The Booth Juice

Ep10 - From Markets to Gallery: The SEA Gallery Story with Steph & Dave

• Maker Port Douglas • Season 1 • Episode 10

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Episode 10 is a conversation with Steph & Dave from SEA Gallery; a story of creativity, evolution and building something truly their own.

From Steph’s early days painting for the markets, hauling two suitcases into town each time, to now sending original works to collectors all over the world, her journey is one of grit, consistency and creative belief. Alongside her, Dave’s path into photography unfolded organically after years in the wine industry, eventually finding his place behind the lens. Together, their individual journeys have intertwined to shape SEA Gallery into what it is today; a seamless blend of painting and photography, and a shared creative vision.

They’re also raising two boys along the way, balancing family life with creativity, and have built a lifestyle centred around capturing the natural world, particularly the magic of Heron and Lady Elliot Island and of course Far North Queensland. 

This episode is about starting small, backing yourself and letting your path unfold in ways you never quite planned. 

@sea.studio.gallery

www.seagallery.com.au

SPEAKER_02

All the juice straight from the Maker Booth. Welcome to the Booth Juice. Welcome to episode 10 of the Booth Juice. Today is pretty exciting because not only do I have one guest, but I have two. These guys are a husband and wife powerhouse team. They are not only my neighbors here at Makeup, but also at home. They are fantastic parents to two beautiful little boys, and they lead the most extraordinary life capturing the magic of our natural world. Please welcome Steph and Dave from Sea Gallery.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you so much for joining me today, guys. Thanks so much for having us. This is very exciting and such a beautiful thing to bring to the local community as well. Yeah, I think so.

SPEAKER_02

Maybe we'll start by a bit of an intro about what Sea Gallery is if people don't know who you guys are.

SPEAKER_00

That's definitely from you.

SPEAKER_02

From me?

SPEAKER_01

Sure. So we are a space that's sort of divvied into artwork on one side, photography on the other, and prints and giftsware through the middle. I do the artwork side of things. Dave here is the photographer and also our in-house printer. So he does our beautiful um fine art limited edition prints, also prints coasters, placemats, and generally sort of runs the um the day-to-day bits and bobs as well. And we are a space that we try to make as welcoming as possible. There's I think with galleries, sometimes people can it can take a little bit to get them over the threshold. They can feel a little bit nervous, they feel like maybe it's not a space for them. And we really want to sort of change that mindset in people, I suppose, and make it a welcoming space. They can come in, enjoy art, um, see if they can find something for their home as well along the way, ideally. Exactly about music actually playing instead of. Yeah, just take the stiffness out of what I think lots of people's gallery experience is. Yeah. Um, like we want it to be a relaxing and calm space, but also to feel inviting and like we have a little, you know, table that people can bring their kids in and they can sit and draw while they have a look around, and we run art classes, and um, yeah, we want it to be a real sort of have a buzz to it rather than feel really quite you know, a little bit too I guess closed.

SPEAKER_00

We want people to actually enjoy art and talk about it instead of what it's meant to mean to them.

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00

There's a painting of a turtle and you like turtles, yeah. But there's a landscape that makes you smile, so that's all there is to it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah, and we hope that sort of people can find, you know, resonate with the art, especially with our experience up here, whether they're local or visiting or whatever. I feel like the range definitely captures the Port Douglas um paradise for sure. It's an easy place to be inspired for sure. Yeah, as you guys know.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, so for context, um our stores are located on Racrossen Street. Um, we are directly next door to each other, which is really nice. Yes, we do, yeah. We we hear each other banging nails in the walls.

SPEAKER_00

What about changing a movie today?

SPEAKER_01

It's become a lovely little creative hub, though. Like the fact that you guys do workshops and we do workshops, and that you know, your mum does painting, and and this has become such a lovely spot for lots of local artwork to to be, and then we've got that next door as well. It's been really nice, it's especially you know, that Christmas time buzz when people come to our two stores on that Christmas night, and it's like, oh, this is just so lovely being this little um you know. Yeah, I love that we're a creative hub, it's so nice.

