Annette & Jeff

We're a two-person, family-run business based in Airlie Beach. I take the photographs, and Jeff and I run Whitsunday Art Images together. We've lived here for about five years now, and in that time I don't think I've gotten used to it. There's still a moment, most mornings, where the light does something over the water that makes me go and get the camera.

That's really where this business started, not as a plan but as a habit. A sunrise I didn't want to lose, a reef trip I wanted to remember properly, a friend asking where they could get a print of a photo I'd posted. Eventually there were enough of those moments, and enough people asking, that Whitsunday Art Images became a real thing rather than a hobby with a folder full of photos. You'll often find us in person too, at the Airlie Beach Cruise Ship Markets on the foreshore. It's still our favourite part of it, talking to people about the place in the photo rather than just selling them a print.

If you're after a keepsake of your own Whitsundays trip, that's genuinely what most of what we do is for: a reef day, a Whitehaven sail, a moment on the boat you want to still be able to see from your lounge room in winter.

Photography's actually been my work for more than twenty years, in a few different lives before this one. I started out in travel photography, then spent a long stretch specialising in the cafe and coffee industry, shooting for cafes and roasters with work published including in Bean Scene magazine. From there I ran a portrait and beauty photography business for a number of years, and did plenty of event and corporate headshot work alongside it. All of that (reading light, reading people, knowing when a moment's actually a moment) is still exactly what I use out on the water or on the edge of a lookout, waiting for a cloud to move.

These days it's all the Whitsundays, all the time, and I still can't quite believe that's my job. If you'd like to talk about a print, for your own wall, for a business, or just to ask a question, we'd genuinely love to hear from you.