A Twinkle In My Eye

I am a visual person. I love images and I have a great passion for photography but (oh and there is a Big but) it seems I don't make enough time for taking photos unless I am travelling. Travelling, away from home, moving with or without direction…driving through creek beds in remote Australia…discussing politics with Cockneys over a warm pint of ale in east London….haggling over the price of handwoven rugs in a Moroccan medina. I perfectly combine my parents' interests, balancing my father's photographic pastime with my mother's geographical exploration, it's my true passion, and I guess the only way to label it is travel photography.

As a kid I would pore over my parents' photo albums from their European travels in the 70's. My face would light up on finding collections of old family photographs printed in romantic sepia tones, the square images with white borders and boxes of slides neatly labelled. I would treat the memories like they were my own, reminiscing with a slight melancholy over days that had past me by. My high school days were spent experimenting with B&W film processing and printing, beneath red lanterns my bare hands were plunged into trays of developer and fixing chemicals, ignoring all OHS warnings and guidelines given by teaching staff. I continued on the visual path studying Film and Television as my degree major. On completion I decided I'd waited long enough, it was time to cut the ties and travel. The world suddenly opened up and simultaneously became smaller .

I love the tactile nature of film, the anticipation of a batch of newly processed photos and their sweet chemical odour, finding shoes boxes stashed at the back of the cupboard labelled "Ningaloo '05" complete with snorkelling maps and vehicle entry to the national park. For many years I've employed my trusty but cumbersome SLR on my travels, I have taken a while to embrace the digital age and still cling to the clunky old camera despite a recent upgrade to DSLR.
Now I  want to show my photos, make them public and open to critique, and at the same time share my adventures, recreate the spark in other people. This blog is for me to share, inspire, and learn. Photographs tell stories, they document events, provide a visual representation of our world. Being a photographer, or as I prefer to call it image creator, forces us to step back and look at our surroundings to embrace the environment, to appreciate different cultures; it is an important thing to be humbled once in a while.