Through My Lens

By admin / January 31, 2026

“How does a hobby like photography intensify?
From a casual curiosity… to, In my case, a slow immersion into too many extraordinary landscapes.
From a simple desire to record that which you observe… to the quiet, irresistible realisation: you want to share it…to do it justice…

The light changes, shadows move, colours unfold—and suddenly your camera feels too small, too limited, too ordinary. The images you want to capture, demand more: more control, more fidelity, more subtlety. It’s not just about equipment. It’s about presence. And presence requires attention.

The Colorado Plateau is the kind of place that rewards attention. Stretching across more than 130,000 square miles of the American West, it touches five states, spans countless epochs of time, and holds the greatest concentration of U.S. National Parks—Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands, Arches, Black Canyon, Mesa Verde—each a chapter in a story too vast for a single frame.

Over more than a decade living in southern Utah, my wife and I returned again and again to these magnificent venues, following the sun, storms, and subtle shifts of shadow across cliffs and mesas. My camera became a companion, and through its lens I gathered over 25,000 images, each one a meditation on scale, colour, and silence.

These photographs are not meant for hurried scrolling. They are meant to be opened, expanded, explored. To feel the depth of the canyons, the sweep of desert light, the delicate texture of sandstone and sky—look beyond your phone. Let them breathe on a screen large enough to hold the land itself.

Step closer. Take your time. The Plateau is patient. And so, in its presence, you’ll become patient too”.

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Where it all started…

“When we first went to the United States we had decided to change from our Windows computer platform of fifteen years to the Mac computer system.” I purchased a 15” Macbook Pro plus extra RAM and a 27” iMac i7 also with extra RAM and an external G-Raid drive. At the same time I bought a Nikon D5000 DSLR with a couple of extra lenses.

I was also interested in updating my aging Video gear and purchased Sony’s HXR-NX5U. This was Sony’s first NXCAM camcorder and a landmark in the transition from tape to memory recording. It was nothing short of superb at the time! Those two puchases lasted about two years by which time I had learned what was meant by ‘pixel peeping’ (In photographer’s terms Pixel Peeping is the process of always loooking to see how sharp an image is!) and I wanted to take a next step to better match the capabilities of my 27” iMac computer which had the super sharp 5K Retina display.

Nikon had just brought out a full size sensor (FX) in their Nikon D600 and I just had to have one. I purchased a 70-300mm FX lens together with the FX 24-85mm and then a bit later the hefty FX Sigma 12 – 24mm wide angle zoom. I must have been lucky as all three lenses were extremely sharp. The only negative aspect of these purchases was the shutter/oil problem with the D600. I cleaned the sensor a few times but ended up sending the camera back to Nikon for their service update to fix the problem.

Three weeks later my camera came back with a new shutter module and a new upgrade to the camera’s firmware. This problem with the D600 was a major issue for Nikon whose only way past it was to update the camera to the D610. We all know how negatives stick but I have to say my camera has been superb since the update.”

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“In our first year in the USA we travelled more than 12,000 miles across ten states glorying in the western side of the country”. We visited major national parks and forests, climbed snow covered mountains and camped by rivers and lakes. We visited museums and ghost towns from the old west. Historic towns, big cities and tiny towns littered our particular pathway through this incredibly diverse country. Within those few states, we started to develop a ‘homing pigeon’ mentality and southern Utah started to shine for us. In that state we visited Zion Canyon National Park several times and fell in love with Monument Valley of ‘so many movies’ fame and also The Grand Canyon and Yellowstone National Park……wild and beautiful places.

During our travels, the town of St. George, in the southwestern corner of Utah, seemed to beckon us to go house hunting. Houses all over the United States are, by Aussie standards, incredibly low priced! We found a detached brick house with tiled roof, covered patio and two-car garage in a small 55+ walled community of 43 houses. It was situated in a newer part of town with major shops, restaurants and a new, highly rated, hospital all within walking distance. The town was also surrounded on all sides by mountain scenery.

