How do you say thanks to a million people?

Ok it wasn't quite a million, but not far off!

This is a message to say thank you to an incredible amount of people. Two weeks ago i was challenged to find the best referees for my work. An amazing opportunity with Tourism Australia was the reward so i set out to see who would like my work and who would like it enough to share it. I shared one photo and asked if people like it, that they shared, liked or commented on it. My aim was to get 10,000 views and 100 comments on that photo.

Not only did i reach that target, i completely smashed it. Through your help i reached an incredible 331,287 views on Facebook alone. With other platforms like Twitter, Pinterest and 500px i could not keep track of how high it finally got. It got shared 438 times and liked 8,445 times. There was nearly 200 comments and the overwhelming response was positive. This is staggering to me and as the number continued to grow i grew confident that my submission to Tourism Australia would be one I'd be proud of.

You can check out the video that i submitted here. I'll add it here shortly and would love some feedback. This all happened in two weeks and with a full time job that can be pretty demanding at times i believe i created something that i can be proud of.

Will it all be enough to win? I honestly don't know. The competition seems pretty incredible too and i know they'll be submitted stunning work. The questions i prefer to answer right now is: Is it enough for me? Was what i submitted the best i could do? I can say with some ferocity that i am satisfied and i believe i did the best i possibly could. If that's not enough to get me through to the final 3 then i can live with that. 

Not only did i have great support from the public, my family and friends helped me far more than i could ever deserve to ask. I love them all to death and hoped they'd be able to help in small ways, but they went completely above and beyond. Ideas i was hoping to do fell through and we thought of others. People asked their friends and pleaded with other people to help. It was an incredible feeling having a hoard of people fight for me and i am going to try my best to thank them all as best i can. They know who they are so i don't want to put all their names here. I'm bound to forget someone and that would kill me. To everyone though, thank you! If this is the end of this particular phase then what I've learnt through this has given me more than any job could possibly hope to.

I offered up a huge printed version of the photo i was sharing to say thanks to those that helped share it. I'm going to work through every single person, every like, every share, comment, Tweet, blog and retweet and choose someone. It will take some time so bear with me. I'll announce it as soon as i can!

I can already see that one prize is just not enough. I'm going to work on some other things that i can give to a few others that went above and beyond to help. I haven't got it all figured out but i hope it goes some way of saying thanks.

Thank you to everyone that helped me. This post can't begin to show how much i appreciate what you all did. 

Rallying Support

Today has proven to be one of the more interesting days in the "Best Jobs in the World" roller coaster i've been riding this last month or so. While i want to keep my final vision close to my chest for now there are parts of it that are starting to come together.

Firstly, my effort for public support and advocacy has risen to heights i never thought was possible. Posting an image on Facebook, i was aiming for 10,000 views and a hundred likes but as staggering as it seems to me it has now been seen over 200,000 times, been shared hundreds of times, liked over 3,500 times and contains more than 100 comments from "What a great experience to go with such a beautiful photo!" to "It looks magical!"

But it was one particular comment from Brooke Karma Sruhan which summed up why it is i love what i do: "I'm only 19, but it's spots like this that inspire my entire entity to do all that i can to be able to admire such a place, even just once in my life." I'm lucky enough to do what i do and love it while I'm doing it. I don't take for granted the things I'm doing and know there's others who don't get the same opportunities. (Image above and link to the Facebook action)

While the public support of my work makes me both proud and grateful there was a particular moment today which i hope will prove to be a relationship that blossoms into something beautiful.


I'm thrilled to announce a partnership with The Huddle – an amazing, award winning organisation attached to the North Melbourne Football Club. For those of you who haven't heard of them they focus on enhancing social cohesion with youth from migrant and refugee backgrounds. Their work is incredibly important and with the multicultural nature of the Melbourne area and Australia as a whole this sort of engagement becomes even more crucial.

Most Aussies love their sport and I'm certainly no exception. Being able to work with this group is enormously exciting and I'm anticipating some wonderful things in the future.

