Photography e-Book Review: Brian Rope
Wandering in Australia – the
journey continues | Pele
Leung
Publisher: Pele Leung
Photography
Chinese Edition first published
2025
English Edition translated by DeepSeek AI in 2025
Pele Leung has travelled extensively in Australia chasing images and interesting travel stories. He considers writing to be one of the best ways to complement his photography.
This e-Book is volume 2 of a two-volume product. The first volume Wandering in Australia – the journey begins has previously been reviewed. Both volumes are available in Chinese and English language versions. He writes “Over 20,000 kilometres of tarmac, dirt tracks and roadless wilderness were conquered in pursuit of the perfect frame, with no hour too early nor terrain too harsh when the light demanded it.”
This time we learn about uninvited guests, a blessing in disguise, new friends, fortune’s favour, and a chance encounter. We see and read about paddle steamers, snorkelling on the reef, autumn in Eden, and lava tubes. And much more.
There are beautiful images of small Lake Fyans, near Halls Gap in Victoria.
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| Lake Fyans, VIC |
There’s a classic image of the artistically hand-painted VW beetle outside John Dynon’s art studio/gallery in the outback New South Wales town of Silverton.
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| Silverton, NSW |
Writing about a Tasmanian Wilderness, Leung tells how the authorities have “carved a 60-kilometre scenic drive dotted with lookout points.” Trowutta Arch's sinkhole and Lake Chisholm's mirrored waters stood out for him.
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| Trowutta Arch, TAS |
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| Lake Chisholm, TAS |
The artist tells us a story about a family holiday that included a high-speed boat tour along the southeastern Tasmanian coast. As they approached Cape Hauy, the boat “slowed beneath towering 100-metre cliffs that loomed with intimidating grandeur.” Another visit years later saw him hike to the Cape and take a rather different, but special, selfie.
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| Cape Hauy, TAS |
At Mount Buffalo National Park in Victoria, he did the fifteen-minute climb from car park to The Horn - a granite sentinel crowning Mount Buffalo. Later that day, an unbroken cloud ceiling turned the water of Lake Catani into a dull mirror “serviceable for documentation, but devoid of magic.”
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| Lake Catani, Mount Buffalo NP, VIC |
In the Northern Territory, Leung visited Uluru and captured another most interesting image of himself and the world-famous rock from the sunset viewing area, the rock glowing in the special light.
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| Uluru, NT |
Nearby, at the equally wonderful Kata Tjuta, Leung embarked on the hiking trail known as “The Valley of the Winds” walk, having been warned that entering the valley proper requires scrambling up a steep slope on all fours. He captured some beautiful images of “a secluded world where desert oaks clustered between towering red walls”, then some striking shadow shots in “an amphitheater of stone”.
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| Walpa Gorge, Kata Tjuta NP, NT |
A visit to Cairns in Queensland “revealed an unexpected delight - a volcanic lake whose surface shifted between glassy calm and rippled texture, like a living Monet painting where reality and reflection became indistinguishable.”
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| Lake Eacham, Crater Lakes NP, QLD |
And, in the Blue Mountains National Park in New South Wales, Leung explored the photogenic vistas of the Grand Canyon Track; the dim forest light demanding tripod use.
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| Grand Canyon Track, Blue Mountains NP, NSW |
Both e-Book volumes can be purchased on Leung’s website, peleleung.com. He is on Facebook at peleleungphotography and has videos on his YouTube channel @peleleung2688, including one about Wandering in Australia.
I will conclude by sharing the closing words Leung has overlaid on a beautiful water’s edge image:
Sleep's gentle tide crept o'er me slow,
As zephyrs through the pines did flow.
My eyelids drooped with gathering mist,
Where mountain vapours curled and kissed.
Towering firs stood sentinel tall,
Whilst blooms did grace the forest hall.
Before me stretched a winding track -
A thread to heaven's pearly rack.
Peak on peak in endless train,
While larks in azure vaults remain.
The cataract's thunderous refrain
Echoed through each rock-bound lane.
This earthly paradise so fair,
Yet proved but vapour, light as air -
One faltering step, and down I spun,
From dream-clad heights to waking sun.
This review is also available on
the author's blog here.