Great to spend a few days with fellow photographers at the Australian Institute of Professional Photographers convention up in BrisVegas. I'm not sure why it was called 'Hair of the Dog', but it was! There were a few 'aha' moments and I met a wide variety of photographers from all over Australia, who are photographing all kinds of genres. A question that kept coming up was whether you needed to find your 'specialty' or leave yourself open to changing and evolving as a photographer. Tony Hewitt started as a portrait and wedding photographer but now is an award winning landscape photographer. Matt Palmer started as a music photographer but has just been named Sports Photographer of the year. So, despite the pressure to pick one genre I'm following in their illustrious footsteps and taking photos of everyone/everything because at the end of the day I'm just passionate about taking photos and I see beauty in so many things. I was staying in a funny little town called Wynnum which is down on the water (I think it must be Port Brisbane), so took myself down there one morning and shot whatever took my fancy. It opened my mind up to taking photos of what others may consider the mundane. It also made me realise that these kind of photos take me back to my childhood. In this case it was summer holidays on the Central Coast, north of Sydney. It's been fueling the creative process and some thoughts for the future. Watch this space!

I live in Paradise aka Byron Bay on the eastern most tip of the east coast of Australia. It's Summer here right now and Christmas and New Year are especially busy  with lots of visitors who are looking for a beautiful, green, sunny escape from their own concrete jungles. It's also a great time for locals with a major music festival and lots of community activities to get involved in. Which makes it a great time for photographers. I'll be including some of the pics I captured at the Falls Festival and our local New Year's Eve event, Soul Street, in my galleries. I'm planning a couple of personal projects over the next couple of weeks: a collection of portraits on 'freckles' and a Frido Kahlo style shoot. Stop on by soon and I'll let you know how I went. Meanwhile here's a pic from the Falls Festival: a couple of gorgeous girls enjoying the atmosphere and the music.