Dominic writes:
In 1994 we decided to try a bit of a change in life. We bought a one way ticket from London to Queensland, ending up in Cairns. It was a great step forward.
Uni degrees in chemistry are of limited benefit in Cairns so I decided for a change in career. Most of my time working in the UK was spent arranging extended holidays for travel and photography. So in fact it wasn't too much of a change to move to full time photography.
In 1996 we were living along Pine Creek Road near Gordonvale. We named our business Pine Creek Pictures. We are not married so the logical step was to start with wedding photography. The weddings were fun but after 600 of them and ten years we thought it was time to see what other people did on a Saturday. A lot of our wedding customers started coming back with their children for family portraits. So we changed to photographing kids instead. This has worked very well and we tend to find kids are a lot less fussy about their hair. We have also shot a lot of sport over this time and this has also proved very popular (again most players, not too worried about their hair).
Both kids and sport require the same skills in my photography. Split second timing of that perfect moment is combined with a natural instinct for great light.
For families and kids, personally I love the natural outdoor look combined with the textures of rural Australia. Kids are far better to photograph when they are just running around and having fun, eating rocks and falling in the mud. We used to go to some great rural outdoor locations around Cairns. However slowly but surely they are 'developed'. So we started to encourage families to come out to our home in the scenic Little Mulgrave Valley. Our home here was the original farm house and barracks for the area and is just perfect for photography (on the occasional dry day). Images from down on the Little Mulgrave River also look absolutely stunning.
Luckily for those wet days we also have our studio in Cairns. After moving studio three times, we settled on the current location in 2002 at 247 McLeod St in North Cairns. Apologies to all those people who come and try to find us when we are out photographing on location. Please ring first. 0419 028 077.
After 15 years photographing I must have almost photographed almost everything in every situation. This experience is invaluable and helps me to tackle any assignment with confidence. I'm not sure how many people I've been lucky enough to photograph over the years but it must be many thousands. Thanks to all of you for letting me into your lives for a short while.
In the quiet season I like to get out of Cairns and take my camera to see some of the rest of the world. Every year I try and get away to at least one overseas destination. In particular I look for the local wildlife. Unfortunately for Lisa, I tend to avoid the luxury hotels and go for slightly off the beaten track destinations. New Guinea is my favourite at the moment and I have made six brief trips there over the last two years. I'm also keen on South & Central America and have spent a total of at least a year traveling through countries in that region. After visiting at least 45 countries, that travel coffee table book is long overdue!
Despite being very good with the camera Lisa tends to leave most of the photography up to me.
Looking through our website you might notice how the horses do tend to feature. Lisa is very passionate about her horses and spends as much time as possible competing in Dressage, Showjumping and Cross-Country. The horses also like to join in with the photography from time to time. Other times they do need to be bribed with a carrot which is usually close at hand. They are quite used to small children and are surprisingly very calm.