queensland

Brisbane With The Fuji GFX50R

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My last real time spent in Brisbane was for Expo ’88 in, you guessed it, 1988. With Brisbane up for the Olympic Games, there is a newfound interest in the city—new energy, new buildings. During some unexpected time there owing to a family emergency, I decided to get out on foot and really try and explore the city.

A budding photographer herself, my daughter came up with this composition in South Bank.

This is actually a New Year’s resolution of mine—to get out and shoot more this year owing to the limited work I put out in 2024. That is the hardest part of photography for me: simply getting out the door. Once you’re out and about it’s a simple case of reaching for your camera, right? Right?

The first day or two I struggled. I couldn’t find any good compositions, even after walking for hours around the CBD and then South Bank, moving north and still finding no luck. ‘You’ve lost your knack,’ I could hear myself thinking. ‘It’s been too long.’ I think every creative gets this sort of detachment and disillusion from time to time, but it started to become disheartening. Or was I simply being too hard on myself?

On a tip-off I headed to New Farm (after loading up with the much-hyped Brooki cookies for the kiddos). Here I finally started to find a couple of compositions in amongst the mix of luxe and commercial. Of the areas I frequented, New Farm was my favourite, though I’m told the house prices aren’t too much better than Sydney.

On a whim I met up with Glenn Homann, AKA Blueboy70, a local who has a likeminded interest in urban landscape photography and a big following on Instagram. The weather wasn’t looking too crash hot the morning of, but we persisted and got all seasons in the space of a couple of hours.

A cement mixer in motion. I had quite a few attempts at this to get the shutter speed just right. I’m sure any Aussie knows the company in question.

I especially loved this image. It’s something about the tonality and colour of the wall, and who can resist a pair of hanging shoes?

Glenn has such a good eye. I cannot tell you how refreshing it is to go out shooting with someone who understands what you’re looking for. A back alley, a loading dock, interesting bin… These are not what most people go searching for when out and about shooting, but Glenn knew exactly where to go and what my style was. We covered a lot of ground and chatted, and it was great. I had a lot of fun and came away with some keepers.

Interestingly, Glenn shoots with an iPhone. Lugging my Fuji GFX50R and 45-100 around I (and my back) definitely saw the appeal of using a phone. It’s also far more inconspicuous. I don’t tend to incorporate people in my shots, but using a phone makes it far less confronting. It actually got me thinking about using my phone more this year as a bonafide alternative. Definitely do yourself a favour and check out Glenn’s work here.

I don’t often take shots like this with so much visual clutter, but the angles seemed to work and I think it makes for an interesting image overall. How the bollard got like that… no idea.

I have been meaning to get out to Moreton Island for the longest time. There was not a single hotel room left on the island, but a daytrip seemed doable, so we got on a tour with a group of students and backpackers and made the most of it. Half the day was spent sandboarding and the other half in the water. For whatever reason, I expected the shipwrecks (scuttled there deliberately to encourage tourism) to be much bigger in person, but it was still quite amazing seeing how much sealife there was swimming around under the water. It’s a beautiful part of Australia and highly recommended.

Tangalooma on Moreton Island. The weather was a perfect mix of sun and storm this particular day. I did take shots with just the shipwrecks and sky, but I think this one is much more appealing because it has so many smaller elements, like the bird and lifeguard adjusting his sunnies (yes, there are lifeguards here), the people snorkelling, the birds… It works.

We also spent a week on the Gold Coast, and while I had big ambitions for photography, family ultimately took precedence. There is a cheap, kitschy side to the Gold Coast I’ve been wanting to shoot for the longest time, but it will have to wait.

What is in store for 2025 then? Certainly getting out to shoot more often. We also have a family trip planned to Japan. The last time I was there was almost fifteen years ago, so I imagine some things may have changed. And more ICM. I have a couple of Sydney landmarks in mind for that. Onward. More images in the gallery below.

Couldn’t pass up these very painterly clouds on the Gold Coast.

