Brisbane Wedding: Logan & Lachlan.

Logan and I went to the same high school. We only shared a couple of classes together (visual art being one) and we'd not seen or spoken to each other since leaving school (nearly a decade ago). Earlier in the year, I was surprised and delighted to get a Facebook message from her asking if I'd be free to shoot her April wedding. To reconnect with someone in this way is so wonderful, and again I'm grateful and fascinated by the ways in which life weaves its magic.

I love what weddings have the opportunity to do for photographers. All these different families open up and welcome you into one of the most intimate days of their lives. We see what the bride and groom don't often get a moment to notice, and we're handy to have when the unexpected happens, like when the mother-of-the-bride steaming the dresses suddenly sets off the fire alarm and the fire brigade appear at the hotel. That's definitely a story we'll be telling over and over.

Ceremony venue: Our Lady of Victories Church, Bowen Hills
Dress: Grace Loves Lace

Garden exploration.

M and I ended our four-day Easter long weekend with a spontaneous late-afternoon trip through the Mt. Coot-tha Botanic Gardens. We both realised we hadn't been in years. It's funny how you can forget about all these amazing (and free) things to do around your city, but it always pays off to play tourist for a day.

It was the perfect precursor to a crazy fortnight of yoga teacher training, shooting Typism, attending a wedding and shooting my first wedding of the year—the fortnight I'm currently in the middle of. Looking forward to getting through all of my Typism shots and sharing them with you!

Künstler turns one.

A fortnight ago Künstler celebrated its first birthday, together with Sunday Social's 4th birthday and winter collection launch and House of Cards' A/W Collection launch. I got to meet so many new, passionate people from the Brisbane creative scene, some of whom I had heard of but hadn't the chance to meet personally, not to mention catch up with others who I hadn't seen in almost a year. If there's one thing I love, it's locals working hard to bring a unique offering to our city, and Künstler has given us just that, providing a thoughtful curation of independently published journals, magazines, and books, not to mention hosting photography, art and jewellery exhibitions in its beautiful matchbox space. I count myself pretty lucky to work just across the road from Winn Lane and I'm really looking forward to what else is coming up for Künstler and this creative little laneway.

Inna Bliss Yoga Studios, Brisbane.

My friend and my teacher, Kat. Taken at 6am in our beautiful bayside studio.

A couple of weekends ago I got to shoot for Inna Bliss Yoga studios once more. I've been a student at Inna Bliss for almost 3 years now, and for the last couple of years I've been working with the studios on their website, photography and some of their branding. Somehow, I'm always pretty lucky to land freelance projects where all the things closest to my heart coincide, and this is certainly no exception.

Maybe one day I'll write more of an in-depth post on how beneficial yoga has been for me, especially in the management of my anxiety, but for now let me just say that I love it a great deal and it's one of my many passions. This weekend I'll begin yoga teacher training for 6 months, so expect the occasional yoga photo from me as I share my journey with you.

Below, photos from my favourite shoot with the studios to date, taken at the Wynnum bayside studio where I normally practice.

Sun, sand and sea.

One of my favourite days, at some of my favourite places, with my favourite person. 

Brisbane was lucky enough to be given a day off on Friday for the G20 Leaders' Summit. Most of us escaped the city, and I chose to spend it enjoying the sunshine and celebrating my 24th birthday. I rarely go to the beach, let alone get the chance to spend 3 days doing whatever I please, so this weekend I made the most of it: a 2.5 hour challenging, but incredibly rewarding yoga workshop with 21 amazing women on the Friday, watching Interstellar in the afternoon. On Saturday Martin and I left home early, heading to Harvest for brunch and walking around Byron Bay.

If you know me, you'll know I'm more for low-key celebrations, so days like this are all I need. I'd much rather travel, explore or experience something as a gift, rather than add to a collection of stuff that will only gather dust and rot when I'm gone. In the last year I've been incredibly mindful to actually set myself proper days off for the good of my own wellbeing, and it was refreshing to have a couple days where I was not bound by time, rigid plans or any kind of obligation.

Most of the photos below are of our afternoon at Fingal Head, a 40 minute drive north from Byron.

Maleny Wedding: Lucy & Alex.

Four days after I came home from Borneo, I was a wedding photographer once more, shooting Lucy & Alex's wedding held at Maleny Manor. I was so honoured to be there, not only as their friend but as their photographer, to capture all the love and happiness between them & their families. There was so much genuine love in the room from all of them, and it made my job as their photographer so easy and full of joy.