So what does this mean? Should i get the chance to be in Melbourne full time as the winner of the Tourism Australia "Best Jobs in the World" campaign I'll be using my skills as a photographer, videographer and writer to help them capture the reactions and insights from their programs! It'll be done purely on a volunteer basis to offer something back to a community group that deserves it. If I'm not the lucky person to get through, that's not going to stop me helping them either. I'll be able to spend less time in Melbourne, but I'll still head down to help bring together - in images - all the amazing work they're doing.

Through the entire "Best Jobs in the World" campaign I've felt this could be used for a wider good and i hope this could form part of that. Besides, I'm pushing to reach my dreams it only makes sense to help others live theirs.

Take a look at their Facebook page to see just what a difference they're making.

So you can tell I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to share what i love with an organisation doing wonderful work. Thanks to everyone at "The Huddle" and I can't wait to get started.


While I come from a family of one eyed Collingwood supporters and can at times struggle to take my pies jumper off to wear my suit to work, i will be watching North Melbourne take on Port Adelaide this Saturday with an air of excitement and anticipation.

Go pies North!!

Creative Inspiration

I'm always curious hearing how other people get their creative inspiration. Spending the last few weeks on Tourism Australia's 'Best Jobs in the World' campaign has really amped up my creative endeavours. I've had to hone the way i get that spark as quickly as i could and i like what's come of it. I seem to go through a pattern with the way i approach jobs and at the time it can sometimes get a bit stressful but ultimately it's worked for me time and time again.

I try and sit down with all the information about the job in front of me. I like to brainstorm nice and fresh before I've had any real thought go into it just to see what comes up. A lot of the time that ends up with some wild ideas that when i nut out how I'd go about achieving it i quickly realise i don't have the resources or the time. The good part of that wild thinking is it gives me small ideas that i end up putting into the final project. I've found with the latest challenge Tourism Australia has thrown at me it took a couple of days and a few crazy ideas to settle on something i think is fantastic. It's got elements of the wild ideas, but it's now more finely tuned and ready for me to build. I know the elements and i know what i want to accomplish, it's now just a matter of putting all the pieces together.

I don't want to reveal too much just yet but of the close friends and family that do know what I'm aiming for they've all gotten excited and had that instant joy from hearing it. That's the reaction i look for to make sure I'm on the right track.

It's funny where some of the inspiration has come for these sorts of projects though. I am similar in a lot of respects to people who love to listen to music. I've constantly got my noise cancelling headphones wrapped around my head listening to random songs as i go about my day. It drowns out the rest of the world and i find that despite not directly thinking about the next or current project my mind always drifts there anyway and i feel my subconscious picking away. Sometimes it takes hours, sometimes minutes but inevitably parts of it all fall into place and I'm ready to put it to work.

Most of the time i have something going on that is in the forefront of my mind and has my brain ticking over. There's times i really find it hard to turn off and when I'm heading to bed i know this can be a real frustration. It's amazing how imaginative i find myself just as I'm drifting off to sleep. The upside is that more often than not i get three or four ideas that really sing, the downside of course is the lack of sleep when i don't switch off.

That's more or less how this one has gone as well. I've spent numerous sleepless nights writing out idea after idea no matter how crazy they seem at some ungodly hours. Parts of those have come to make it in the final vision but many are left on the page, to hopefully never be seen by anyone lest they fall in to fits of laughter! Plenty of inspiration has been had with the soothing sounds of "The Bloody Beetroots", "Radiohead" or one of my all time favourites "Powderfinger" ringing in my ears. It's gotten me to this point and I'm proud of what the final product will look like. That is of course if i can pull all the pieces of this particularly intriguing puzzle together in just over a week. It's going to take some serious dedication, willing and helpful friends and my ever brilliant family to get what i think is a nifty little product.

(The Elephant photo above is one of my all time favourites and helped form part of my first video submission - although you never actually got to see it in the video! The second photo is from the National Carillon on Aspen Island, Canberra and was the scene of the crime for the same video.)

