Born in Scotland. Australia is my home since 2006.

​​I had been an on-off photographer for so many years.  something I loved to do, but sometimes struggled to find the time or inclination to do. 

All of a sudden I was a husband then a dad and these things called "responsibilities" arrived!  More often than not, photography took a back seat in the journey of life.

My relationship with my photography had become...frustrating! Thinking about photos way more than making photos, shooting once a month or less and just disappointed with the results.

Around the middle of 2018 I found an incredible Light Painting image on Instagram...that was my lightbulb moment (see what I did there).  Despite taking photos for many years, it was only in the early stages of my Light Painting journey that I realised it was my "happy place".  It seems ridiculous to me now...how did I not realise??  The troubles of the world wash away when I'm making photos, they melt into the background and I get this calm, this peace when I'm dancing about like an idiot in my studio waving Light Painting tools around!  

The techniques and ideas have been around for over 100 years. In very simple terms, it is moving some sort of light source to ‘draw’ or paint within the frame of a single long exposure photograph.

With this particular field of photography, I believe that explaining the "how" with technical details detracts from the work, I'd rather you enjoyed the art.  So the above, is how I'll leave it.  There are loads of places in the internet to find out the mechanics if you are interested. 

I like the idea of the mystery. When I first started sharing these works…more often than not the question was “How did you do that?!” I’ve stopped explaining the ins and outs now…preferring that the viewer enjoys the result.

What you should know is that these are single photographs and not digital trickery.

While the images are edited, the edits are minimal…cropping for an artistic balance to the image for example. The colours and shapes are captured within a single exposure in the camera.

The important factor here is that long exposure, it's not a simple click, fraction of a second, but an exposure where I control the opening and the closing of the shutter manually…anything from a few seconds to 30 seconds or more.

Camera gear - all essential, of course,  to the creation process! I have many cameras, but my main workhorses are Canon.

Canon R6 Mirrorless

Canon 6d Full frame dSLR

I love my manual focus Samyang 14mm wide angle, it gives such a crisp clear image.

Other than that, more often than not its my Canon 16-35mm, wide zoom, but there are so many more lenses I turn to from time to time.

Check out the Refractographs - those were taken without a lens attached to the camera, that's an interesting technique. 

Sirui tripods.  Gotta keep it steady.

Light emitting devices - this is where the magic is made!  

Where? - The Darkness!