A pretty amazing find, especially when the price was around a quarter of the price of a similar home in Brisbane, Australia. We moved in during the month of August, bought some nice furniture and attempted to shake off our wanderlust. Winter was not too far away! They tell us that if it snows in St George, it is usually melted away by lunchtime. We know that wherever you become acclimatized, summer is always hot and winter is still cold, but we think this town is one of America’s best kept secrets. Then, with the onslaught of a mild northern hemisphere winter, our southern Utah temperatures were dropping, echoing a unity with the migratory habits of our human snowbirds, those members of our particular 76,000+ population who, at this seasonal juncture, go south in search of warmer climes.

The bright oranges, warm reds and gorgeous golds of our very special American Fall time (Autumn) are all too briefly upon us, tempting us with photographic opportunities at the turn of every corner. Such is the wild and natural, but short-lived beauty, bestowed on this mountain valley town by the regulatory behaviour of the four seasons. The mowing guys who descend upon our small estate each Monday morning, stop at our entrance and survey the extra work the Fall has demanded of them. Countless spent and crinkled leaves, scattered by the soft breezes, create a carpet of warm pastel colors beckoning the men’s broad leaf rakes into action. As they survey the picturesque landscape, the thought of this extra toil is softened by the less intense mowing regime that the approaching winter brings to the nearly dormant grass.

In a time gone by, the ‘fathers’ of this semi desert region, had seen a need for its settlers to ‘green’ and beautify the arid landscape of this area which would become St. George, Utah. As with any desert region, water is a most valuable resource without which a town cannot survive and flourish. The Virgin River, a sparkling streak of silver, glistens in the sunlight as its waters meander from the snow capped peaks around Zion Canyon, forty miles away. The river continues through several small towns carrying its life preserving sustenance to St George and to many pastures and farmlands of gently lowering altitudes.

Having a constant water supply has allowed for the installation of irrigation systems on every road and highway, throughout shopping centers, parks and domestic gardens. An emerald swathe of green lawns and trees populate the view across the landscape that is St. George.

The strong green colors of the parkland scenery augment the incredibly multicolored mountains and bluffs that are the backdrop to a landscape that attracts artists and photographers to the town. In any direction and at any time of the day the angle of the sun paints vivid pinks, reds and yellows as it draws the color out of the rich and varied sandstone.

The many walkways and hiking trails around this relatively new town have some of their starting points at some place along the reaches of the Virgin River. The dog walkers, cyclists and the exercise conscious, have all been catered for on this two lane, mile-marked paved cycle track provided by a forward thinking town municipal. In so many areas, new buildings of all shapes, sizes and colors have sprung up, not crammed in by tight town planning control but utilizing the plentiful space and placing their own varied, but distinctive styles, into the overall landscape.

St George’s topography is also very special when viewed as part of the bigger picture that, on driving between two and six hours, reaches Las Vegas or Reno, Los Angeles, San Diego, Salt Lake City, Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona. All towns immortalized by song writers of our recent past.

“So this was home for the foreseeable future…. comfortable, inexpensive and beautiful! We never thought retirement would be like this!”

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If one asks the question, “What is retirement?” or “What does it mean to retire?”, the varied answers can be surprisingly complex.

For some, it is a question so profound in its depth that they pause to consider it very carefully. Others may see it as a meaningless exercise or an attempt to pry into an unplanned future. Still others have no answer at all and look toward retirement with a quiet sense of dread.

For many people, this major life transition—from a work-centred existence to a more self-directed phase focused on personal meaning, freedom, and new pursuits—is also about finding new purpose or structure in daily life.

It can also reshape how people see themselves. For decades their identity may have been defined by a profession—teacher, engineer, pilot, or business owner. Retirement therefore becomes a shift away from that work-defined role toward something more personal: traveller, volunteer, hobbyist, grandparent, mentor, writer, artist, and so on.

When I think about my own transition—from contract builder to a more uncertain financial future—I remember feeling both apprehension and a quiet longing for the unfettered personal lifestyle that retirement promised.

‘Footsteps Through Time’ brings past journeys into the present through photos and stories. Over many years of travel, countless places left their mark — some vast and dramatic, others quiet and unexpected. The following slideshows share those moments as they were experienced along the way.

Please click a slideshow ‘Image’

Your thoughts or reflective comments are welcomed and encouraged

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