Photography: April 2025
What an absolutely ridiculous month. Portraits, festivals, wedding expos, BBQs, beaches, and markets, and that’s just the stuff I did in my own time. Add in documentary filming for two separate projects and some event photography, and you’ve got a jam-packed four weeks. Somehow, next month is looking even crazier, but I’m not here to talk about that. I’m here to talk about what I shot for myself throughout April, and I can tell you right now, I shot a lot.
03/04/25
Starting the month strong with one of my favorite projects of the year: a test shoot with the incredibly gorgeous Lisa Goldzieher. What was it a test shoot for? I’m not sure I’m at liberty to say, but it has the potential to become part of a much larger art project, and Lisa is absolutely fantastic to work with, so I’m excited to see where it goes next.
It had been quite a while since I was invited to shoot portraits, so I was feeling pretty nervous. But with the perfect afternoon sun and unusually high water levels flowing through Yarrowyck Crossing Reserve at the time, everything came together beautifully, and it turned out I had nothing to worry about.
05/04/25
Armidale held its annual Autumn Festival on Saturday, and unlike last year when it was rained out, this year brought pretty much perfect conditions. I managed to capture some sneaky black-and-white street shots before the Armidale Autumn Festival parade and Freedom Flyover.
The crowd seemed most excited for the Freedom Flyover. I have absolutely no idea how to shoot planes, and it shows, but it was fun despite the challenge. I thought my 300mm lens would be plenty, especially on a crop sensor, but alas, the planes were still a little more distant than I would have liked.
Once the flyover was complete, it was time for the main event, the Autumn Parade. It was great to see the streets packed with people and so many fun, creative floats making their way through town. I probably should have moved around more to capture some more dynamic shots, maybe I’m getting lazy in my old age. Or maybe it’s just the constant loud popping sound my knees make that makes it feel that way...
11/04/25
I like to get out at least once a month for a slow walk around town on a sunny afternoon to:
A) Shoot trolleys, and
B) Shoot whatever else catches my interest.
My most recent walk had a secondary goal, though: shooting things specifically with the intent of cropping to an XPan aspect ratio of 2.7:1 (or 65:24). It’s pretty amazing the kind of impact a heavy crop can have on an otherwise pretty average image—definitely something I’m looking forward to experimenting with more in the future.
12/04/25
I was invited to help Amy from Temptations Boudoirs with her stall at the New England Wedding Expo, an event I had never been to before. I took my camera just in case I got the chance to capture something interesting, but my main takeaway was how awesome the venue at the Armidale Showgrounds was. My brain was firing off so many ideas for future shoots, definitely something to keep in mind going forward.
18/04/25
The Easter long weekend was upon us, so it was time to drive five hours north to spend some time with family in the Northern Rivers. Lennox Head was our home base, we arrived Thursday night, which allowed me to get up at 5:30 the next morning to capture the sunrise over the beach. It’s not a particularly long or difficult walk to the top of Pat Morton Lookout, but it’s one I’ll never get tired of, especially at daybreak, as it’s different every single time. Despite only bringing my old Canon 200D and a fixed 24mm lens, I managed to capture some of my favourite shots of the year so far, including one potential portfolio image. I’m also really happy with how the colours turned out in post, capturing that 1970s surf film energy I was aiming for.
Friday afternoon was all about spending time with family. We enjoyed a couple of roast chickens outside in the sun, not something many people would be doing back home in Armidale. I miss the coast sometimes. As is often the case when I’m with family, I was shooting in black and white. Maybe it’s because the lighting conditions are rarely ideal, but black and white always feels the most natural and comfortable choice.
19/04/25
On Saturday, I undertook the 13km hike from Lennox Head to Ballina along the coastal trail. I had an absolutely fantastic time taking photos, flying the drone, and capturing video. You can check out the film I created from it all, Coastal Path, here. I’m really eager to do the walk again in different conditions—perhaps with a 50mm lens for a fresh perspective on everything.
20/04/25
A little too pooped from all the walking on Saturday, there was no 5:30am walk on Sunday. Instead, at a more reasonable hour, we travelled out to visit my parents, a home I hadn’t been to in over 12 months (much to my shame). Keeping things simple, I shot in black and white again, because when you're surrounded by BBQ prawns and sausages, who has time to be messing around with camera settings, right? The photo I captured of my mother is another one of my favorite photos of the year, it isn’t flattering, but it isn’t often I capture an image with that much emotion, even if that feeling is of exhaustion…
21/04/25
"Sunday morning—enjoying my final moments with access to the beach, and to a real sunrise. I’ve been walking around Armidale trying to find a good vantage point for the sunrise, but so far, no luck, it’s pretty damn hard to beat the ocean in that respect. I didn’t capture anything as striking as the shots I got on Friday that kicked off this little holiday, but I still managed a few good ones. You never really know how many people will be on the beach in the morning; I guess it usually depends on the surf.
"As we took our leave, it’s become a tradition for me to take a photo of my grandmother as we head out the gate, and I think I got a pretty great one this time. The two shots of her waving us off from the front yard are pretty fun, too.
We decided to take the Gwydir Highway home from Grafton instead of Armidale Road, as we had on the trip down, even though it added around 40 extra minutes to the journey. Armidale Road is in a really sorry state at the moment, and it’s just not worth the risk to the vehicle. That said, the detour gave us the opportunity to check out Raspberry Lookout. The last time we were there it was a total whiteout and we couldn’t see a thing, so this was definitely a nice step up.
25/04/25
"The following Friday was Anzac Day. Evelyn of Peacock Photography and I went to Uralla to cover the parade for a documentary project (and highlight video you can view here), and once that was wrapped, we decided to take the long way home via Thunderbolts Way to check out Yarrowyck Crossing Reserve, now that the water levels had dropped significantly. We're considering doing some art nude shoots at the location in the future, so we wanted to properly scope it out. I think we found some decent spots, we just have to hope that if the shoots go ahead, it’s a little quieter than it was on this trip. Evelyn did manage to befriend an inchworm while we were there, so of course I took some photos of her taking photos of it...
27/04/25
Rounding out the month, shockingly, was my first visit to the Armidale Markets in the Mall this year. I can’t believe it had been so long. Mixing things up this time was the fact that I was shooting on a Nikon for the first time. I’d been given an older semi-pro model quite a while ago, but never actually took the time to use it until now. It came with a 105mm f/2.8 lens, which is going to be invaluable for shooting the Australian Celtic Festival in Glen Innes this weekend.
I had a hard time navigating the menus and couldn’t figure out how to focus on a single point and then reframe, I usually use center spot focus and then recompose, which I find much easier on Canon. Still, I managed to get a few decent shots. Despite having more misses than hits, it felt great to be back at the markets again.
