My life in travel: Photographer Sean Scott reveals why he's focused on Australia for the last five years

Photographer Sean Scott has been all over the world, but something keeps pulling him home.

Sean Scott is one of Australia's best-known photographers. Picture: Sean Scott

“I do loads of road trips up and down Queensland and it’s always about being up in the morning, ready for beauty…”

I was always a camper, I was born in Cairns and spent my childhood camping and fishing, and hanging around the coast. Then I moved to the Gold Coast when I was six and I’ve been there ever since. We’d spend all our holiday time at North Stradbroke Island, Fraser Island, and down to Byron Bay.

I’m a typical Queenslander, I spent my life outside playing around in the water. I remember having a bit of interest in photography while I was doing all that as a kid but I became an electrician for Energix working on power poles for 10 years after school. I started taking photographs and selling them at Gold Coast markets. Then I opened up a gallery in Burleigh Heads, took 12 months leave and never looked back.

Sean Scott has a gallery at Burleigh Heads on the Gold Coast. Picture: Getty Images

I’ve always been amazed by the ocean, I remember floating in it as a kid and thinking how amazing being in it was. Being out in the surf at Burleigh or Kirra at sunset and the golden light is shining off those waves, they say only a surfer knows the feeling. But I tried to capture that and I worked out if I brought a camera out and got the same angles a surfer would, I could show people how incredible it is out there.

I’m always amazed by how many people come out to watch big waves when cyclone swells hit the coast – old people, young people, everyone – they’re totally amazed and that’s what I want to capture: the power of the coastline and the passion that’s aroused from the sea. But I also shoot a lot of outback locations in western Queensland and that same passion comes out when you see those red skies light up amongst the dust.

The dust of outback Queensland is a constant inspiration. Picture: Getty Images

I’ve been all over the world taking photographs, but I’ve been shooting only in Australia for five years, travelling with a touring 4WD vehicle so I can work in the most remote locations in Australia. That was lucky timing with COVID. I haven’t been locked down for one single day.

I’d wanted to focus more on Australia because I don’t like being so far away. There’s so many incredible places in Australia and I feel better being here. I go from the coast to the islands to the outback, I zig-zag all across the country but there’s still so much more to see.

Scott says there's photographic magic all over Australia. Picture: Getty Images

You never know when you’re going to get that magic shot in Australia. One day I drove up to Noosa Heads to chase a cyclone swell, then drove all the way back down to Byron Bay and it wasn’t ever quite right. Then some girl ends up riding past my local beach (Burleigh Heads) on her bike at sunset and I got a silhouette shot of her and it ended up being one of my best selling shots.

I’ve had no urge to leave the Gold Coast. I love Burleigh Heads, you can still find waves by yourself, I photograph underwater at some beaches here and have it all to myself and the water clarity can be as good as anywhere in the world, people ask ‘where the hell’s that’ and I tell them it’s here.

The natural paradise of Lady Elliot Island is a favourite. Picture: Getty Images

But I love travel, especially when I take my family - I have three kids in their teens. They love travelling, I’m hoping some of them step up and join me but it’s not just a job, you have to have passion, you need to live and breathe it. On a lot of road trips right around Australia they come with me. I do loads of road trips up and down Queensland and it’s always about being up in the morning, ready for beauty.

I’ve been out shooting in some places, like Lady Elliot Island (off Queensland’s coast near Bundaberg). One day I was sitting out there with my kids in perfect blue water and it was like watching a National Geographic program, there were huge schools of giant trevally and there were four or five big bull rays underneath them, and a couple of big loggerhead turtles and a reef shark behind them and the kids were just blown away. That’s when I know I’ll always want to travel, and I’ll always want to capture what I see when I’m doing it.

Sean Scott is one of Australia’s best-known photographers. Visit his website.

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Originally published as My life in travel: Photographer Sean Scott reveals why he's focused on Australia for the last five years