SPEAKER_00

I love that when someone literally brings someone out of our store and then into yours, or vice versa, it's like, hey, have you still got that piece that looks like the yeah, I've got it here and constantly I'm constantly going, Oh Steph and Dave have that.

SPEAKER_02

We you know, go and get that. And I often have people walk in and they go, Oh, they're the blue store and you're the orange store. I'm like, wait, that's good, you guys give me the cool colours. I love the warm colours with blue for sure.

SPEAKER_01

And that's the thing about that, like you can't get upset that someone's style is completely different to yours because all of our styles are different, and that's what's so lovely about it is that they might not find what they're looking for in our store, but you guys have almost you know the polar opposite in colorscapes, and vice versa. So there's something for everyone across the two stores, yeah, which is lovely.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah, it's so nice. Yeah, um, now I might backtrack a little bit. So before you had Sea Gallery, can you tell us kind of how how you got to having a gallery, how you got to working together, how it you know, life is working with your husband and your wife. Yeah, tell us how that progressed.

SPEAKER_00

It kind of traces back to when we first met, which I might let Steph Steph talks the real version of it, might be real. Um so yeah, I might let you grab that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah, Dave kind of gets sidetracked and talks all sorts. Um so um yeah, we met in Portugal um when what you were 23, I was 21, I think. Dave was a backpacker, and I was at uni um in the UK, but had you know needed somewhere um for a summer holiday, and it was cheap, and there was surf and there was cool bars and beautiful restaurants and great beaches, so Portugal ticked all the boxes. Um so yeah, we met there, and um Dave then moved over to the UK with me the year after. So um, grew up in the UK? Half and half. So I'm from Geelong originally, yeah. Um but my dad's English, and um we had family that was sick over in the UK, and it just it kind of the timing lined up when I was a teenager that um we would move back over there.

SPEAKER_03

Cool.

SPEAKER_01

Um we all needed a change and wanted to kind of go experience something new and have an adventure, so my family relocated back to the UK and I finished off school over there, went to uni, um, and then yeah, Dave um Dave and I met um in Europe. Um, but I was always more Australian than I was English, and it's interesting because my brother lives in London and he kind of is almost more English than Australian because he was four years younger than me. Yeah. Um, so yeah, we we kind of always had in our heads that we'd move back to Oz. Um and Dave had a friend, um, James, who was working in Port Douglas and kept sending us all these pictures of this beautiful place, and we're in you know the depths of winter in the UK. I was stuck, what did I say? I was studying law and international relations and then went to hospitality and event management.

SPEAKER_00

Tried to talk about that one.

SPEAKER_01

And I was like, oh, like, well, you know, hospitality and event management, that like Port Douglas looks great for that. And James was trying to rope Dave into coming this way because he'd been a bar manager previously in Sydney. And um, so we're like, oh, things are kind of lining up that this we could we could move back to Oz and We tried Sydney, we moved back to family for two whole weeks, and it was just like this is too much, this is way too busy.

SPEAKER_00

I couldn't do Sydney, I couldn't do it. I was having trouble adjusting after living in small towns for the last two years through Europe, and I was just like, nah, this is way too busy. So we hired a car and drove up here, and I took the job at the Sheridan. Yeah, lived in the hotel for a whole two months until we cracked it. This was 2013?

SPEAKER_01

2013, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I know it's crazy, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00

So we lasted two months at the Sheridan. I'd never worked for a big hospitality firm like that. I I came from private industry down in Sydney, um, working.

SPEAKER_01

It was a great base to start off in Port Douglas, and I feel like it's almost a um a rite of passage in Port Douglas to work at one of the big resorts at some point.

SPEAKER_00

You need to work at the Sheridan or quickie. Yeah, literally.

SPEAKER_01

Or Ratlin Hall. All Rather and Hull. Absolutely. Yeah. Um, so yeah, we were there, weren't we? And then we moved to QT.

SPEAKER_00

And we did a year there.

