About Shaun
Hi, I’m Shaun McGrath, life is busy – I am a father of 4 young kids that I love dearly but who do their very best to turn my brain into a puddle daily. My day time is as spent as Creative Director of Access hairdressing here in Sydney, my career in hair has taken me all over the world and allowed me to do some wonderful things it is both my job and hobbies I really love it and over the years it has been my unknowing education in photography.
What gear do you use?
- Nikon D800
- Tokina 16-28mm
- Tokina 100mm
- Nikkor 35-70mm
- Miops trigger
- a good torch
- speed-lights
- and chocolate
What type of photography are you into?
Really thought I’d be a portrait-based photographer, but the quiet of landscapes has really captured me and I spend more and more time with nature and old walls of concrete than I do with people. Tried to get into macro but just don’t see the point.
How did you start photography? What inspires you?
Over the last 20 years, I have worked as a hairstylist on editorial campaigns, hair collections, stage, and catwalk show often alongside epiclyalented photographers. This year I decided that I wanted to try to learn my way around a camera well enough so that I could start shooting the salon’s photographic collections in-house, then Covid hit……….it was March 2020 I was about to take a month away from the salon and on my last day I called Georges and arranged to pick up a Nikon D800 from the secondhand gear section to try my luck.
Due to usual waking hours been happily taken up by family and work, time to develop a skill set in photography was pushed well into the evening with 90% of my photography taken in the hours of 10pm-3am – hence the Instagram tag @after_everyones_asleep.
What inspires me.. well I grew up always next to the water and find it really comfortable and relaxing to be back there so the coastline inspires me massively, and the bigger the swell the better the shot, I also feel inspired by clever design (line, form, colour), and for something a little different – the art of decay.
Top 3 photo locations?
Malabar headland / Little bay / Royal National Park
Top 3 photo/editing tips?
1. always always always take spare batteries
2. Before you drive 30 minutes to the evening’s location, make sure you have taken your memory cards out of the card reader and put them back in your camera… again!
3. If it’s not fun, you’re not doing it right.
What has been your most memorable experience?
I was taking a coastal shot at about 2am on Newport beach a couple of weeks back and had a meteor blast straight through the center of the frame – it’s my not my best shot ever but it was a wonderful sight, the photo is on my Instagram, go take a peek.
If you had superpowers, what would yours be?
To instantly realise when I am walking out the door without spare batteries or memory cards…keep it simple.
What have you been doing at home during this time?
Surviving parenthood.
