Portraits at Mount Yarrowyck
30/08/26
It’s always an exciting moment when I get asked to shoot portraits, as it doesn’t happen often. Obviously, I very much enjoy taking photos of people, but usually it’s from an observational point of view; rarely do I get the chance to actually collaborate directly with a subject.
So naturally, when good friend and frequent collaborator Lisa let me know she needed some new portraits taken after winning the University of New England’s 2026 Alumni Community Work Award for her work with Empty Space Productions (and with only a couple of days to organise the shoot), we ended up travelling out to Mount Yarrowyck Nature Reserve, a location I am slowly starting to refer to as “the studio” due to the frequency I have been going out there lately.
Being a portrait session, lighting was everything, so we headed out early enough to arrive with enough time to walk to the shoot location, work out some poses, and then it was just a matter of waiting for golden hour to kick off.
I love working with Lisa. She moves pretty much autonomously with the light and just kind of knows what poses will work in any given moment. As someone who mostly does documentary-style work and more observational-style photography, I don’t spend a whole lot of time directing or instructing people (something I know I need to work on). Lisa makes the whole process feel incredibly effortless, which in turn makes me look like I know what the hell I’m doing once the photos are done, which is nice. I think she is one of those collaborators that really brings out some of the best in me creatively, and I would like to think she feels the same way.
In the end, I am really happy with what we captured. We got the more “corporate” shots we needed, but still with a little bit of artistic flair, along with a bunch of far more creative portraits. This is our third creative shoot together, and each session has been in a completely different location. I can’t help but wonder where we will end up next.