SPEAKER_01

Um so David Bar manager at QT. Um, and yeah, we just we ended up our nephew was born down in Sydney, and um kind of had in the back of the head, oh, we should, you know, maybe we need to start thinking about moving back down there. But at that point, I'd started painting, um, and we were it was the low season up here and there wasn't a lot of work going round, and so I was like, well, I'm gonna pick up this hobby that I'd had, you know, through through school. Um, and there was so much inspiration up here that once I started I just couldn't stop.

SPEAKER_00

There were canvases everywhere. So Steph filled the apartment, and it got to the point where I was like, you need to get rid of this stuff. There's a market on the weekends. What are you doing? And you just go there and oh, I don't want to buy it, it's not any good, da da da da da, all that sort of jazz. And then she literally dragged two suitcases into town because the shuttles weren't running that early.

SPEAKER_01

And we didn't have a car, so I really resonated when Lana was talking about a shopping trolley because I'm like, my story was with the with a suitcase dump on the colour.

SPEAKER_00

Like the wheels were gone, they did not work anymore.

SPEAKER_01

Well, I didn't know.

SPEAKER_00

We were living at Oak's, which is now Sukari. So that's not a small walk, that's like an hour.

SPEAKER_01

With a su with two suitcases along that main road, thinking that well, we didn't have a car, like we didn't full beginning.

SPEAKER_00

Literally, no, you didn't even have a rug, so I gave you a little bit.

SPEAKER_01

I had like a little blanket, so I put this blanket down and then my artwork, and then um Linda from Fun Stuff happened to be in that row and was like, Would you like a chair live? So then she put a chair along, and then someone else was like, Uh, I've got a spare marquee, hun. Like, we'll set that up for you. And then someone else had a table, and by the end of that like morning setup, I had this whole little setup. Um sweet of our community, but it was so lovely. Um, and they all sold out that morning, like they're gonna be able to do it.

SPEAKER_00

She got home and was just like people bought everything, and I was like, of course they did, they were good. Yeah, no, no, no, it's a fluke. And um, my business brain starts going like, Well, hang on, hang on a second. This just took you a couple of weeks, and I was like, Did you enjoy this more than working in restaurants? You're like, yeah, I kind of did. It was creative and it was fun and super stressful. Yeah, so then you did a few months of that, and then you flew back to the UK for a holiday to see family, and I was here by myself for a month, and I kind of contacted you and was like, Okay, that's it, we're moving back to family. So I jumped on a plane and flew down to the house. Seven interviews in 24 hours. Don't recommend that. It's horrible. Wow. Um, yeah, got off a plane, did two, and then had five the next day. I had interview fatigue, it was the worst thing ever. So um, Steph and I agreed that we would move back to Sydney and would give my career a run, and then she would be able to try the artist thing. Cool, which is basically it. So Steph was doing three, four markets a week at some stage.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, like I appreciate it. They just started with markets, yeah. Like I knew that the Port Douglas market had been so amazing for me, and I was like, I know there's markets down in Sydney, and then there was the scope for the art fairs, and the design fairs were huge at that point. Finders keepers, Handmade Canberra, they're all starting off, we're all kind of in their yeah, their startup phase, and everyone was just jumping on them. So yeah, it kind of started with that, um, and it was it was just hit the ground running like every weekend, two, three markets, um, and then big fairs, especially in the lead up to Christmas. And um it it didn't matter really with the weekends because Dave was working hospitality, so yeah, we'd then like have the Monday Tuesday as a little bit more sort of chilled out and then ramp up again for for being busy over the weekends. And what were the markets and stuff?

SPEAKER_02

Were you just painting originals and just selling originals? Or did we start?

SPEAKER_00

The entire body was just like crippled at 20 minutes.

SPEAKER_01

Oh totally, yeah, yeah, it was it started with originals and then um I was just so burnt out. I think I did one Christmas doing that, and then I was like, I can't trust pet portraits, um, all those other bread and butter things you do as well. And yeah, it was a little bit.