Regional Queensland With The GFX50R

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Although I haven’t pulled the camera out a great deal this year, an impromptu trip to Queensland with my daughter offered up the opportunity to hit the road. Over three days we drove from the Gold Coast to Toowoomba, cutting across to Kingaroy and back via the coast. While I wasn’t expecting much in the way of images, I was happy with a few and thought it might be nice to talk a little about composition.

I love this image because it sums up Queensland so perfectly. You have the big, blue sky, the same green of the bush and hinterland, and the yellow of the beaches/lifesavers, with a cheeky nod to the more adult activities on the Gold Coast and, of course, Queensland’s fave beer (highly debatable).

As you can see above, I rarely take just one composition of a scene, usually aiming for at least a horizontal and vertical. It can take a while to find the right composition. I’ll often be torn between which to upload to the website, but I think here the landscape orientation works a little better.

My daughter is starting to get into photography, so it’s wonderful to be able to shoot with her and talk the talk, so to speak. She’s becoming quite a good photographer in her own right. We took a few photos around Toowoomba. Having near been there before, I was surprised by the size of the town but also at the beauty of the architecture, especially the famous Empire Theatre.

The Empire Theatre, Toowoomba. Here I was drawn to the shadows at the front of the theatre and particularly liked the way the light was creeping up the bollard at the front. And hey, what’s a theatre without a bit of mystery?

And here is a quite different composition shown in the a window reflection showing a mirror image of the theatre and signage across the street. As always, it’s putting these elements together in a compositionally pleasing way that is the challenge.

Above you can see how I was drawn to these three buildings each built in a different time period. On the right is what I’m thinking in my head putting together the composition in my head, which is for all intents and purposes the rule of thirds. What’s interesting is how it’s not symmetrical. I believe this is because I wanted more highlights on the left to balance the darker tones of the right.

Right next door to the Empire Theatre is the equally beautiful Masonic Hall - a common fixture of most regional towns.

From Toowoomba we headed to Crows Nest, a popular stop given the now famous patisserie, which was sadly closed when we arrived. I did manage to score a variety of rather interesting flavours of soda at the Crows Nest soda shop (musk, anyone?), also taking a moment to check out the local art collective.

It’s a fairly nondescript drive following this to get to Kingaroy, a regional town largely famous for its peanut production. Naturally, we couldn’t resist stopping by the peanut van in town for some salted caramel peanuts, though they have bacon and a ton of other unusual flavours if that’s more your vibe.

I had fallen in love with this parking lot for the town cinema at Kingaroy on Google Maps. Blue skies and the right lighting made it perfect. There’s just something so wonderfully retro about it.

But again, which composition works best? I suppose when I’m composing in camera, I’m always imagining these images printed large and hanging on someone’s wall, which is where I think all the negative space comes into it.

Right in the middle of town are the peanut silos and factory. There’s a golden tower there of some description. I have no idea of its actual function, but I loved the look of it. Even with the right light, however, I could not find a composition that worked, as you can see below (the best I could muster). And sometimes that’s simply the way it goes.

Peanut production, Kingaroy.

Above is another scene I found walking around town. I’m constantly drawn to bright colours and scenes I think sum up towns in a way. Which composition of the three do you prefer?

Or how about this town bakery? Is the composition better with or without the classic green canopy on the right?

How about the scene above? And yes, I know it’s more retro signage, but I cannot resist. To me, while the image on the right has a more simplified geometric feel to it, there’s more compositional complexity on the image on the left thanks to the mirroring shadow at the bottom of the frame. I also think the addition of the tree in the top left is interesting.

Of course, everyone sees things differently, and it’s been fun seeing what my daughter has been able to come up with viewing the same places. There is something about a child’s eyes that is imbued with a natural curiosity and willingness to explore composition that is perhaps lost the older we get and the more visual stimulus we’ve churned through in life.

As for the trip, if you live in Queensland I’d highly suggest hitting the road and exploring some of these regional towns if only to escape the hustle and bustle of the big cities (and that god-awful M1). Thanks for viewing.