What inspires you to take photographs?

For me, I have always enjoyed photography as a way of relaxing and exploring new (and old) places with my wife. I relished the feeling when I took what I knew/thought to be a good shot but wasn't truly inspired. I didn't have that "i must get up an hour before sunrise for the best light" attitude.

Until... a chance discovery on youtube led me to a UK photographer called Thomas Heaton. His photography is fantastic, very much a landscape photographer with a clear passion for his work. I binge watched his youtube collection over a few days, it was that good. Thomas releases two videos a week of excellent quality, highlighting the creative side of photography - the emphasis on composition rather just technical details. He does talk about settings and technical aspects of his work which is really useful too. Finding this channel kick started my desire to become a better photographer and inspired me to try a lot harder!

Having found Thomas' channel I thought there must be a similar, Australia based channel or community I could learn from. There is. I found a podcast called projectrawcast which is produced by two fantastic Australian based photographers - Kieran Stone and Tassiegrammer. Each episode is about an hour long and of excellent quality. They really focus on the Australian photography community and talk about a range of photograph subjects such as new gear, copyright, how to make the most of social media and about photography as a business and lifestyle. If you check out their work on instagram or the websites I linked above, you'll see that are exceptionally good photographers. they're at level I would love to reach.

Gear and learning only help so much. The most important part of photography is practicing what you've learnt. I have gear I am very happy with and live in a country with some amazing photography locations. Thanks to those mentioned in this article, and a few others, for re-inspiring me.