SPEAKER_00

I was like, I had no idea about art at the time. And I was like, when when when Steph had moved back to Sydney with me for that whole two weeks, I had described this bedroom, and it was like it's all really nice, just like this is disgusting.

SPEAKER_01

Um proper man came, it was like his childhood bedroom. We moved back into his into his mum's place, she'd moved out with her partner and rented the the house to Arsenal's brother, and I was like, no, this needs to change.

SPEAKER_00

So Steph was then explaining to me what a print was, and I was like, just a copy of a of an original? Like that sounds great. Okay, cool. Is that is that a good thing? So you found a printer in Baumain.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I wanted to do it properly. If we were gonna do prints, I wanted them to, I didn't want them fading, I didn't want any issues. I like we were you know, we already had that real sort of sustainability mindset, um, and I didn't want it to be just a you know cheap and cheerful fade and then chuck away situation. Um so found a a really great printer down that way who was doing like Ken Down's work and beautiful, you know, amazing artist. So um she was kind of who everyone had recommended. Um, but it became as my range spread out, it became quite hard to um keep on top of that inventory and and just all the different sizes people wanted and and variations and it um there's a weak turnaround as well, had to go and pick it up. It took a lot.

SPEAKER_00

Um and everything's hand signed, start to trim them and have all the crop marks on it. Like it was a lot.

SPEAKER_01

It was yeah, it it it ended up taking up a lot of time, but it was also great because it meant that it took the pressure off me doing originals and um yeah, they started going really well, which was which was awesome. Um and it gave me time to actually do proper ranges and I started doing exhibitions and things around the city, and then I would be able to sell the prints at the weekend and keep the originals for those those bigger shows.

SPEAKER_00

Which worked really well. I think we're about 2017 or seven now. So you've been doing it for four five years by the yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So you've sort of established yourself a bit.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah. I I was fortunate I had um the art community down there were were great. I had sort of a few artists that had put me forward for shows and things, and then that had kind of um grown things too.

SPEAKER_02

Worked with the Sydney Hospital? Yeah, Sydney Kids Hospital.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that was probably my biggest show while I was down there. I think that was about like 35 or 40 pieces. Um they have an amazing art program where they um they sign up artists who will fill like a whole corridor or a section of a corridor. And the idea is that each um artist brings something that is joyful to that space, so that especially when kids are in rehab and they're walking up and down and um they have something interesting to look at and that it changes, so it's not just the same boring hospital you know paintings all the time. Oh that's so great. Um so that was a that was still one of my absolute favourite like highlights. Um, and you go into the school there if you're part of this program and teach as well. So you do collaborative work, so we were like going into the cancer wards doing um like pieces that then became part of what went onto the walls as well, and I'd go home like crying every single time. It was heartbreaking, but such nice work as well. Um, and then they do yeah, big opening night, and um each corridor on the on a di on each floor had a different artist, so it was a really lovely way to bring a show together. Yeah, and then those were for sale as well.

SPEAKER_02

So I was gonna say, can people purchase?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah. So I think most of them sold in that, um, but yeah, a pro a portion of the sales went back to the hospital and the art programme as well. So that was really cool. Special thing to be a part of. Yeah, it's a lot of people. Yeah, I've seen the kids for art, which is awesome, and um like seen their creative endeavours, and they've still got pieces in their home that they purchased or that we worked on. Like there was one, yeah, one kid that we um we arranged to have a piece that he'd worked on with me. I think they'd found me at a market, and then we arranged to get it delivered to their them while they were in hospital because I knew they were in there over over Christmas. So there's just become all these little like intertwined things, and then when they've been up on holiday, they've come into the gallery. So it's so lovely having those full circle moments. Um beautiful. Yeah, that was a really, a really special time, I think. Yeah, and that made me be like, okay, this like this has purpose. It's not just about like supporting a career, but also like there's so many ways that art can benefit.

