Misty Sunrise Trees - Belayu Valley

This is one of my favourite shots. I love the way the golden light streams through the leaves of this palm tree creating the crepuscular rays which are accentuated by the early morning mist, setting the palm leaves and rice stalks on fire. This was taken with the previously mentioned ladies bathing river behind me.

Lovely Terraces in Penebel (colour)

These lovely terraces are in Penebel. I love the shapes of the fields around this location and I found the image worked equally well in monochrome and colour. Which is your favourite?

Astonishing Terraces, Penebel

Sometimes the magnificence of rice paddies and terraces is simply breathtaking.

My Green Valley - Mengwi

This is another of my all time favourite images. Captured just as the sun was rising to catch the tops of the palm trees on the left and before the heat haze had obscured the mountains in the far distance. Very few tourists ever get to see this view, even though it is not far from the water temple at Mengwi. It's my Secret Valley and I like to keep it that way!

Batukaru Mountain View from Jatiluwih

One morning I set off before 4am to drive to Jatiluwih with my camera and tripod. This view was well off the beaten track, and it was a precarious and sometimes quite scary descent through and around the rice terraces. When I came upon this scene I was transfixed. I knew I had to capture this image because the scene captured me. Later that year, I submitted it to a local photographic competition and it won first prize! Mt. Batukaru, Bali's second highest mountain, is on the left.

The River Where the Ladies Bathe

This beautiful scene greets us at the location where we park our car when we walk in Belayu Valley. In the early morning and before dusk, this is where the ladies of the village gather to wash themselves and their clothes. I was lucky to be there sufficiently early on this particular morning to capture it without people. It would not be polite to shoot them when they’re bathing.

The Heart Trees - Belayu Valley

I went to this location over several days because I absolutely loved the Heart Trees in the flooded rice paddies. This image was captured in the afterglow of the sunset.

Ketut And The Heart Trees, Belayu

Pak Ketut pushing his antique bicycle along the track in the rice paddies on his way to work in his fields. Shot at dawn, I particularly like the way the trees form a heart by virtue of their reflection in the waters revealed by the sparsity of the newly planted rice shoots.

Nice Trees and Shed

Another image looking north along a path in Belayu Valley, which I particularly like. I have shot this scene several times and it is especially pretty at sunrise. The shed contains a cow and her calf.

Belayu Starburst Rice Field Sunrise

I don’t know why some photographic professionals deride lens flare but I really love it in this image. Another of my favourite photographic subjects, this cow shed, palm trees and reflective rice paddies.

Mud River Paddy

This very unusual rice paddy runs along the side of a valley in one of my favourite locations. My ‘Amphitheatre’ photograph was taken close by. I love the way this field looks like a meandering river and is very reminiscent of scenes from the UK from when I was a child.

Sunflower Mountain View

This is along one of our favourite routes in Desa Tunjuk. The large mountain in the background is Gunung Batukaru which is Bali’s second highest mountain. We are friends with the farmer who grows the sunflowers. His day job is headmaster of the local young-children’s school but his passion is growing flowers. He always does us a great deal too!