Two of the best jobs in the world

I've said for quite a long time that i already have the best job in the world. That was up until about 3 weeks ago when i came upon a Tourism Australia campaign offering 'The Best Jobs in the World'. Of course i had to check out more and when I read that it was a follow-on to the famous 2009 campaign that involved Ben Southall and Hamilton Island i was hooked. I remembered vividly what happened during the entire time and i was thrilled it was on again.

Now up front I'm happy to admit i wouldn't have been the best person for the Hamilton Island role. Of course, like thousands of others i would have been thrilled to be paid to look after it as 'Island Caretaker', but ultimately my passions and talents lie elsewhere. What i'm good at and what I'm extremely passionate about is my photography, videography, writing and traveling. Finding ways to combine those has been my continual battle for nearly a decade now.

I've found ways to do what i love and get paid for it and i love telling people that my job is the best in the world. Rarely though, have i been able to combine all 4 of those passions into one ultimate (or 'best' if you will) job. So reading through the roles on offer with this particular campaign and coming across the Lifestyle Photographer in Melbourne, Victoria was almost a dream come true. Ok it wasn't almost a dream come true, it absolutely was. I knew i had to apply and as i was busily clicking my computer finding more information i already had ideas floating around my head on what i could possibly do.

Richmond Station, Melbourne, Victoria

To my dismay i realised i may have been too late. The competition closed in less than a week and the requirement was a 30 second video showing why i was the best person for the role. I wanted to be creative, passionate and bold but i also wanted to show what I'd already done since i first picked up my camera. Now fitting that in to a 30 second video is challenging enough, but to do that and shoot, edit it and submit it in around 6 days was going to be interesting! I'm always up for a challenge though so I decided then and there that I'd give it my best shot. I thought of my idea, spent every minute i could on scripting and planning and called in favours from friends to help get me over the line.

Working a full time job that can be quite demanding at times made this an even more formidable task. I managed to get it done with plenty of help from others and very little sleep and the end product was something i was happy with but certainly not something i couldn't have spent a few more weeks on!

I spent a frustrating time attempting to sleep last night, tossing and turning as i tried my best not to think about it. This morning at 7am I'd finally find out whether all the effort would result in me being selected as one of the 25 finalists out of over 40,000 eligible entrants. What made it worse was the fact that the previous night i was also quite excited by all of this and dreamt about making the short list. That didn't help!

I woke at around 6:25am and did my routine check of emails and before my very eyes was one labeled 'Congratulations - You are one of the 25 shortlisted candidates for the Best Jobs in the World - Lifestyle Photographer'. That is the best way to wake up!

So now i sit here, a little proudly i must admit, racking my brain again for stage two of the process. I've got a million ideas and a thousand things i want to do so for the next two weeks you're going to hear from me about a lot of them. Some won't work and hopefully some will, and if all goes to plan I'll make the 3rd stage and head to the interview process. But if all doesn't go to plan then this whole process has been a hell of a ride already!

The Great Ocean Road, Victoria

Like i said at the start, i already have a brilliant job but everything that makes me who i am and who i want to be is contained in this amazing opportunity. I'm asking for your help to spread the word to everyone that will listen that Melbourne, Victoria is the best place on Earth, and Travis Longmore is the best person to show them that.

Backtracking Tasmania

I'm writing this from my hotel room in Bangkok. I've got such a backlog of blogs, photos and videos to get through but i also want to get out and see this city a little more. Luckily I've been here before and did a huge trip around getting photos so i don't feel so bad, but i really wanted to get going with the next in my Tasmania series! Hope you all enjoy!

