If your reading this and have not read “My Photography Story – Part 1 – Click this link

I left off my Part 1 post with the photo you see here above. This was my first serious attempt at astro-photography. It takes a bit more effort that just holding, pointing and shooting the camera. Firstly you need a tripod. It’s also good to have a remote control, so your hands are off the camera, preventing any shake. Then you need to be able to be confident enough to have the camera in full manual mode and set the speed, aperture and ISO to their needed settings. Then you need to be in a very very dark area to avoid light pollution. The city is out of the question. These were taken on Kangaroo Island, Once you have all these in place you’re ready to go. Then you need to do some post processing to bring out the colours that are there, but the human eye cannot see.

I was so impressed with the shot above, that late one afternoon I emailed it into channel 10 weather presenter, Kate Freebairn; pointing out that it had nothing to do with the weather apart from being absolutely freezing cold in Kingscote. She replied within half and hour telling me it would be shown on the weather report that very night. That blew me away! So a few hours later I waited for the weather with camera in hand to capture this! Here are a few other shots taken that night.

I really have not had the chance to take any more Astro-Photography shots but it remains part of my story.

Just before I tried my hand at Astro-Photography I did go on a voyage to New Zealand. This time I did pack my DSLR Camera. We did a round trip from and back to Sydney. I was trying to get out of the habit of snap shooting. It’s not easy to do. But I am going to share another of my “Yeah!” photos here. I was on the Dawn Princess and we were sailing from “White Bay” Cruise Terminal in Western Sydney which meant we would be sailing under the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It was a nice day and I positioned myself on the starboard (right hand) side of the ship, hoping to get some good shots of the bridge and then The Sydney Opera House. What I got was both. The thing is I could see it coming and waited and waited till both came into view. Then capture this cool shot. If you look carefully you can see a group of bridge climbers up by the concrete tower where the metal struts start.

I really enjoyed the trip to NZ. If you ever make your way there try and get to Milford Sound in the south and Bay of Islands in the north. I could go into lengths about that trip but that would make this blog twice as long as it is now.

So after this I kept doing my photography as a hobby. I kept wandering around SA, and one day found myself down in McLaren Vale. I decided to explore the backroads. I took a number of photos of vineyards down that way. Here is one shot I found pretty cool. It had the vineyards pointing to the sea in the background.

I ended up sending this into channel 10 again, and got no reply this time. But I was catching up with some mates for dinner a week or 2 later and someone came up and gave me a pat on the back and asked if I was the Stephen Jolly whose photo was on the weather that night. I went “What?” The thing is to get to dinner I had missed it. I asked if it was of vineyard down at McLaren Vale and when they said “Yes!” I was able to confirm it was mine. Fortunately my TV allowed me to rewatch the news later that night.

This is the moment I realised I was getting good at this. So I kept wandering around places I could capture what I wanted. I was really enjoying Wildlife Photography. I was up at Gorge Wildlife Park When I took this shot of a Wedge Tailed Eagle. To say I loved this photo is an understatement.

Those of you who have read my posts on this photo will realise this is one of my favourite photos. It was the first photo I had blown up and framed. It now hangs proudly up on my wall, and I have taken to fairs, but for display purposes only. It will never be for sale!

Another thing you will notice is a signature in the bottom left of this photo. That is there because I decided to try and start my own online business called “Stephen Jolly Photography”. I worked long and hard before finally coming up with this logo. My aim was to sell my photos online as well as sending out regular blogs with tips on taking photos. I really enjoyed this. I sold my photos as Prints and posters of varying sizes. I also sold calendars which I will get to later.

This all happened in 2019-20, and with Covid in full swing I was hoping my on-line business would really take off. But the World Wide Web is huge and there are many competitors out there, and unfortunately I just couldn’t make a living out of it and after 3 years and the costs of keeping the site running being too much, I decided to fold it up. I so wish I would have kept more screenshots of this professional site. But I was still a avid photographer and though Stephen Jolly Photography ceased to exist, jollygoodphotography.blog was born. Its prime aim to share rather than sell my photography.

And that brings us to where we are today. Jolly Good Photography! I still love my photography. My aim is to share smaller blogs more regularly concentrating on 1 or 2… maybe a few more photos per blog. In my previous website I wanted to share a lot of technical and educational blogs on how I did my photography. My new blogs have been fairly long and explanatory like they were in my old site. But now it is just sharing what I love in a much briefer way.

Now! Each year I do put a calendar together. I am working on the 2026 version at the moment. Here below is a YouTube Clip of the 2025 calendar. Keep your eyes open in the coming weeks for 2026.

I still have a few external shops that I have neglected for a while, but am working on again. One is a site called PIXELS. To see my shop and all the photos and prints and other items that are for sale on there go to https://pixels.com/profiles/2-stephen jolly/shop

So keep your eyes open on Facebook for my more regular blog where I will share a photo with you, and the story behind them.