After the wedding, I felt as if there was no possible way I could have told this story of what I felt and saw on the day: the closest group of family and friends I have ever seen, how much fun they are to be around, how they take care of each other. I was terrified I couldn't have done it justice, but they were over the moon when I showed them the photos, and that's all that matters to me.

My biggest thanks also to Emily Nelson, who was my second shooter on the day. We both went home on a high after spending 12 incredible hours with these guys.

The Ones We Love Exhibition, Künstler Magazines

Some photos from The Ones We Love exhibition & book release at Künstler Magazines. An exhibition of the most beautiful, tender & raw portraits of love, humans, life by photographers all around the world. It can be so hard to capture a person's essence, all of the facets of their being, in one single photo, but these photographers get it right. I hope to be taking more of these kinds of photos in the future.

I Used To Skate Once 10

Photos from the 10th annual I Used To Skate Once. As always the show boasted an impressive collection of work from talented artists from Brisbane and across Australia. There was even a skateboard connected to an electric guitar you could play that I wasn't able to get a better photo of! Make sure you keep an eye out for next year's event if you haven't been before.

Analogue/Digital Brisbane 2014 After-Party.

If you went to the A/D after-party at Greaser bar, you might spot your face in the video. The after-party was too good not to give it a separate video of its own. Some snaps below!

In case you missed it: go and watch the official Analogue/Digital Brisbane 2014 video.

Analogue/Digital Creative Conferences Brisbane 2014.

So pleased that I can finally post this. A month ago I had the honour of filming and photographing Analogue/Digital here in Brisbane. If you've been following my blog for a while, you'll know that I filmed Analogue/Digital back when it first started, just for fun from the safety of my seat in the audience when I was still experimenting with videography. Even then, Matt was incredibly supportive and encouraging—if you know Matt, then you'll know that he roots for the homegrown, the talented, the hard-working, and the passionate people who love what they do, whatever that is.

After attending A/D year after year and after taking photos from my seat at A/D again last year, Matt decided he wanted me to "do one of your sick films like you did for us the very first time!". I can't thank Matt & Alex enough for doing such brilliant jobs running the conference (which is now national!) and for giving me the opportunity to "officially" shoot it this year. I had an amazing time, as always—if you were there, I hope you did too.

Check out the A/D BNE after-party video & photos over here.

Jungle Heart: Exhibition Opening Night.

As some of you know, the past 6 months of my life more or less has been about raising funds for WWF and planning Jungle Heart. Last Friday we had our opening night and I'm still in a bit of disbelief that it's been and gone and was (dare I say it?) a raging success.

We had an incredible turnout for the exhibition at Southside Tea Room. Over half of our 14 pieces sold, not to mention the extra donations that came from our "World Change" tip jar and the exclusive Jungle Juice cocktail we had on the night. So many familiar faces from the Brisbane & Gold Coast creative communities came out to support us and this cause and I can't thank you all enough for being so kind and encouraging and about as excited as I was about the exhibition. To think that a lot of you have already called for a "next year" before I've even had a chance to delve further into the idea gives me hope that maybe I have started something truly good here.

Jungle Heart Exhibition: raising critical funds for Borneo & the orang-utans.

Over the weekend I announced something I've been planning for the last 6 months: Jungle Heart, an exhibition of original artwork by Australian artists joining the fight for conservation in Borneo.

A minimum 15% of each artwork sold on the opening night will be donated to WWF Australia. The Bornean rainforests are one of WWF's high impact initiatives, and these funds will help them to:

• Create a giant 220,000 km2 network of protected areas and sustainably managed forests
• Provide the people of Borneo with real alternatives to illegal poaching and logging
• Protect and sustainably manage the remaining natural habitat within the Heart of Borneo

It's been really exciting to put together this group of amazing creatives. These are people that I respect and admire, a mixture of emerging & established artists in their fields. Most creatives I know are incredibly passionate about the environment and the natural world, so for us all to be able to do what we love whilst giving back to the planet and raising awareness of Borneo is a really special thing.

If you live in Brisbane or you'll be in Brisbane on Friday, June 6, please come along to the exhibition—entry is free and the incredible crew at Southside Tea Room make amazing food and drink so it's bound to be a great night! RSVP on our event page and invite your friends.

I'll be regularly posting information about the event on our Facebook page, including sneak peeks of all the artists' pieces, any updates to the exhibition as well as facts about Borneo and the endangered orang-utans. Feel free to head over and "like it" to read more over the next few weeks.

Big, big thanks: My very big thanks goes to Brisbane creative ladies Jasmine Dowling (who hand-lettered the logo) and Sophia Mary Mac whose artwork for the exhibition is in the background of all our Jungle Heart images! It's thanks to you that the branding for Jungle Heart looks so lovely.

