Canberrans could be forgiven for mistaking autumn for winter early this week after a downpour of rain and a dusting of snow on the Brindabella's highest peaks.
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But the next few days are set to provide budding and seasoned photographers with a much sunnier backdrop as golden foliage blankets the capital in autumnal colour.
Burnt orange sunsets, reflections on the city's lakes and deciduous tree leaves have inspired The Canberra Times autumn photo competition entrants so far.
With Saturday's and Sunday's temperatures forecast to reach 22 degrees, this weekend could see more snappers take advantage of what has become many residents' favourite season.
Weatherzone meteorologist Guy Dixon said Canberrans should expect mild weather into the weekend before a chance of rain early next week.
"Across much of south-eastern Australia we're going to see a lot more stable conditions in comparison to what we've seen around the Easter long weekend," he said.
"For the Canberra region in particular, mostly sunny conditions will prevail until at least Monday. Temperatures will be close to average with warmer forecast temperatures in the low 20s everyday.
"Early next week is looking to be the next best chance of rain thanks to a cold front and associated trough as autumn and winter start to take hold."
Despite early signs of winter on Tuesday a high pressure ridge hovering over the country's south-east is set to take the chill off the next few nights.
"We should see temperatures between four and six degrees, warming up as the week progresses due to a broad, or dominate, high pressure ridge sitting over most of south-eastern Australia," Mr Dixon said.
"It will be relatively slow-moving so, these conditions will stay fairly stable over the next couple of days."
Bruce amateur photographer Alex Petkovic captured a moody image of the National Carillon in similar conditions earlier in the season.
Mr Petkovic, who gets outside with his camera about once a week, said he liked the evening photograph's striking sky and the reflection of the structure on Lake Burley Griffin.
"It's just a hobby, I enjoy taking photographs," he said.
"I'm an artist as well, another one of my hobbies, so I paint some of the photos as well."
Competition entrants' photos have the chance of being published in The Canberra Times newspaper or on canberratimes.com.au.
Send a maximum of three photos to photocomp@canberratimes.com.au as attached JPEG files and include your name, address, phone number, photo title, a description of the photo and the date it was taken.
Photos must be at least 150 kilobytes to a maximum of one megabyte. Winners will take home a share of the $1000 prize.
