Professionally, I am a photographic scientist-astronomer working at the Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO). I am also Adjunct Professor of Scientific Photography at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), specifically the Department of Visual Communication.

I have been at the AAO since 1975, based at the Epping (Sydney) laboratory, with occasional trips to the AAO's two front-line instruments, the 3.9 m Anglo-Australian Telescope and 1.2m UK Schmidt Telescope at Siding Spring, a 500 km drive from Sydney in the beautiful Warrumbungle Mountain Range.

Before I joined the AAO I worked for many years as a chemist, specialising in optical and electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and other techniques for exploring the very small. One of my main interests at that time was photography, both from the scientific perspective and also as a medium for personal expression. That interest has been reinforced in astronomy, and I still enjoy using powerful images to reveal unsuspected aspects of the natural world.

Along the way I have devised novel ways of extracting more information from photographs. These techniques have led to some interesting astronomical discoveries as well as being useful advances in photographic science. They have been incorporated into a method of making a series of unique three-colour astronomical photographs which have been very successful.

These photographs attract thousands of queries a year from around the world. A large part of my time is now taken up with aspects of the administration of these pictures, with the able assistance of Coral Cooksley, who deals with publication queries.

These activities include a busy lecture schedule, mostly in the form of 'popular' public talks as well as travelling exhibitions, media activities and the like. I also try and do some science.

I live on the northern ourskirts of Sydney with my wife Phillipa. Our three 'children', James, and the twins Jenny and Sara now well into in their 20s, have (more-or-less) left home. In our free time my wife and I enjoy music, travelling, exploring Australia's beautiful coastline and working on and around our house, which overlooks one of the arms of Pittwater in Sydney's beautiful Northern Beaches area.

I often get asked about the photographic techniques I have developed, so here is an illustrated technical description which is a quick tour of some of the ideas involved. I have also put together an illustrated bibliography which points to some of the key photographic publications.

More compact listings of publications and other information can be found in :