Atavist Books, Fortitude Valley

Last week Brisbane said goodbye to the cutest bookstore its ever seen. Atavist Books has been gracing Winn Lane for two years with its wooden walls, cosy space, old book smell and just recently, its Tuesday night book club held
every 6 weeks.

The closure of one of Brisbane's few independent boutique businesses is, yet again, a strong reminder to shop local as often as you can.

It seems like not so long ago that I was reading about Atavist in Frankie magazine, marvelling at the photo of this lovely, tiny store. Now here I was, taking photos for Sian (the woman behind this delightful pint-sized shop) before Atavist closed its doors for the last time.

Maleny.

A (late) photo-diary post from our weekend in Maleny for Rachael & Kyri's wedding. During our stay, we were treated to the quintessential Queensland summer—in one day, we went from the scorching heat, to heavy rain, back to a golden sunset, where we arrived in our mountain lodge just in time to see cows, a bull and a calf wander over into the paddock behind our room. I awoke early the next morning to the thickest fog in the valleys beyond, using the very few remaining shots left in my camera to capture our last moments there. Everything about this place is always perfect, and is always exactly what we need.

Ephemeral: New Works by Sophia Mary Mac.

My talented friend Sophia Mary Mac opened her first solo exhibition EPHEMERAL last Thursday. As always, her illustrations were amazing and I wish I was able to take home one of her pieces. If you missed it, the exhibition will be running for a month at The Scratch Bar, Milton.

Maleny Wedding: Rachael & Kyri.

Last weekend, Rachael and Kyri (friends of Martin and I) got married on a beautiful private property in Maleny. They put together a wonderful, picnic-style DIY wedding—probably the first time I've been to a wedding and felt comfortable with taking off my shoes and walking around on the grass. I wasn't the official photographer, but I brought my camera anyway.

Atavist BYO Book Club

Last Tuesday, Atavist together with Flip launched Bring Your Own Book Club: an informal, chair-free social club for book lovers (promo designed by yours truly!). Every 6 weeks, book lovers will gather in the cosy Winn Lane to exchange books, drink wine and talk about literature and beyond.

If this sounds right up your alley, come along to our next meet at 7pm on the 10th of December. Sign up for a 6 month season pass for $45 and get a 10% discount on most items in Atavist Books.

An early summer.

I haven't written much about life as of late. Not because there hasn't been much going on, but because I have barely had the time to sit and think, let alone write about it.

This year's winter was fleeting, barely inviting us to don much more than a jacket. It's been warmer than ever, our planet sending us clear, pained warnings. It was barely even spring when the jacarandas made their vibrant return to our city, forever our beautiful signal that the end of the year was near.

Since my last life post, there has been so much change. Martin has been on crutches since late June, having surgery in August and an extensive period of recovery even until now. I left one job for another, in turn remembering myself again, returning to my creative self and making time for drawing, reading, and hand-lettering once more—my very first loves. I was, and always have been, driven by a thirst for conceptuality, for substance and for art; forever wanting to maintain meaning and message in my work. I felt limited, frustrated, my ideas lacklustre and my creativity dull. I wanted to be pushed, and so I pushed.

I was once again inspired; once again growing. Somehow, without needing to learn anything new, I flourished. I've had everything I needed all along, to create work that was strong, and full of calibre—all I needed was change.

With these periods of change and growth came an even greater period of adversity. I lose battles daily, the tightening of my chest and my pounding, busy head taking over any sense of being collected. Sometimes I feel that my head will explode from the pressure, that the pain in my throat will cause it to collapse and my eardrums will burst from the noise. I am often overwhelmed by how much I care about everything. It's always been all or nothing. If I am going to care, I will care a lot; if I am going to love, I'm going to love a lot; if I'm going to do something, I want to do it well. But I think I would rather be this way, than any other.

Photos below taken on an iPhone 5. All this and more over at my VSCO Grid.

48 Hour Film Project.

A few weekends ago I was involved in the 48 Hour Film Project with the Flip team. Whilst I didn't do any filming work for this myself, it was great to take photos on set, sit back and watch how such a big day unfolds. We're hoping to do some more of these in the future. Our film will be available to view online after the screenings & awards nights in early October—we just heard that we've been nominated for an Achievement in Screenwriting! Here are some of my behind-the-scenes shots of the day:

Edit: You can now watch our short film, Keepsake, on Vimeo.

Ben Robinson.

The first time I have taken proper portraits of a guy—two photographers taking photos of each other actually really works. Here are a few shots from some casual shooting & strolling with Ben Robinson. If you haven't already seen his work, check it out—his stunning, minimal style is lovely.