News & Adventures
Runner Up at the Gold Coast Photography Awards, With The Upside Down
A couple of weeks ago I found myself standing at Balter Brewery, waiting to hear the results of the Gold Coast Photography Awards. I walked away runner up, for The Upside Down, one of the shots from my Life's a Beach series. It was also picked out separately as one of the major sponsor's favourite images of the night, which honestly caught me off guard more than the placing did. The story behind The Upside Down I'm not sure why but I couldn't help but laugh watching this unfold. I heard some yelling, turned around, and there's a guy sprinting after his umbrella as the wind rips it away from him down the sand at Kirra. No posing, no direction, just a completely unplanned moment that happened to land in the frame. That's the whole appeal of the Life's a Beach series for me, it's not about the perfect postcard shot, it's about the real, slightly chaotic, very Australian moments that actually happen on our beaches. It's a strange feeling having a judging panel and a major sponsor single out a photo I almost didn't keep. It's a reminder that the shots worth taking aren't always the ones you plan for. A night for the local creative community What stuck with me more than the result was the room itself. Balter Brewery opened its doors for the night, and it was genuinely great seeing so much of the Gold Coast's creative community in one place, photographers, sponsors, judges, everyone who puts real time into this industry showing up to back each other. Events like this don't happen without a lot of people caring enough to organise them, and it says a lot about the Gold Coast that a night like this exists at all. Photography can be a pretty solitary pursuit most of the time, you're usually on your own at 5am waiting for the light. So it means something to stand in a room full of people who get exactly what that's like, and to see a local brewery back the creative industry the way Balter did for this event. Thank you to the organisers, judges and sponsors of the Gold Coast Photography Awards, and to everyone who came down to Balter to make the night what it was. If you want to see the shot that started all this, The Upside Down is here, or browse the rest of the Life's A Beach collection.
Learn more
My Artwork Is Now Hanging in Robina Hospital, and It Feels Like Full Circle
Two of my framed prints and a wall mural now hang in Robina Hospital, in the same kind of wards where a surfing accident once put me in hospital myself.
Learn more
Top 5 Gold Coast Prints
My pick of the 5 Gold Coast prints I'd hang in my own home, from Kirra to Snapper Rocks, all shot and printed by me.
Learn more
Aerial Photography Wall Art: A Buying Guide
I've spent the better part of a decade shooting doors-off from helicopters and light aircraft up and down the Gold Coast, across Brisbane and out over the Whitsundays. It's a different way of seeing a place you think you already know, and it photographs differently to anything shot from the ground, which is why I get asked more questions about buying aerial prints than almost any other style in the shop. Here's what I'd tell you if you asked in person.Why aerial works so well as wall artFrom directly above, familiar places turn into pattern and colour. A wave becomes a line. A stretch of sand becomes texture. A city becomes geometry. Skyline Panorama, one of my recent Surfers Paradise shots, is a good example, the same coastline everyone's seen from the beach, but shot straight down it reads as an abstract composition first and a place second. That's the appeal: aerial prints tend to work as a genuine piece of art in a room, not just a photo of a nice view.Choosing a subjectCoastline shots, Burleigh Heads, Snapper Rocks, Currumbin Alley, read as recognisable, grounded pieces, good if you want the location itself to mean something. City shots, the Story Bridge, the Brisbane river bends, lean architectural and suit a study or office. Then there's the genuinely abstract end of the range, patterns in the sand at Whitehaven Beach like Shark Impression and Snake Skin, along with the Western Australia salt lake and shark bay series, which read as pure shape and colour and suit a space where you want art first, location second.Orientation and sizeAerial shots are often shot square or in a wide panorama rather than the usual landscape crop, which changes where they work in a room. A panorama like Skyline Panorama wants a long, uninterrupted run of wall, above a sofa or a dining table. Square crops sit well in tighter spaces or as part of a pair. As a general rule, aim for artwork to fill 60-75% of the available wall space, and if it's going above furniture, two-thirds the width of the piece below it.Framed, canvas or acrylicThis one comes down to the room more than the image. Acrylic gives you the most detail and a real depth to the colour, but it's reflective, so it wants a wall that isn't fighting glare from a window or a light directly opposite it. Canvas absorbs more of the light hitting it, which makes it the better pick for a bright room or a wall that catches direct sun. Framed is the traditional, timeless option, and if you're worried about reflection but still want a frame, pairing it with our non-reflective glass cuts the glare right down. Have a look at the room itself before the image, that's what decides which one's right.Where to startThe full range is in the aerial photography collection, the more graphic, pattern-led work is in Abstract Aerial Art, and the Gold Coast and Brisbane sets are broken out separately if you know the area you want on your wall.
