It was great to head out on a fine summer’s day with a good friend shooting around the Sydney CBD. It’s rare I have company, but provided they can stand by constant yapping, it’s always fun having a second pair of eyes as you’re wandering around.

I love this one. I’m actually accumulating a few images like this. It’s very illustrative, almost paper-like. Could be a series. ‘Urban garden’ or some-such.

I always find photographing the Sydney CBD especially hard, as I do most cities. As I’ve said before, there’s just a lot of visual clutter. It’s also hard finding new compositions in streets and places you’re so familiar with. This morning we chose to start in North Sydney for something different. We then made our way over the bridge and towards the Royal Botanic Gardens.

The beautiful part of a photo walk is the unknown. You don’t know what’s going to be happening in the city on that particular day, what the weather will do—It’s full of possibility. We had quite nice light in North Sydney thanks to a largely clear sky, though the heat picked up pretty fast. It gets hot in Sydney this time of year, usually 40degC plus.

I haven’t seen these bendy buses for a while here. Having a bit of fun here with perspective. The bus was actually parked on a hill.

To be completely fair, these photo walks usually turn into food walks for me. This was no different. And damn if I didn’t have an especially good chocolate croissant down in The Rocks. It’s also a good way to break things up a bit. Always good eating to be found around the CBD.

Again, I took both the Fujifilm XT5 and my film camera (Canon AV1), the latter of which was loading with redscale film, for something different. I had meant to try out the multiple-exposure function on the XT5, but completely forgot about it. It’s also been nice using a sling-style bag as opposed to my older backpack. Now, I simply reach down for my camera as opposed to having to pull off my backpack, unzip it, take out the camera, etc.

I can’t resist a good swoopy boi (magpie). Again, leaning into those deeper shadows now.

Loved the circular shape of this shadow under the Bridge in North Sydney. The back of the Merc adds a bit of mystery.

I’m hoping to get out on more photo walks this year around the city, which is always easier said at the start of the year. Even if you don’t take any photos, you have to consider the mental and physical benefits to getting outdoors and walking. I think we covered around 21,000 steps before we finished up at lunch, which is something. It sure beats sleeping in. More shots below.

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.

Sydney CBD Photo Walk With The Fuji XT5

Brisbane With The Fuji GFX50R