read. Staying within the Navajo Nation, the next stop was at Page to visit the crowded Horseshoe Bend of the Colorado River and the much anticipated Antelope Canyon. As Antelope Canyon X was the only tour to still allow photographers with tripods, they were the natural choice and both the canyon and our tour guide were outstanding.

Leaving Arizona and heading north to Utah the next National Park to be visited was Bryce Canyon, where the next couple of sunrises were spent, with a short walk at Kodachrome Basin in between. Bryce Canyon marked the furthest point on our circuit, so making our way back west, Zion National Park was the next stop. The bright spring greens and flowers floating through the air of the main canyon at Zion was a contrast to the eastern side of the park, which was more barren, although not in any way less beautiful or photogenic. The penultimate stop was at Death Valley, where the daytime temperatures were already quite high, which affected my photography with a heat shimmer visible. Finally making our to the Owens Valley to photograph both the Eastern Sierras and White Mountains.

In November we visited Japan for two weeks and spent around five of those days photographing around the Japanese Alps and Kiso Valley. Some of these places were awash with vibrant warm autumn colours and others were too early or late. The popular Kamikochi valley in Chūbu-Sangaku National Park was worth the crowds, with the larches glowing yellow and while the various waterfalls and forests we visited were never completely empty of other people there was plenty of solitude amongst nature to be found. The non photography portion of the trip was spent sampling delicious food in Takayama, Osaka and Kobe.

Locally, the Illawarra coast remained my most frequently visited spot, with conditions ranging from vivid sunrises to unexpected clear blue skies.