“I grew up in Richmond Hill just 10 minutes out of Lismore. I went to Trinity Catholic College in Lismore and in 1998 I did a traineeship at a surf and skate shop downtown called Spot X which set the foundations for me in my retail experience. I also had a passion for surfing and photography those three interests have really moulded me into where I am today. I run a gallery and have a huge love for the ocean and photography .
On my 18th birthday, Mum and Dad bought me a video camera but prior to that I had a film camera, which was always expensive to process the film. I loved experimenting with film.
When I was about 25 I bought myself a water housing and filmed my mates surfing. Eventually I started getting paid for it and then I realised this is what I want to do. From the age of about 20 till 30 I worked in and out of finance. I was travelling as well. I worked for John Chant Motors in my early 20’s selling cars which was not that enjoyable. From there I got more into the finance side of selling. I would work for a year and then travel for a year, come back and save again. I worked overseas as well. The GFC hit and I was doing finance at that stage. I got a redundancy from the company I was working for so that gave me a good foundation to work with.
In 2009 I was 30 years old and I opened a gallery in Lennox Head. Making that decision was the catalyst for me starting the career I wanted. The photos then were more aimed toward the Lennox Head coastline. The rent was pretty good back then too. I was doing weddings on the weekends as well. I had everything invested into the gallery, my back was against the wall so I had to make it work. I had met with the local business chamber and was advised by one of the guys not to open up the gallery because of the GFC and they expressed that at the time art was more of a luxury rather than a necessity. At the end of the day I did it and I had this gut feeling that it wasn’t going to fail. I was reading a book at the time about regret and how people on their death bed often had regrets, thinking back, wishing they’d done that thing. I was still only 30 so I thought…What have I got to lose? It was my passion and I had the support from my family and friends, so the gallery, photographing surfers and the weddings on the weekend continued for 4 1/2 years. That’s where the income came from and the gallery looked after itself. I had a lot of support from the local Community. Lennox has been great and continues to be. I do a little calendar every year for the local community and everyone waits for that to come out which is lovely.
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I never really expected that Photography would become a business of mine that I could rely on 100% but it has become that now. Not only has it become that but it is also given me the opportunity to travel the world and be a tax deduction which is lovely.
I decided I wanted to look at opening a gallery in Byron Bay. I looked at the cost and it was way outside what I could afford. Things sort of fell into place. I met a guy who works for National Geographic and he started getting me to do drone work for his productions. He was producing for National Geographic, the Travel Channel USA and the Discovery Channel so I ended up getting a lot of drone work for those companies which was amazing as I was travelling the world and getting paid for it. While I was doing this I was taking photos as well so it was my dream job. The responsibility factor was huge though as I was travelling the world with one drone and if that stuffed up…Luckily it never did.
In 2013 I went to Alaska for the Discovery Channel. It was amazing because they take the production team to places which are so remote. If you tried to do that as a normal paying person it would cost you tens of thousands of dollars. We flew out to the Kodiak Archipelago which is a group of islands where the Kodiak Bear lives. We took a sea plane deep into the wilderness and we had this beautiful lodge which was $1,000 US a night because it was so remote. The people there were totally self sustained. They caught and grew all their own food. They lived off the grid. It was amazing and an incredible experience. We were surrounded by wild animals. You walk through the wilderness and the paths you see are animal paths.
My first encounter with a Kodiak Bear was a big female with her 2 cubs. There was only 4 of us including our guide. We came around a corner and the guide stopped suddenly and put his hand up. I felt my gut drop..Should I run or freeze? I just had to trust the guide. We were only about 5 metres away from the bears which are huge. They are bigger than a Grizzly Bear. They are the biggest bear other than a Polar Bear, some reaching over 13 feet. That was such a great experience which only fed my love for what I was doing. The guide actually had a relationship with that bear which is a beautiful story. The male bears sometimes kill the cubs so the female bear will go on heat again. What happened in the past was the guide was out and the mother bear saw the guide in the same location when the male bear killed her last cubs. The guide had tried to look after the cubs as the mother chased the male bear off. The guide stepped back and the mother bear came back to grieve. Two years later the same female had another set of cubs and she would now leave the cubs with him to go down to catch fish to feed her cubs. She trusted the guide and it was so cool to see that. To watch nature with humanity was awesome. It’s not often you get the chance to witness something so special. That solidified my passion to continue doing nature photography.”