Favourite TV: House of Dragons and its spinoffs

I love the Game of Thrones television universe—the original series and its two spin-offs, House of the Dragon and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Few fictional worlds have ever drawn me in so completely. All three have their own tone and scale, but each offers enthralling television filled with fascinating characters, political intrigue, danger and the constant sense that anything might happen.

Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones remains the pinnacle for me. I love its unapologetic mixture of nudity, sex and brutal violence, as well as its morally grey characters: good people can turn bad, villains can reveal unexpected humanity, and almost nobody is entirely one thing or the other. The twists are extraordinary, and the knowledge that even a favourite character might suddenly be killed makes every episode feel genuinely dangerous. Add the political scheming, vast fantasy world and incredible battle scenes, and it is easy to see why the series became such a phenomenon.

House of Dragons

House of the Dragon is darker and more tragic than Game of Thrones, focusing on how ambition, grief and the struggle for power can transform a fundamentally good person into someone capable of terrible things. So far, I've been completely absorbed through to the end of the third season, witnessing a once-close family descend into hatred, betrayal and civil war. Its characters are as morally complex as those in the original series, and the enormous number of magnificent dragons makes its battles especially thrilling and spectacular.

Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is smaller, warmer and more intimate than the other two series, which gives it a charm of its own. Its shorter episodes and likeable central characters make it wonderfully accessible, while the friendship at its heart gives the story genuine warmth. It still delivers the danger, intrigue and surprising twists I expect from this world, along with one incredible fighting scene that proves a battle does not need thousands of soldiers or dozens of dragons to be completely gripping.

Cape Point lighthouse

I found these wonderful photos of the lighthouses at Cape Point, taken in Cape Town in 2010 and in 2015. Another extraordinary setting for a lighthouse.

The original Cape Point lighthouse was completed in 1859 and first lit in 1860, high on the summit of Cape Point. Its position proved unsuitable because the light was frequently obscured by fog and low cloud. Following the wreck of the Lusitania on nearby Bellows Rock in 1911, a new lighthouse was constructed much lower down on Diaz Point, 87 metres above sea level, and brought into service in 1919. Its powerful light, visible for approximately 63 kilometres, flashes three times every 30 seconds and continues to guide ships around the Cape Peninsula.

Everleigh Locomotive Works in Redfern

Elna and I spent some time exploring the old Eveleigh Locomotive Workshops at South Eveleigh, one of Sydney’s great surviving industrial spaces. Once part of the enormous Eveleigh Railway Workshops, where locomotives were built, maintained and repaired from the late 19th century, the precinct still retains its wonderful old brick buildings, huge machinery, railway infrastructure and raw industrial character. 

It was an amazing place to spend a few hours creatively. We started at The Grounds Coffee Factory. Elna then settled down to paint while I wandered off with my camera, photographing the old buildings, machinery, textures and details. I loved the combination of industrial history and modern life—the sense that so much of the original character has been preserved rather than polished away. It’s exactly the sort of place I love photographing: atmospheric, full of history and with interesting compositions everywhere you look.

Elna's beautiful art