SPEAKER_00

And that's got into the whole teaching side of things as well. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that led into the workshop side of things, and I really my parents are teachers, so I always had it in me a little bit that that would be something I'd want to do, but um, yeah, it's been nice to bring it in amongst what we do as well.

SPEAKER_00

We used my contacts in the hospital industry and the wine industry to start teaching at wineries and in venues. So we'd go away on trips, Steph would meet other business owners, and they'd go, Oh, like we've got a winery down in Canberra, like you should come down and do it. So the first workshops we did with down at Four Winds and uh in Canberra, and it was one sellout show that then just it was 40 people and then 40, so wow, so then that then Sarah called back then. Can can we do another like the next day? So and we teed it up with when Canberra Handmaid was on. So this was not just we were doing an art fair. Oh my goodness, and then and then spending the evenings then driving out and doing workshops, workshops in the evenings, and they do wine tasting at the same time.

SPEAKER_01

So Dave would jump in helping with that, and then we'd be back to the show in the morning.

SPEAKER_00

Dave was starting to get a bit of fatigue in the hospital industry, and um I'd moved out of like venue management so much, and I'd gone and I'd I'd done my smelly air training and I did an MBA on the side as well. Yeah, um, and then I actually went into running a boutique bottle shop, which was awesome. Um, and it meant I had weekends back, so then I started spending my weekends helping Steph with her business and doing these sorts of things, which is a lot more fun. Yeah, and yeah, I was I was well and truly available, it was time for a change. Like ask most people who go into it, you fall into it by chance, or you fall into it because you're at uni, and I just stuck with it because it's what I knew and loved, and it was my creator out there for a long time. Wine was definitely a really good way to get into that, yeah. Um, but it was time for a change. So I saw this big gap in Steph's business too.

SPEAKER_01

Anyone that does an MBA, I think, then starts just looking at everyone else's business.

SPEAKER_00

Why are you doing this?

SPEAKER_01

Wait, how can we change that? How can you do that?

SPEAKER_00

And you know, well, I did my I did my thesis on product management and inventory management. So I was like, I don't like Steph's print ledger was a piece of paper. And I was like, what if you lose your piece of paper? This is a spreadsheet. It's like, oh it's got numbers and it's technical. So I was like, we're not we're not we're not doing this anymore.

SPEAKER_02

So it went from being a market to a proper business.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, exactly. And I was like, and this is this is everything.

SPEAKER_01

Every creative gets to that point where they're like, oh, yeah, okay, now I have to.

SPEAKER_00

I was like, I'll do your bookkeeping. So she just hands me boxes of receipts, and I was like, This is a blockbook.

SPEAKER_01

I've come a long way. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, you don't touch any of it anymore. So uh so yeah, it was like, how do we print stuff?

SPEAKER_01

And then Well, you basically saw that I saw what she was using. Well, and how much we were spending on printing, and you were like, Well, we could just buy a printer and I could learn how to print. And I was like, Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_00

Are you sure? And let's do it. I remember we bought the so the the first the first the cheap printer that we bought was 10 grand. It was a 24 inch, and that's the small one now. The big one is a 44 inch, so it's massive. Um and it was a gang. Like these printers take 12 cartridges and they're 700mm each. So, like at any one time, there's like five grand worth of ink in the machine, let alone the pack up. So it's it's bonkers.

SPEAKER_01

It was a big outlay and a really scary point in business to be like, okay, are we gonna like really try this? And if we do this, then we're both roped in and working together, and like, how's this gonna work? But I think from that from that you know, starting point, Dave went, well, this is my lane, like I'll do this. Numbers and tech uh are my my jam. And I was like, well, that's cool, like I'll focus on the you know, the creative, the marketing, the like the things that you know make me tick. So it's we're lucky that you know chalk and cheese, you know, like lots of relationships are we already had that. Um and that really was the foundation from the government.

