About you (i.e. occupation, hobbies, etc.)
Hey there! I’m Ben, an energy efficiency engineer who is working to slash energy usage and emissions one client at a time! When I’m not behind the lens I’m either at the beach, playing DOTA, or trying to conquer every eatery in Sydney.
What gear do you use?
Nikon Z50
16-50mm & 50-250mm kit lenses for general run and gun and videos
Nikon 35mm f/1.8G for portraits
Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5 for landscapes and architecture
GoPro Hero 5 for my swims
What type of photography are you into?
I mostly enjoy a combination of urban photography with a side of architecture but have since started taking up landscape photography focusing on seascapes and astrophotography. Star trails are my new favourite!
How did you start photography? What inspires you?
It all started back in high school when I played around with the family camera, an 8MP Olympus FE-360, I very soon outgrew it and got my first camera the Nikon D3100 as a present. Over the years I shot on and off but never really fully delved into the hobby until I met some shooting buddies in university. My love for photography truly took off after that as I started exploring my surroundings more and more with the sole purpose of shooting.
Watching the great work other people produce has always been my biggest inspiration. Seeing them push their creative limits spurs me to do the same but with a sprinkle of my own style. I owe it to names like Evan Ranft and Daniel Schiffer all the way to the Saturday photography group I shoot with to keep pushing myself on this journey.
Top 3 photo locations?
- Istanbul, Turkey
- NSW South Coast seascapes
- Anywhere with neon signs (I am a sucker for them)
Top 3 photo/editing tips?
- Watch and learn! The internet is amazing. Everything is so accessible today and photography is no exception. I’ve watched countless hours of shooting and editing workflow by other people which allowed me to pick up a lot of tips and tricks to achieve results I want.
- Keep Practicing! In my opinion, photography is an art that is forever evolving, even within the individual. I’ve shot for years now and only recently managed to have a collection of presets that are specifically tailored to my needs. These presets did not appear overnight nor were they planned, they were the result of continually adding on to my skillset and tweaking them based on the direction I want my photography to take.
- Find people! Chasing sunsets and milky ways can be a little boring if you do it alone. Going out and finding other people with the same interest is a sure fire way to keep that motivation going. I attended an ozscaper meeting alone last year and was fortunate enough to meet a group who I now shoot with every Saturday and call good friends.
What has been your most memorable experience?
Definitely this star trail shot below. As beautiful as the photo is, the story behind is etched even deeper in my mind. This photo was the product of a small expedition with my mate Josh (insert link to his feature here) which we planned just a few days before. We had limited time to plan but we put our foot down and took a couple days off to shoot the last new moon of the milky way season. There were multiple challenges associated with this shoot, for example none of us has been to the location, cloud cover could pose a problem, the temperature fell below what we anticipated etc. We pushed through to overcome each of these issues so that we would return home with gems in our SD cards. We were literally shivering in the cold and dark while our cameras were busy exposing for hours of the night. In the end, I couldn’t be prouder of the images we produced as it was a testament to what sheer determination can produce.
If you had superpowers, what would yours be?
Definitely time manipulation. Then I’ll never miss a shot!
What have you been doing at home during this time?
I’ve done a fair bit of eating with a side of eating and also a bit of eating. Other than that, I’ve finally built myself a desk and a capable PC to edit the backlog of photos I’ve been collecting over the years!
