Australia

As I alluded to previously, Australia was a milestone for Driftwood Photography Studios. I'm sure I would have come to it eventually, but I happen to like that it was born out of my time over there. If you've never gone, take my advice- pony up the airfare, give yourself two weeks or more, and go check it out.

Whether you're a travel enthusiast, world traveler, foodie, artist, photographer, trekker, surfer, you name it, the land down under has more than you could ask for.

I began my travels on a surf trip from Sydney to Byron Bay, definitely one of the surf meccas of the world. Though there was plenty to point my camera at, I took a lot in that week. Surfed a lot too. After the week was over, I'd already fallen in love with the place.

Ever since my trip on the March I knew I wanted a camera with me to capture what I saw and experienced. Up until this point I'd certainly gotten some fun, "look at me" photos to send back home, but it wasn't until I got stranded in the tiny, isolated town called Rainbow Beach that I truly came to realize I shouldn't be taking the touristy shots. Instead I needed to capture the untouched beauty of the country.

I traveled up the coast to Cairns, stopped off along the way in the breathtaking Whitsunday Islands and Whitehaven Beach (one of the most beautiful places in the world), a detour inland at a cattle ranch, Magnetic Island (which looked like it was taken out of a Corona ad), the Great Barrier Reef via Cairns, Back to Sydney, to Uluru and the Olgas in the Red Center, north to Darwin and Kakadu National Park, Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road, and eventually home by way of New Zealand and Fiji.

I took close to 5,000 pictures.

And fatefully, on that return plane ride State-side, a woman looked over my shoulder from the row behind me, saw me editing/organizing photos from my travels, and wtih one inquiry planted the seed that will now hopefully grow into a flourishing business: Do you have a website or sell your photographs? They're spectacular."

To which I replied, "Not at the moment, no. But I will!"