SPEAKER_00

But then we have to learn how the image steps work. So we were still getting um getting the the printer and images to take all of the originals and digitally copy them.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, because when you obviously when you paint something physically, you need to be able to transfer it to being a digital file. So there's actually a whole process which I didn't even realise at the time that was such a lengthy process to get an image of an original artwork and make sure that the colours all match and that like and at this time were you did you start off painting with animals? Yeah, so when we'd lived in port, I'd started with the turtles and the marine life and sort of what I'd seen around the area. Um, and then I mean turtles have just for me always been the thing that sort of is is my you know my signature piece. Um so that had continued, it had swept and changed, but they went really, really rainbow for a while there, especially around the like city hospital phase rainbow range, yeah. But that was the style, like everyone was kind of into those colours at the time. Um and then it went really neutral, and then it went back to sort of my blues and greens and and things. So, but yeah, a lot of still a lot of marine life. Even I mean, the East Coast, everyone loves that sort of um thing, and Australian animals, Australian birds, and I still paint those as well, but yeah, they were big at that point.

SPEAKER_02

And I know your well, I know that when we started stocking you back in 2020, which is a while ago now, um, but I remember your iconic style was kind of like your main subject was your animal, and then you almost had like a white background, but you had the flickers, so I know that that's probably tricky to capture and then reprint because there's so many fine little details.

SPEAKER_00

And she was painting solemn watercolor back then as well. So you've got all these gradient shifts that don't translate to digital very well. So I would spend two hours at a minimum. So what you do would be image the piece, which is a four layered image, and then stitch them together to get the most you can. For depth, and then you've got to delete the background. So you've actually got to paint the background out. And then Steph would have like a grey going towards the edge of like a whale's uh what's it called? The the thingy that bit anyway, no. Um, and then it'd be like then just into the background, and I'll be like, How the hell am I supposed to make that blend properly? And be like, no, that's and you do a chess print, no, that doesn't work. That doesn't work.

SPEAKER_02

And then you've got people that go, oh no, I won't pay $15 for your print. You're like, I've just spent two hours Photoshopping.

SPEAKER_00

We have one bad review on Google, and it's from someone who came in and demanded they wanted a postcard size print. I was like, that's fine, you can have it at the same price as they thought. It's the same amount of work, I have to waste paper to do it, and no, they didn't want to hear it, and they just kept being rude about it, and then kept videoing the store and all the rest, and then those people lovely.

SPEAKER_02

Anyway, but I think it's there's a lot of work that goes into it to tell people, hey, this is actually what's involved. It's not just a matter of, hey, I've whipped something together and then here's a print. Yep, there's so much more work involved. I mean, that's excluding all the other costs that you've got going on, but just as a print, for example, yes, getting that through to people that maybe don't know this world, I think, is really important to be like, hold on, there's a 10-step process before you.

SPEAKER_00

Even before Steph puts paint on paper or canvas, she needs to think about what she's doing.

SPEAKER_02

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00

So that takes time and effort and energy, and then the physical painting might take a day or a week to paint, and then it has to get image. That's another two hours worth. Then it needs to get test printed, which is the funny part, because I might have six by the end of, and then some random will come in and I'll be like, Hey, can you just that's the original on the wall there? And then I'm like, which one looks best? And they go, they're all the same. And I'm like, ah! They're so far, they're so far from the same, it's not even funny. But and that's I think where we've stood above the pack, I guess, in a lot of ways, because I'm a perfectionist, and then Steph's got a creative eye, I've got a really technical eye, so it really just works well. The two of us, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

We bring those those together for that whole process.

SPEAKER_00

Like I'm about to start working on a new range of photography, and I've got a short list, a short list, it's 90 images at the moment, down from 1500 from our most recent trip, and then we'll go through that today and get that down to 30 to 20, and then I'll edit those and then print them, and there'll probably be 10 that's five.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah. It's it's such a process, isn't it? So going back a little bit, uh when did you pick up a camera? Because you've gone from you know Glasgow to printing to then how did you then transition into learn how to image?

SPEAKER_00

So the course was it was small, it was small business product photography. That was what was advertised. It was a free course because we had no, we were bootstrapping everything. So we put all our money into the printer.

