Nature Clips

The sun rose near Windsor, just north of Sydney. Shot on film with a 16mm Angenieux 9.5mm – 95mm zoom. As the sun climbed and the light got more intense I had to stop right down to F22. This made tiny faults on the surface of the lens visible. It caused the unruly light spots around the main shaf...

Australia's Nullarbor is the plain 'without a tree' – or just one of them. The cloudscape above is more interesting than the landscape below. And those clouds have a say over heat and cold and rain. They make a tree grow and make our moods. They are the actors in the drama of the sky.

We hear a starter gun and the galloping of horses. A race is being run. Money will bet. The winner gets all. But so aloof, the sun keeps rising over outback Australia.
Finally the last horse trots along. No applause, yet a glorious burst of light - for the loser.

The explorer Charles Sturt in 1845 in the very centre of gloomy barrenness “…the most cheerless and the most forbidding of any landscapes our eyes had wandered over..’ With nothing to distract - your thoughts turn inward. The mindscapes of Australia.

Australia's Lake Mulwala. Early morning the clouds turned red announcing the sun. But then they turned dark again: false dawn. Finally there she was, climbing upwards to Bach's glorious music. And Earth turned another day happy and bursting with joy.

Sitting still for 14 hours is no fun. But I was young then. From sunrise of an Australian summer to sunset – sitting behind the camera – staring at a stop watch - clicking 1 frame all now and again – filming the doings of Time: moving shadows while Earth turned in the beam of the Sun at 1670km/ho...

This clip was filmed with an Endoscope – normally used to look into people's stomach or intestines. In this case it is a stretch of Australia's Queensland wilderness.

Darling Harbour is an arm of Sydney Harbour. Heavy traffic and the reflections of a setting sun. The cacophony of motors ends with Bach's famous Toccata & Fugue while the sun disappears into the quiet dark.

Once freed from its duty to write words on paper, this ink showed an amazing ability to listen, and to dance. Slow and fast and different styles. Clever ink.

Earth is a Goldilocks planet with water in its frozen, liquid and gaseous forms. We didn't get the frozen form, but the others are in this clip.
There are 8 thousand million people on Earth. 8 billion. And each ought to drink 3 litres of water every day for good health. A lot of water needed. See...

There were three trees on an Australian Stony Desert, barren from one horizon to the next. And they were dreaming. Because there was nothing else to do.

This video was shot on Sydney's Waverley cemetery. The sun rising behind the stark religious symbols and Gabrieli's music create a strong devotional atmosphere.

Every second, the Sun converts 657 million tons of hydrogen into helium.
That powerhouse makes wind and weather on Earth and lets life live on it.
It took the light 8 minutes to travel the 150 million kilometres (93 206 000 miles) to our 1000mm lens. The red is due to air saturated by smoke parti...

Lake Eyre north and Lake Eyre south, both connected by a 15km channel.
Lake Eyre north is part of Australia's most arid region with an evaporation rate of 2.5 – 3.5m per year (8.2 – 11,5 feet) but a mean annual rainfall of 150mm. It lies 15m (50feet) below sea level and is the largest salt pan i...

Uluru is an 'inselberg' (island mountain), the bit above ground of a rock massif that runs east-west underground and might reach 5000 to 6000m in depth (16 400-19 700ft).
The rock's famous red glow is helped by countless tiny quartz crystals on its surface. They hold a mirror to the sun. A little...

The Macdonnell Ranges belong to the very old landscapes on Earth. Cut up by gorges and without dense vegetation cover the bare rocks show the architecture of oldness. Rubble of millions of years is lying about, of a billion years. Age has added a spiritual dimension to the Macdonnells, intangible...

This was an eerie clip to take, alone among the mighty walls of Hanging Rock. Suddenly they were lit by a far away star. Then shadows wiped over them and night came dark from behind me. Like cosmic forces had attained form and were moving all around me.

Charles Darwin on his visit to the Blue Mountains in 1836: "...It is not easy to conceive a more magnificent spectacle than is presented to a person walking on the summit plains, when, without notice, he arrives at the brink of one of those cliffs … Certainly, the most stupendous cliffs I have ev...

There was a blanket of heavy clouds over Wollomi National Park. Later a few open spots for the sun. Then more War and Peace in the Australian sky. Plus rain – in freezing winter. To protect the camera I had to shed some clothing. It gave me coughs and sneezes.

Jacques Offenbach's 'Barcarolle' is intensely romantic, and an early morning farm yard is intensely not so. Yet, the cows seemed to like it - and cooperated on the musical cues.

We hear the dreaded sound of an alarm clock - and are evicted to 8 hours in the office. These ones are in Sydney's CBD, the sun climbing and looking in.

On Benelong Point jutting into the harbour. The design with those eyecatching sails was won by Danish architect Jorn Utzon among 233 submitted to an international competition. In 2007 it was added to Unesco's World Heritage List. Our clip sees the sun climb up behind the sails. It breaks free to ...

The sun's deep red was not filtered by me, but caused by smoke and dust particles in the air during some horrific bush fires in Australia. Please note those clearly visible sun spots.

At one end there is a dam wall; at the other end the sun is rising. There are the trees, like hurdles in her way. The sound track gets in sync with the - like a little cosmic musical. And with sincere apologies for having butchered Schubert's beautiful quintet