Adventures in Griffith
29/10/25
It had been since February this year that I’d gone on what could be described as a proper road trip for work. While February saw me travelling only three hours away, this particular job had me going ten hours, or at least it would have, if I’d driven. Thankfully, I was flown down to the city of Griffith, deep in Australia’s food bowl, to shoot an ad campaign. While I can’t talk about or show any of the ad work itself, I did get the chance to take some casual snaps while I was on location that I can certainly share.
The first day had us arriving at the shoot location, unfortunately, after access had already closed, as our plane was delayed and we had issues with our rental vehicle at the airport. Still, we made it to the gate of the property we’d be filming on, at least. We had hoped to do some recon of the actual site itself, but had to make do with our imaginations as we looked out over the vast, flat plains ahead of us. This is easily the furthest west I’ve ever travelled in Australia, and while it wasn’t quite desert, it was certainly the closest I’ve been. We decided to head back to our accommodation, which happened to be beside the railway station. The graffiti on the shed there was the only graffiti I saw during my entire three-day stay, I was quite impressed, even if it did take away one of my favourite things to document.
30/10/25
We had to be up at 4 a.m. the following morning in order to be on-site by 6 a.m. for sunrise. It wasn’t easy, but we got there, and thankfully, the sunrise didn’t disappoint. We captured some great test shots that morning that I’m super happy with for the campaign. We wrapped up around 8 a.m. and headed back to our accommodation to review the footage and see what we could do with the shots we’d captured before heading back out at 3 p.m. to set up for sunset, which, sadly, never eventuated. I did manage to get a few other photos that afternoon that I liked, even if the conditions weren’t amazing, such as the clothesline by the shed and the lone tree in the middle of a paddock, but they were genuinely tough shooting conditions. While we didn’t manage to get the photos we’d hoped for, the weather did at least allow us to capture some nice timelapse footage.
31/10/25
The following morning, we were up again at 4 a.m. for the 6:20 sunrise, and unfortunately, much like the previous afternoon, cloud cover spoiled everything. I guess that’s the nature of working on location where you can’t control the conditions. We shot what we could and then headed back to our accommodation to pack up before our 3 p.m. flight out of the city.
With so much time to kill before our flight, I decided to spend some time properly exploring the main street of Griffith with my Canon R8 and the nifty fifty, a combo I absolutely love. The street itself is long and bustling, and pretty much all of the shops are independently owned, with barely a chain in sight. There were also very few empty storefronts, which is rare for regional towns and cities, even ones the size of Griffith. I did, however, find one abandoned building that I of course had to document. Based on the different signs still visible, it’s clearly lived many lives — from a bicycle shop to a fabric store to a paint supplier, though in what order, I have no idea. Still, it made for an interesting subject.
The main street also had some absolutely decadent Chinese restaurants that I couldn’t not document. It’s actually something I’d love to make a photo book about one day, Chinese Restaurants in Regional Australia. I just hope someone else hasn’t already done it… I guess I should look into that.
First up was Happy Dragon, an absolutely awesome name for a restaurant, and with brilliant signage to match. Between the tiled façade and what appeared to be a giant embedded ceramic sign, it was a real eye-catcher.
Then there was Malcolm’s Chinese, which, while the name wasn’t as exciting, had these amazing round windows and a matching door, something I haven’t seen much of in my travels. The doorway reminded me of a keyhole; it just had so much personality.
At the very end of the street was Wonderful, which, according to locals, is the newest addition to the area. Its signage and branding were clean and modern, a nice contrast to the older building it occupied. Unfortunately, there was no direct signage on the building itself, so I had to settle for photographing the A-frame out front.
Lastly, there was Café Beautiful on the other side of the street, and what a restaurant it must have been in its heyday. First of all, that name, absolutely incredible, paired with the classic Chinese Australiana signage. The building itself was huge, with three separate entrances depending on which section of the restaurant you were visiting. Nobody could tell me exactly why it closed, only that it had been shut for quite some time, a real shame, in my opinion. An absolute classic piece of Australian culinary history, and a great note to end my time in Griffith on.