SPEAKER_01

And there were 30 people on day one. Yeah, and we were like, oh, how like everyone wants to do something different. How are we gonna get what we want out of this? We went in the next week. Next week it was down to what 10 people? Like some of the things.

SPEAKER_00

And then the third week there was six. That was and that was that was it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, not even, I think there was like four of us. So there was us going we'd like to learn how to image um artwork.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I can do that, I've done that before.

SPEAKER_01

And then there was an interior designer who wanted to learn how to do styled stage shots. A jeweler. There was a jeweler who wanted to do product shots, and then there was oh, who was the fourth one?

SPEAKER_00

Um they were in real estate.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so they were doing um Yeah, so there were two that were kind of all about the style and spaces in different ways. So the four of us could really bounce off learning each other's skills. It was all the stuff that we all needed to do. So we did a like we did sessions in the studio, we did sessions out on the street, we did uh we went into homes and took photography, and it was a really awesome course to get that real grounding in all aspects of it.

SPEAKER_00

Um, so we learned the technical side of a camera in well, I I did instantly because that's how my brain worked. Like we went outside and photographed cars driving past to learn how to do pans, quick whips and stuff. So, like if you have a slow shutter speed, it'll do something completely different to if you have a fast shutter speed, and if you move the camera with the car, you'll freeze the motion a lot. You know when you like see an F1 shot and it's got the trails and stuff.

SPEAKER_02

So many at the moment they look so good. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00

That sort of thing. Um, so we did that, and then I like I'd had a complete break from hospitality, it was done, and I did not want to talk to people. So I was happy to go and set up a market stall. I didn't really want to be selling stuff, I was having some me time. Yep. I was shooting, I started shooting astrophotography. I'd go out at midnight and go and take photos of the stars with like with rocks in the foreground that looked terrible. If I look back at now, I cringe, but it was just it was the first time I'd ever stopped and had a me moment and did something creative. Um, and I was obsessed with freezing water. So I'd be down at beaches um doing long exposures on tripods, almost getting swept off into the rocks like an absolute lunatic, or like anything that was a jetty or a wharf that I could get close to, I was just like it started with a love for it though, didn't it?

SPEAKER_01

It wasn't like oh, I'm gonna like make a career and make money out of this. It was very much like this is like you've never really given yourself time to have a hobby and a creative hobby. You've never really seen yourself as creative.

SPEAKER_02

You're very um yeah, what's the left and the right brain?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, you're kind of yeah, right? Yeah, but I guess the nice thing about photography is it lends itself to both types of creative because you can go really technical with it, or you can go, you know, super super creative creative with it.

SPEAKER_00

Like I've met photographers who take beautiful photos who do not understand it, like it's a fluke that they get a photo shop because they know how to make the composition, but they don't know how to change anything, and that's what Steph was able to bring to the table. So we'd be out like when we moved back up here, I'd be shooting Sugar Wolf, and I'd think I've got this beautiful photo. And then Steph takes one look at the back of the screen, she's like, Uh, you just need to move like three metres to the left. So I just moved slightly with the tripod, and I was obsessed with everything had to be on a tripod back then, whereas now everything's like I literally can whip a camera out of a bag, hold it in my hand, and get something in two seconds flat. Um, so yeah, it's it's it's amazing how much it changes. But we had an underwater housing, so Steph had bought a housing for her camera. Yeah, it was all her gear.

SPEAKER_01

I was selling a lot of it was my turtle paintings at that point. So um I was sick of trying to find photos on the internet or like reusing ones I'd taken on a GoPro that were just rubbish. So we were like, well, we've got this camera, like we'll get the housing that means that we can take it underwater. And we um we lived in an area like an hour north of Sydney that had turtles in a local bay. Friends of ours were getting married in Hawaii, so we're like, oh, this is kind of lining up, it'd be cool to go over and like take turtles.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and like this is back when neither of us were that confident, like we were both good swimmers, but we hadn't spent heaps of time in the ocean. Like we both Steph taught me how to surf, of course, because you know she lives in the UK and I lived in Sydney. Yeah, I actually learned to surf in Cornwall.