Learn more
Surf Photography Wall Art: A Gold Coast Photographer's Buying Guide
Most of what's written about buying surf photography online comes from print sellers who've never actually been in the water with a camera. I have, for years, swimming out at Duranbah, Snapper Rocks, Kirra and Burleigh Heads with a housing over my camera, timing sets and waiting for the right wave the same way the surfers around me were. One of those shots, Exit Wave, won overall winner at the 2010 Digital Camera World Photographer of the Year awards, plus first in the Adrenalin category, and later made the cover of Capture magazine's Australia's Top Emerging Photographers issue. That's the difference buying from someone who shoots the sport rather than just prints it: you're getting a genuine moment, not a stock composition.What makes a surf photograph work as artA good surf shot isn't just a wave, it's timing. Sometimes that's a surfer, the barrel closing in behind them, the split second of a duck dive. The Duck Dive is one of mine that still gets requested most, super clear water letting you see straight through the wave as the surfer rises. But surf art doesn't need a surfer in it at all, an empty wave at the exact moment it explodes, the spray peeling off the lip, is its own kind of timing and its own kind of art. Southern Gold, a top 10 finish in the Australian Surf Photographer of the Year awards, is a wave with nobody on it, just the water rearing and about to break. Webbed Hands is the same idea taken further, backwash off a rock wall caught at the instant it forms shapes like fingers. Neither needed a surfer to be a genuine surf photograph.The Gold Coast breaks, and what each one gives youEvery break has its own character and its own kind of shot. Kirra and Duranbah are where the barrels happen, tight, powerful, and where a lot of my water shots come from, Inside Out at Kirra is a good example. Snapper Rocks is where the line-ups and the aerial perspective come into their own, Birds Eye Line Up shows the crowd and the wave from directly above. Burleigh Heads sits in between, both the barrel and the wider landscape, Burleigh Birds Eye captures that scale.Choosing a pieceDecide first what you're after: the water level intensity of being in the wave with a surfer, like The Duck Dive or Inside Out at Kirra, an empty wave caught at its most dramatic moment, like Southern Gold or Webbed Hands, or the wider, calmer perspective of an aerial line-up shot. All three read very differently in a room, one is energy and motion, one is texture and timing, the other is pattern and scale. A number of these are also available in black and white if you want the same shot with less colour competing with the rest of your room.Sizing and orientationMost surf shots suit a landscape crop, above a sofa or along a hallway, aim for 60-75% of the available wall space, and two-thirds the width of any furniture it's hanging above. The aerial line-up shots often work as a panorama or square crop instead, similar to the aerial collection.Framed, canvas or acrylicSame rule as everywhere else in the shop: it depends on the room's light, not the image. Acrylic gives the most detail and depth but is reflective, so it wants a wall without direct glare. Canvas absorbs more light and suits a bright room. Framed is the traditional option, and pairing it with our non-reflective glass cuts down glare if that's a concern.Where to startThe full range is in the Surf Art collection, 86 pieces spanning Snapper Rocks, Currumbin, Kirra, Burleigh Heads and Bondi Beach, in colour and black and white.
Learn more
Symbiosis - Gold Coast Love Story
Surfing on the Gold Coast often brings a strange set of emotions. On the one hand, surfing removes anxiety, clears the mind, and brings you back to nature. On the other hand, the crowded waves, lack of car parks, and drop-ins could make you want to give up and sell your board. Finding Peace in the Crowd But, every so often, there is peace amongst the crowd. Solitude in a busy city where spray tans and fat lips reign supreme. For those few seconds you ride the wave, your brain switches off and total bliss in utopia is found. You remember why this 6ft piece of foam brought so much joy in the first place. It's not you against nature anymore, symbiosis with the ocean.
Learn more
New Release Gold Coast Aerial Photos 2021
Timing a doors off helicopter shoot with perfect weather can often be challenging. On the Gold Coast however, it's a little bit easier compared to some places in the world. Generally speaking we have great weather all year round but from my surfing background I'm often looking at the water conditions, the clouds an direciton of the sun. This brand new aerial collection has been on the list of to do's for a while now. All images have been captured whilst flying in a helicopter over the beautiful Gold Coast. Key vantage points in the series are: The Spit Surfers Paradise Wavebreak Island Broadwater Main Beach Surfers Paradise Cheveron Island Surfers Paradise Macintosh Island Broadbeach Mermaid Beach Miami Beach Burleigh Hill Burleigh Point Tallebudgera Creek Tallebudgera to Surfers Paradise Burleigh to Snapper Rocks Palm Beach Curruming Alley To highlight this collection I've put together my favourite 5 prints Check out the full collection here
Learn more
A New Year a new Day – Sunrise 2017
Well it’s official, 2016 has now officially ended and we look forward to what 2017 might throw our way. I can’t be more thankful for all the experiences I’ve had throughout the year, some of them were tough and a lot of them extremely rewarding. I’ve learned a lot about myself and even more about business then I could’ve imagined.
Learn more
Exhale - Life and all it's pressures
If we strip away the physical elements of this image and interpret this through an abstract view, to me, the image portrays the moment where you...
Learn more