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2 Fridays ago I switched it up, soaking up sunrise in North Bondi at Ben Buckler with my friend Michelle Louise AKA @ginger_skybird. After spotting a few humpback whales in the near distance and Alex the Seal heading into Bondi Bay for breakfast, I turned to Mish and said “5 more minutes, then let’s go grab coffee and breakfast in North Bondi.”

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Next minute, this massive pod of around 50-100 dolphins exploded on the yellow-bronzed horizon, some stopping off at Ben Buckler to hit a large bait ball swimming off the point (a bait ball is a tightly-packed formation or school of fish), whilst the rest of the dolphins charged across to Bronte Beach and Waverley Cemetery. Magical!

And the magic didn’t stop there… as I arrived home and was settling down to edit all of the sunrise and wildlife imagery, this small flock of rarer yellow-tailed black cockatoos land on the roof opposite my balcony in Bondi Beach. Sometimes I have to pinch myself about this life that I’m living and the daily joy that Bondi Beach and its surrounds brings me. All of this before 11am!

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My photography is bringing me a lot of contentment and peace right now. 18 months ago, I set myself 3 x new career goals, one of which was to host my 1st ever art exhibition and I made the decision to start selling my artistic works, which I hit mid-2019, when I was commissioned for Art On The Streets in Bondi Beach, with a panel of photography on the streets of Bondi and the exterior of local Asian-fusion restaurant, Mamasan Bondi decorated with my works also (yep, and thanks to Mamasan I became a street artist for the first time too – I never even imagined that in my wildest dreams).

As the pandemic hit full swing in Australia earlier this year, a lot of advertising industry clients hit the pause button and determined as ever to put a positive spin on things (while I’ve had my rough days and struggled for motivation at times like everyone else), I pivoted to invest my time into pitching new brand ideas, building the next phase of my career, increasing the frequency of my already regular exercise regime and focussing on mental health, which includes investing time into activities that bring me happiness and joy. Photography is a key part of that for me.

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As a result, in the past 2 months I have actually sold more prints than ever before; more than all of the previous months and years combined and I have been receiving unsolicited little DMs/WhatsApp messages/texts/Comments most days from friends, family and random strangers around the world, which gives me a lovely little starburst of energy each time, as while I shoot for me, I love that it can bring a little joy to the lives of those in the world around me! Thank you to all of you who’ve said hi!

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And the momentum does not stop there. I am continuing the process of re-launching my website to make my prints more readily available for purchase online and as part of that, I am making myself accountable to myself, my friends and the people who are in my world, by setting myself the goal 3 weeks ago, of blogging on a weekly basis on hotndelicious.com for the rest of 2020, as purpose is everything and creating good habits provide me with impetus when it comes to the bigger picture.

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