For those paying attention you may notice i said i wasn't done with St Columbia falls just yet and in my third day in Tassie i got to experience more of the amazing scenes down there. I decided i just had to go back for more and woke up at around 4:45am to get on the road in the hopes i might score a nice sunrise along the way somewhere. I was not disappointed. The gorgeous photo above was just outside St Helens and i sat there transfixed for at least a half hour watching this scene unfold. I got photos and some video to hopefully get a nice funky film at the end of this. It wasn't until day 4 that i actually figured out an idea for the video but that's for another blog ;)

Once i managed to pull my jaw off the ground i jumped back on the road and continued onwards to St Columbia falls. I fell a little in love with this place when i saw it first and the second time around was no different. This place is just magical. It looked like a scene out of Jurassic park with the lush green vegetation so thick the sun could hardly poke it's way through. The small streams that were bubbling along were offset by the enormous 90 metre falls just a short walk away.

This time i was there more for video footage and less about the photos so i got out the equipment and got rolling. My ever present complaint about the amount of gear I'm loaded up with is always worse when I'm trekking up and down places like this, but it's all worth it when I'm back and have the photos open in front of me.

Once I'd got enough footage to sort of satisfy me i left towards Bicheno. I stopped a few places along the way and one in particular makes me laugh thinking about it. I saw a cute little bridge and stream just down from the falls and had to take a shot. Once i pulled over and got out i realised there was a god awful screeching happening under the bridge. I honestly thought something was being killed down there so i hurried to see what it was. Once i peered underneath it wasn't anything sinister, it was just around 30 ducks all squawking together. It was LOUD! 

I couldn't let the moment pass so i decided to get some video footage as well as the photo above. The best part of this whole adventure was when this kindly old farmer guy rode up on a 4 wheeler and parked next to me. For a second i thought i might be on his land and he wanted me gone but he just wanted to say hi. After the initial hello's and introductions there was a short awkward silence before he said: 'Sooooooo… you like ducks?'. It was awesome. I said yes and got talking about where i was from and what i was doing. He was super nice and we had a good old yarn for a while before he had to get back on his bike and onto the farm.

Once i was done there i headed back to Bicheno. We were checking out and had to head off from this little place I'd become very fond of. I met up with Heidi who had been busy sampling the local cuisine and we had a bite to eat and were on our way to Hobart. It was a pretty uneventful trip with some wonderful scenery. The most notable was a very strange looking bridge with spikes stuck all over it. It was even more strangely named 'Spikey Bridge'.

Once in Hobart we got some food from a nice little Vietnamese place and decided to call it a day. We made our plans for day 4 of our trip and hit the hay a little full but very happy.

Sunny Tasmania

The second day of my Tasmania adventure began early in Bicheno. I got my camera gear all organised and ready for a trek to Freycinet National Park and Wineglass bay. Heidi and i both knew there was a little hiking on this section of our trip so we packed accordingly. Well i should say she packed accordingly. I still had around 50 kg's of gear with me and knew it may end up being a long day!

The drive down to Freycinet National Park was nice a quick but was still a gorgeous drive. The scenery around Tasmania had definitely lived up to expectations all the way from Launceston. It had been a photographers dream and so far i was pretty happy. We got to the car park below Wineglass bay and knew it was going to be a wonderful view just by the reactions from people who were coming down. Although by the looks on their faces and the sweat pouring off them i was starting to re-think my camera gear.

My better-safe-than-sorry attitude got the better of me and in the end i left most of my stuff in the bag. Halfway up i was wondering if I'd made the wrong choice. As is the way on these things it all worked out fine and by the time we got to the top i was sweaty and hot but perfectly fine. The view from the top was fantastic and looking down on the Wineglass bay beach we had to weigh up whether to venture the 2.5 hours down and that again back. In the end we decided the view from the top was good enough and made our way back to the car.

In between all this we made stops at cute little cafe's, a bunch of small lookouts and all sorts of other attractions. It was all a load of fun. With the previous nights driving after dark fresh in our minds we made sure we were on the road well before sunset. The journey back was uneventful and we got to relax and once again enjoy the views.

I was far from done with my photos for the day though. Once home to our small room at the Bicheno backpackers i had a quick shower and changed clothes ready for the next stage.

