I have been photographing people, places and things as a professional for well over 2 decades. Choosing my top 5 favourite photos was not going to be easy. This is just a snippet…
Obviously, I have some stories to tell, some from crazy unpredictable wedding days, to kids/ animal sessions going very wayward. Instead of delving into all the disasters, mishaps and blunders, I thought it’d be better to focus on the favourites. So here are my top 5 favourites from the last 25 years as a professional photographer on the Gold Coast. I’d like to add that I didn’t start using digital cameras until around 2008/2009. Most of these photos are taken towards the end of the 90’s and early 2000’s. The film has been scanned in, a very long time ago, and quality has somewhat diminished a bit. I also don’t think these are technically perfect. But made it into favourites for the emotion that they evoked in me, or the person in the image.
#1 – Maternity shoot on the beach.
I travelled to the Sunshine Coast for this one as the lady in the photo also happened to be a friends girlfriend. I was heading up there for the weekend, so decided to do this for her also. I’m happy we stayed the night as I wanted a sunrise shoot, being Summer that meant it was a very early start!! She decided to go the full monty, there wasn’t many people around so it was not a problem. There was a dog who wouldn’t leave us alone, and a very embarrassed owner had to come and grab it, lol.
Shot on a film camera, using an Ilford black and white film (one of my faves). No post processing as this was film, so how I shot it is how you see it!
#2 – Sunset wedding shot
These beautiful people were married in the mid 2000’s I think (I shot a lot of weddings in the 2000’s). I remember that it was another Sunshine Coast event. Travelling for weddings was something I always did, I went to some very cool places. The trip there was a nightmare. There was an accident on the highway, so I was late as were 60% of the wedding guests. We started the wedding an hour later than we should have, so photos of just the two of them were quicker than usual, but very awesome! Shot on a very contrasty Fuji Film, another favourite film!
#3 – Music photography days
I used to shoot a lot for a local music magazine on the Gold Coast back in the late 90’s. But this shoot was for this band though, they asked me to come along the the Northern Hotel in Bryon Bay to take photos. I remember Dallas Crane and another band also played this night, I was mesmerised with the lead singer of the other band. Shot on black and white Ilford film.
#4- Casual portrait photography
This was a very impromptu photo shoot, and makes it into my top 5 favourite photos because the man in this image is actually my dad. He is with his wife on the step of their caravan. I remember this well as I had just given birth via emergency c section a few days earlier. My dad and his wife had made the trek up to help me. They were just sitting like this, chatting and laughing, and looked so relaxed. I told them to stay how they were, raced up to the house to grab my camera and a reflector, and ta da! This is what came out of it. There’s something raw that I love about this. This is the only one shot on a digital camera!!
#5- Becoming a parent
This is an absolute favourite photo of mine. Not because it’s technically perfect, as for all these faves, it’s far from it. But because of the emotion you can actually feel from looking at it. If you’ve had kids, you will be feeling this now. I was still a fair few years off having kids by the time I took this, but I had still had that feeling. This baby is about 15 or 16 now, I think. Shot on a beautifully grainy old kodak film.
So that’s it! My top 5 favourite photos. I have about a thousand more favourites, these were literally just chosen from a quick look at one folder of old photos. I am thinking I will have to do this post a few times. Might do top 20 favourites next time… Lol.
