11 Photos That Will Inspire You to Road Trip Through New South Wales, Australia

So far in 2016, I have spent just over 12 weeks on the road photographing quite a large part of Australia for various tourism marketing campaigns and other photography trips, mostly for my @tassiegrammer Instagram account and other social media channels. I have covered my entire home state of Tasmania multiple times from the ground, air and sea including the remote Flinders Island and King Island. To experience the “wet season” in full force, my partner and I traveled to the Northern Territory for a four-week road trip, where we drove just over 6,000km through some of the harshest but most beautiful parts of our country. And recently I spent 8 days on a road trip with @lake_of_tranquility where we drove from my old home of Sydney down south to Bermagui on the Sapphire Coast of New South Wales, revisiting and photographing some incredible locations.

When I lived in Sydney many years ago, I wasn’t as passionate about photography as I have grown to be in recent years. Since then, and especially since relocating to Tasmania, photography has become the biggest single passion in my life. I love sharing images and stories about adventures I go on with my partner and friends, which hopefully inspire others to get out and explore as much as they can. Part of the reason for this NSW trip was also to attend an astro- photography workshop run by two of Australia’s leading landscape and night photographers, @tscharke and @jaydidphoto. As my love for photography has grown, so has my thirst for knowledge. My New Years resolution to myself was to continue to learn as much as I possibly can from other photographers whose images have inspired me to get to where I am today. I want to continue to grow and expand my own photography skills, step outside of my previous comfort zone for post processing and editing, and learn as many techniques as possible to continue honing and improving on my own personal photography style.

The South Coast of NSW has amazing scenery and is heaven for landscape photographers. After landing in Sydney and spending the first night shooting in many locations around Sydney Harbour with one of my absolute favourite and incredibly talented Instagrammers, @_danieltran_, the first leg of our road trip took us as far south as Narooma where we based ourselves for the astro photography workshop for the next few days. Narooma is a great launching point for amazing locations like Camel Rock and Horse Head Rock which are located an easy 30 minute drive away near Bermagui. The photography potential at these locations, particularly for sunrises and astro photography is endless. I personally love photographing and capturing water in motion, giving a sense of movement and time in my images, and the ocean here suits that perfectly. One of my most memorable moments ever in photography happened at Camel Rock during one of the sunsets – a perfect rainbow appeared over the rock structure as I was trying to capture the motion of the ocean. I cannot express the emotion in words that I felt when I realised I had captured the rainbow, Camel Rock and the incredible ocean swell we were seeing that afternoon. It still gets my heart racing just thinking about the feeling I had inside myself over the next 15 minutes or so as I captured the rainbow in this almost perfect scene from as many angles as possible. I am sure many of you have experienced the feeling I had in those moments, and these feelings are partly why I love photography so much.

After spending four amazing days and nights around Narooma and Bermagui with a great group of photographers, it was time for @lake_of_tranquility and I to make our way back up the coast. First stop was Kiama, home of the awesome Bombo Quarry. This was my first ever visit to this location, and it absolutely blew me away. The ocean swell around the massive hexagonal basalt columns in this part of the coastline just needs to be seen to be believed. Over the next couple of days we made multiple visits here firstly to scope out the location, and then return visits for both astro and sunrise shoots. When you stand anywhere near the water whenever there is even a reasonable ocean swell, you can hear the thunderous roars as the waves smash against the rocks. During the night session we were incredibly lucky to be joined by @stephenmcasey who made the effort to drive the 90 minute trip south from Sydney to join us in the middle of the night. This is one of the great things about Instagram – the amazing community of people. Over the next couple of hours Stephen gave us a guided tour of Bombo Quarry and showed us some great places to shoot from, which we would never have found on our own in the pitch black darkness of the night. The next morning we returned and witnessed a beautiful sunrise while being mesmerised by the power of the ocean swell.

One location I have been wanting to photograph for many years now is the Sea Cliff Bridge which connects the coastline between Coledale and Coalcliff, just north of Wollongong. I am not sure there could have had better conditions for the shots I personally wanted to capture – the light trails of the traffic crossing the bridge just before the sun rises. I walked away from this location very happy and continued the journey back to Sydney, ready for a great night of shooting Vivid Sydney, the annual light festival which brings the city of Sydney to life and offers endless photographic opportunities. All around the harbour and throughout many other locations, light and art installations shine brightly into the night, with the main show being on the Harbour Bridge and the iconic Sydney Opera House. To all the great photographers and local Instagrammers who joined us for a rather wet and rainy night of photography, thank you and I still believe you are all just as crazy as I am for being out in those conditions.

Photography has become what seems like an endless and incredibly fun journey, which has given me so many incredible experiences, as well as meeting so many amazing people along the way. I feel very lucky that I have been able to generate an income from photography through tourism and social media marketing campaigns. I want to continue pushing my own limits and learn as much as I possibly can from as many people as possible, while refining and developing my own style of content. I want to continue to share amazing stories of great locations which are accessible to many people, go on adventures with my partner and friends and continue meeting people who feel the same way about photography as I do. My camera has given me a way to express the world around me the way I see it and hopefully give inspiration to many people to want to experience that for themselves. I can’t wait to continue this journey, to grow as a photographer and to share some amazing adventures with anyone who wants to follow along with me.