i’ve been taking photos since i was about 14, but i was never a child prodigy. most of my early ones consist of blurry shots of my many cats. i even have about 40 prints of tigers at dreamworld – taken from about 100 metres away. i used to develop my own film at high school and loved black & white photography, mainly because it was the easiest to process. all those photos are out of focus and i burnt most of them in the darkroom. then i got my first pentax digital point and shoot when i was about 18 or 19. i’ve gone through several pentax p&s since then and have only just got myself a nikon d70, which i’m still learning to use. i also have five polaroid cameras.
i have a three year old son and he is my favourite thing to photograph, although he’s not entirely co-operative. i have a brand spanking new daughter who sleeps a lot. i also like the sky and flowers, anything tinged with yellow, burnt orange, turquoise and pink, and bright, bright red. i love rusted and broken things, strange angles and unique viewpoints of places in my hometown. i have a voracious appetite for reading and my life is saturated with books. i’d like to visit tokyo and venice. i love gnarled old trees, blossoms, bare wood beams, fat journals, carrot cake, soy hot chocolate and winter.
i’m not very good at photography but i really enjoy being behind a camera, because you see the world from a new light. i love that since i started taking photos, i see everywhere that i go as a potential photograph. i also enjoy seeing the world through other people’s eyes and spend hours trawling through photos on the internet, living vicariously through others. i love seeing the contents of people’s bags, bookshelves, houses and lives.
artwise, i don’t bother drawing. my partner is an artist and he’s always a million steps ahead of me; some would find it inspiring, i just find it depressing trying to be anywhere near as good. art of any type makes my heart beat faster, particularly sketches and diagrams and scrawled handwriting. i do like to write, but i suffer from crippling procrastination and self-doubt issues, but one day, maybe one day i’ll churn out a novel or two. it’s my life’s dream.
chaitee is a member of Yellow Gallery, *Alice in Wonderland*, Abandoned Dark Creepy, As Is, Australian Contemporary Photography, Books, Both Sides Now, Brisbane ~ South East QLD, Candid Photography, Curious Vintage Fictions, Dawn and Dusk Light, Fabulous Flowers, Flower and Foliage DETAIL - 1 per day (24 hours), Green!, Melbourne & Victoria, Nikon DSLR Users Group - 2 uploads per 24 hours, Photographic France, Piers and Jetties, Polaroid Lovers, POSTED: No Trespassing, Queensland, Street Photography and Photojournalism, Sunshine Coast, Queensland, The Urban Environment, TTV: Through The Viewfinder, Underwater Photographer's Guild and Windows and Doors.