01/11/26
I have just returned to Armidale from a massive week-long trip to the motherland of the Northern Rivers. I filmed a lot of it, which will no doubt make its way into some kind of video in the future, but what I can say for now is that, despite the largely wet weather and the fact that I was actually working for most of it, it was a much-needed break, or half-break, I suppose you could say.
When it came to photography, I tried to travel light, choosing to only take my old Canon 200D with the 24mm pancake lens, my everyday carry, if you will. I have been struggling a bit internally as of late when it comes to my photography. It's been many months since I captured an image I really love, and my motivation to get out and shoot has been pretty low. I had hoped this trip would turn things around a bit. I don't know that it did, but it was still nice walking along the beach every day and just capturing whatever was happening, despite the largely lousy weather.
Being as subjective as all things are, you might like this collection more than I do. What matters is getting out there and shooting in the first place. I can't turn things around without putting myself out there, after all.
23/10/26
Day 1 of the trip was reserved largely for travelling, and travel through the pouring rain we did. We always pull into Ebor Falls on our drives to the coast, and it was great seeing it flowing so heavily after all the recent rains.
Once we arrived at Lennox Head, our destination, we quickly got organised for a meeting with my friend and colleague Christopher, the owner of iTalk Studios. I am currently deep in production on a massive 30-minute animated project for the team, but with the company being based out of Alice Springs, the fact that we had the chance to meet up in person (and were even joined by my grandmother), let alone at a location I am so familiar with, was kind of surreal in a lot of ways.
We had a good chat about many things, but I think the most exciting thing to come out of the meeting is the opportunity to film a documentary in Alice Springs sometime next year. Watch this space.
25/10/26
Day 3 of the trip (I didn’t end up picking up my camera on day 2, the weather just wasn’t having it) marked the beginning of my daily walks to the top of Pat Morton Lookout, regardless of the conditions. (It would take until my second-last day of holidays to actually get the conditions I wanted.)
It was an incredibly moody morning, with no sunrise to be seen. I managed to snag a couple of silhouette photos in front of the pub later that day that I really liked. I also quite like the shot of the goggles hanging on a post that some poor soul left behind, but photographically speaking, I personally found it to be a bit of an underwhelming day.
26/10/26
Day 4 brought the closest thing to date to a sunrise. It was fleeting, lasting all of 60 seconds, so I am feeling lucky that I managed to capture the little I did. But what was important was that it gave me hope. Maybe, just maybe, the sun would come out at some point during this trip and I would be able to capture the images I craved. It would not be this day, though. In fact, once my walk was done, my camera was put away and it didn’t get touched again until the next morning…
27/10/26
Day 5 continued the backing-off-of-photography trend. Conditions were uninspiring, to put it plainly. I was starting to feel pretty dire about this whole photography situation. You can only blame the weather so much; eventually, you have to take some responsibility for your inability to find art within the moment. That said, I do prefer the shot of the children's Ugg boot on this day over the one taken on Day 3. Someone must have knocked it off the fence, and the addition of the grass and sand, and more context in general, does a lot to improve the image in my eyes.
28/10/26
Day 6 rolls around, and things begin to change a little. Starting with, of course, the walk to the headland, which was completely enveloped in fog. Something I am told happens frequently, but it was something I hadn’t personally seen before, at least not that I can remember. It made for some pretty damn interesting images, in my opinion, at least. I also got my first shot of a surfer silhouette walking down to the water, my favourite thing to capture, and despite the fact there was no sun, it came out pretty alright! But that was just the start of the day.
It was quickly followed up by a trip with my grandmother to my parents' home near Lismore, and would you look at that, there's some colour in the photos! Yes, while it was still an overcast day, the area around my parents' home was too lush not to capture in colour, for the most part anyway. It’s also where I have to come clean: I did actually bring a second camera with me, the Canon R8 fitted with my Helios 44-2. I had originally brought it with the intent of using it for some portraits, but it ended up spending the whole trip in my bag aside from this one occasion. I am glad I ended up swapping it out for the afternoon, because I feel like that really made a positive difference to my photography for the rest of the trip. Sometimes you just need to use something cosy for a while to help you find your footing.
It ended up being a pretty emotional visit, and we were incredibly well fed. A lovely way to wrap up the day.
29/10/26
Day 7 is here, and finally, so is the sun. The initial walk filled me with hope that I would finally get the sunrise surf photos I had been waiting for, but unfortunately, getting the sun was only half the battle, as the surfers were nowhere to be seen. The tides weren’t quite right, and neither were the conditions, but I got to enjoy the sun on my skin. I also managed to get what might end up being my favourite photo of the trip: a simple sign sticking out from the long grass on the sand dune. It was all a step in the right direction, but the best was yet to come.
30/10/26
And so Day 8 arrived, and so did the chance to capture the photos I had been waiting for. Well, sort of. The sun was a lot more obscured by cloud than it had been the previous day, BUT the surfers were out, and that's what I was looking for. 24mm, I imagine, would be considered a very odd choice for surf photography by most photographers, and a fair enough thought, I think, given you can’t really get close to the subject. For me, it's more about being able to capture all that context: the entire wave, all of the other surfers bobbing around in the background, the sun beaming through the clouds. That said, you do always feel a little inadequate when you're surrounded by people shooting on their big fancy telephoto lenses while you're shooting on a little dinky pancake…
That afternoon, we also went for a walk with my parents and the dogs up to the dog beach past the surf club. I tried getting some interesting stuff, but I dunno, for some reason I didn’t really capture much. Too busy being in the moment, maybe, as I should have been.
31/10/26
And then Day 9 arrived. We wanted to leave early, so the walk to the headland was a short one. Thankfully, conditions were pretty average again (after the brief sunrise, at least), so I didn’t get caught up dragging things out taking photos. Looking at the images again now, they look largely pretty dirty. It really wasn’t a great morning lighting-wise, but oh well, the previous day made up for it.
We stopped at Ebor again on the way home. The waterfall was still pumping.
That's about it. I arrived home to a lawn that was absolutely out of control and desperately in need of some attention. Happy Halloween, everyone! Haha.
