Brisbane 2024
I was recently lucky enough to head to Brisbane for three days, my old stomping grounds in many ways, as I lived there for a number of years. After spending the better part of a year taking photos in the countryside, it’s always nice to return to the city and capture images in a style that’s not really an option in more rural areas. I do my best with street photography in the country, leveraging events and other special occasions that draw crowds, but in the city, there’s never a shortage of people.
Admittedly, the first day was spent mostly in transit—it’s about a six-hour drive, not including stops—so most of my shots were either taken out of the car window as we drove into the city or during a brief walk around the Botanic Gardens that afternoon as the sun went down. That said, I still managed to capture a couple of decent shots.
Day 2 proved to be a little more exciting, with a large portion of the day spent shopping (as you do in the city). On my end, it was mainly movies—I added a few new A24 films to my collection, including The Iron Claw and Marcel the Shell with Shoes On. I also picked up Robert Morgan’s Stopmotion and Dev Patel’s Monkey Man. In addition to shopping, I spent time exploring South Bank and the Sky Deck.
Having the entire day free also allowed for far more photography opportunities. The weather was perfect for shooting, even if it was a little sticky. All in all, it was a pretty successful day.
Our final day in Brisbane turned out to be perhaps the most productive. I got up extra early in the morning specifically to photograph people in Queen Street Mall, and I think I captured some pretty great shots in that location. Skipping a sleep-in that morning was well worth it.
During the middle of the day, we went shopping again, with the highlight this time being a very, very old bookstore. I picked up Vin Rude and Rude Food by David Thorpe, Touch of Silk by Peter Barry, and Hot Foot to Zabriskie Point by Jilly Cooper and Patrick Lichfield—all focused on nude photography, a genre I’m hoping to explore more in 2025.
We also took a nice, long CityCat ride up the river, though it didn’t yield as many good photos as I had hoped or expected. Later that afternoon, I spent an hour on a single street corner, experimenting to see how many good photos I could capture in one location during that time. I managed to get quite a few.
Once that was wrapped up, it was time to head to the Heilung concert, which was the main reason we drove to Brisbane in the first place—and, yeah, it was excellent.
That was Brisbane. I have no idea when I’ll be back again, but I thoroughly enjoyed our short stay.
