We first met Paul several years ago (2009 ish) while photographing students of a surf school he was instructing. I remember sitting on the floor after clocking 10 hours on my feet as a barista at Gloria Jeans when Adam came parading through the door.

“I just made actual money taking photos!” he said, throwing a few bills on the floor in front of me. He remembers it as being wads of cash, I remember it being around maaaybe $60. But anyway…

I sat on the carpet massaging my aching feet, admittedly a bit jealous he’d managed to spend the afternoon in the ocean while I’d been slinging espresso shots for undercaffeinated patrons.

Soon after that day Adam went on a surf trip to the Mentawai Islands, so I took over for him at the surf school. The same day I started, I quit my job at GJ and worked in the water with Adam when we returned.

We’d take photos of the students, burn CDs furiously in the back seat of our truck and sell the images for something like $10 a CD. Every time we burned a CD, our wee MacBook died a little inside and made these terrifying whirring noises. At one point, it smelled like burning. But… BUT – it was a start to what would soon become the idea that we could work together doing something we loved… Love + Water happened the next year after we travelled Australia and we never looked back. We eventually upgraded our computer, too, turns out the burning smell wasn’t normal.

Two weeks ago we moved back to the Sunshine Coast and yesterday photographed Paul + Kayla’s engagement session under the most beautiful sunset sky – everything comes full circle.

Would you like a Sunshine Coast engagement portrait of your own? I have great news, we offer a free Land + Sea Session with every wedding booking of four hours or more. Contact us to learn about the different Sunshine Coast wedding collections we offer!