Over 30 years ago, I started capturing unique images of storms, wildlife, landscapes and seascapes across our amazing coastline, one of the world's most beautiful cities, Newcastle, Australia. With a love of storms, sunrises, sunsets and nature, I started out borrowing a mate camera regularly to try and capture photos of lightning as there weren't many around back then and none of Newcastle that I ever saw. My friends saw that it was a bit of an obsession and decided to chip in and get me a Canon AE1 35mm film camera for my 21st birthday. it took two years of trial and error and hundreds of rolls of film to finally get my first lightning photo. After that I was hooked when I had finally taken a few of some of our landmarks. I would get them printed as 8 x 10 photos at my local chemist to give them away as Christmas presents to family and friends. They said I love them, but as we all know, family and friends can sometimes just say things to be nice. so I thought the only way to know if people liked them was if I made them available for sale. This was before the Internet, social media and the opportunities of getting funding or grants as start-ups etc. But I thought how hard could it be and if it doesn't work, no big deal. I didn't like wearing shoes, so I created the name Barefoot Photography, intending to create affordable images of Newcastle for people to purchase, but at that time, nobody was selling images of Newcastle, and I didn't have any money to invest in my work. So, I thought I could ask some local framers if they were interested in buying any images to sell. I was often met with a burst of laughter from the owners telling me that if people wanted pictures of Newcastle, they would take them with their own camera. Eventually, one small framing shop in Darby Street decided to frame two of my storm shots and put them in the store window. They sold straight away, and so he was happy to put them regularly in the window. Eventually, a large framing company sold many of my images, but because I had no training in Business or Photography, I was only printing images out in small quantities. Therefore, the negatives started to deteriorate to the point where I could no longer get a quality print that I was happy to sell. Disillusioned, I no longer pursue the idea of selling the images.

Eventually, the first affordable digital SLRs were released. I saved up to purchase one, then had to re-learn how to take storm images as it was completely different from the way you did with film. Still, the bonus was unlike film; you were able to see instantly whether you actually captured the image. Not long after this, Facebook came around, so in April 2013, I was disappointed when I saw somebody had already taken the name Barefoot Photography. I decided to devise something that focused on storms and the beauty of where we live. The answer was simple: "Striking Newcastle" Facebook page to share photos as I took them. I got asked if I would ever have an exhibition or sell my images. After a huge storm season in 2014-2015, I decided to have an exhibition at Nobbys Lighthouse over the long weekend of January. It was amazing, with over 6000 people visiting over the weekend. I made a few sales and got great feedback from everybody who visited. So I decided to start selling them at the Olive Tree markets and more in the Hunter Valley, but I always found it difficult with the logistics and dedication required to maintain them if I wasn't doing it full-time. That's when I came up with the idea in 2016 to ask my wife Vanessa, a Graphic Designer, to create a unique calendar so that people could enjoy different images of their favourite places around Newcastle for 12 months of the year. I love to hear the stories that people tell me of the connection I have with the places or the images that are in the calendar and it is now become something people purchase every year for themselves, family members that live away and have never experienced what we have, but the most popular is to send them to expats that all the countries and become homesick and get to share with their friends of their hometown that they once lived.

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We get many requests from people asking if they can purchase the images and are excited to announce a selection of limited edition prints will be available to order online in February. international award-winning, make some of your favourite images, available as photo quality poster prints to order online from 20th of January.