I loaded up my camera bag and we set off again to see what this sleepy little town would hold. I got a lovely sunset shot looking out over the ocean but Heidi and i were both excited with what the darkness would bring after our adventures on the road.

We were not disappointed. Walking up from the beach to our car we heard noises in the bushes. We turned but couldn't see well enough in the dark to see what had made the sounds. I got out my trusty iPhone and shined the light into the brambles and staring back at us was the cutest damn penguin I've ever seen. He didn't run away from us or seem particularly bothered with two big humans standing in his area so i did what any good photographer would do and got my gear out. It was fantastic! The photo below doesn't do it justice, but shooting in darkness is difficult at the best of times. Chasing a penguin while it's dark is near impossible! We got to see two more before we left and i think we both fell asleep with smiles planted firmly on our faces.


Needless to say we were both pretty happy with our second day in Tasmania! We'd seen penguins, kangaroos, possums and Tasmanian tigers all in the wild and it was amazing.

I'm a few days behind right now, but I'm in Hobart and have had a great day so far. We have more planned and i can't wait to tell you more on what has happened from Bicheno to Hobart. It's been a plast.

Farewell from a spectacular second day on van Diemen's Land!

Tasmanian Devils

I've finally begun a road trip I've wanted to do for years. Heidi, a friend of mine, invited me to join her traveling all around Tasmania and i couldn't resist coming along. I've dreamt of doing a big road trip circling Tasmania for a long time and I'm writing this from day 3 of the adventure.

Day 1 involved the flights from Canberra to Sydney and then onward to Tasmania. My main issue is always luggage weight when i travel and this time was probably the worst. I'm doing my best to put together a short video of my time here but that involves a lot more gear than I'd usually take with me on trips. I managed to get down here with help from Heidi stuffing some of my belongings in her bags, but it was still touch and go. I had to reshuffle at the Airport. I was only a tiny bit over but they were having none of that and forced me to carry on something to get it under weight. That's usually fine, but i was already heavy with my carry on. It's always a challenge but we managed! Virgin is not a good airline to travel with when you have lots of luggage. Next time I'm back to Qantas!

Once in Launceston we got our car and headed east towards the coast. The plan was to make our way north a little way and towards the east coast and once we hit the ocean south to Hobart. We had two nights scheduled in a gorgeous little town called Bicheno. It was just north of Freycinet National Park and Wineglass Bay so it was a perfect spot.

Before we got to Bicheno we had plenty of road to travel so we set out and got on our way. The photo above is from one of many national parks and forests just after Scottsdale which is not far out of Launceston. We wandered around for a little while and i spotted the sun cracking through the trees and got this gem. 

Once we left that spot we didn't get far before spotting a turn off for St Columbia Falls. It sounded good enough for us so we stopped, hiked the 10 minutes or so down and were met with the most amazing scenery I've ever seen. Below you'll get a sense of just how amazing it was. The walk to the waterfalls was spectacular and the 90 metre falls were pretty impressive themselves.

Once we had spent enough time there to satisfy my photographic needs we headed back up the trail to the car. I was so inspired after seeing this spot i knew I'd be back. I just didn't know how soon that would actually be!

We drove on towards St Helens to do a turn north and get on the road to Bicheno. We'd left our run a little too late though and found ourselves driving as it was turning dark. What a massive mistake, but also an amazing thing to watch. We were forced to crawl along at less that 40 Kilometres an hour at times because the countryside had come to life. Everywhere you looked there were Kangaroos, Possums, Tasmanian Devils and Rabbits as far as you could see (which wasn't very far unfortunately!). We were lucky and drove carefully so we got to Bicheno undamaged but it's quite difficult to explain just how much wildlife had come out after dark. In the 76 Kilometres from St Helens to Bicheno we saw at least one hundred different animals. Add to that at least 50 dead ones. It was easy to see how they ended up that way. It was frightening!

Once at Bicheno we settled in to our backpackers and got unpacked. It was late and we were exhausted so we headed off to bed. Day two was just as good as day one so stay tuned!

More soon.