I've been taking photos since I was about eight years old. Not seriously, not with any plan, just with the instinct that some moments deserved to be kept.

Growing up in Byron Bay gives you a lot of moments worth keeping.

It's one of those places where the beauty isn't dramatic or rare. It's just constant. Walk to the beach at the right time of morning and something will happen. A set of dolphins moving through a glassy lineup. The lighthouse turning gold before the sun is fully up. A surfer holding a perfect trim on a long wall. You start to notice it when you're young, even if you don't have the words for it yet. The light here is different. The water here is different. The pace of the whole thing is different.

I started photographing seriously when I felt the urge to capture what I was seeing and share it. Instagram became the platform. The ocean became the subject. And Byron Bay became the place I kept coming back to, even when I was travelling. The Mentawais gave me raw tropical colour I hadn't seen before. The Maldives gave me remote islands that barely felt real. Japan. Bali. All incredible. But Byron Bay is where I feel most like myself with a camera. Because I know it. I know what the light does in summer versus winter. I know where to be at dawn. I know the spots most people walk past without looking.

That's what years of being somewhere gives you. Not just familiarity. Vision.

I believe any five photographers could stand at the same spot in Byron Bay at the same moment and come home with five completely different photographs. Photography isn't really about the location or the gear. It's about how you see. And Byron Bay is where I learned to see.

I'm still learning. I think every good photographer is. There are shots I haven't got yet, angles I'm working toward, moments I haven't caught, and that's part of what keeps me out there.

But if you want to understand where my work comes from, start here. Stand at the Cape Byron headland at first light and watch the ocean move. That's the beginning of all of it.

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