SPEAKER_01

Well, I grew up on the on the um Great Ocean Road, so I had like surfing was kind of part of that that grow, you know.

SPEAKER_00

I remember surfing in Manley in board shorts instead of a seven wetsuit for the first time. Was like, oh this is good, this is different than day drinking on the beach.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, nice, it was awesome.

SPEAKER_00

Um, but it was Steph's gear, so all of the camera gear was all hers, and I was the one doing all the research and nerding out, and then she was the one buying it for her business for what she needed. And then we'd be out snorkeling with turtles, and I'd just be like, What is she doing? Like, she's getting photos that she needed to paint from. But I'm like, her angles are so wrong.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, because I was seeing the finished painting, not like I wasn't looking at the light and how I was going, okay, what's the composition? How's that fin? Where's their head? Like, what's how's the light bouncing off the anyone watching?

SPEAKER_00

Like, we had mates swimming with us, and they said it was hilarious because whoever didn't have the camera would just be like, like, give me it, I want to do it now. So we would just do this back and forth, and um we we did that for about a year or so, and then when we made the decision to move back up here in 2020, we left Sydney at the end of January in 2020. So we hit the road and with with Steph's mate from the UK, we did a road trip up, and we ended up on Lady Elliott Island for three days with the housing and all the rest, and there was a cyclone not far away from us, so it was blowing 40 knots every day. We couldn't go to one side of the west coast of the island because it was blown out. We'd spend an hour in the water in the lagoon, and we were literally in a washing machine getting thrown around.

SPEAKER_01

And there was turtles everywhere because there was a turtles absolutely everywhere.

SPEAKER_00

So we got these amazing shots that when I looked at them now, I'm like, these are so bad. But we we jumped on they were great. They were we got off the island and we checked in at this BB and we're chatting with the owner, we're staying with her, and we just rented a room and she's like, Oh, I'd love to see them. Can I have and so I pulled up a couple of photos and I sold my first my first photo a $20 digital and I was so excited I didn't even give it to her. We jumped in the car and left, and she like contacted two days, you gonna email it to me or Wow.

SPEAKER_01

Um and it was affecting the edit, I think was it. She was like, I don't care, I liked it how it was. Yeah, Dave's like, no, it wasn't finished.

SPEAKER_00

So that kind of that just evolved. We um we moved up here and then COVID hit, and we luckily had all this photography stuff happening because we Seth kept painting, and then we would style shoots at home and we would do it.

SPEAKER_01

You picked up a bunch of clients, like, because Dave just chats, as we know. So we're like in a distillery in Bundaberg, and the guy's like, I need some photography.

SPEAKER_00

I'm like, yeah, I can do that. And then like completely just faked everything to like.

SPEAKER_01

And like every time we go on a road trip, I'm like, and there's one of Dave's shots, just from this, like this random, you know, it just kept kind of naturally.

SPEAKER_00

My old man's nickname's Half-volving, isn't it? So it's a little bit of that in me. Um, but it kind of evolved from that, and then it got to the point when we're allowed back outside again. Um, we were sitting there one morning, and I was just like, No one likes my work, and I can't do it. Literally, what she did for the meeting march. She's like, if you want to be a photographer, go and be a photographer. Stop sitting here whinging.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So I picked up the phone and did what I do best, and I called a bunch of celebrates. Awesome. And the next thing you know, I had three meetings with you know celebrates and um wedding planners, and went and had coffees, and they were like, Oh, you're lovely, we could work with you. And um started getting phone calls. Hey, can you like are you free for this day? So we shot a couple of friends' weddings here and there because we had cameras, we just did alongside the photographers that they had working with them, but I was like, Oh, this is the buzz that I was missing from hospital. So that's how I got in photography, really. So it was the stealing Steph's stuff, and then stealing it to go, and we bought another camera by this stage. Yeah, um, and then I started shooting elopements during COVID.

SPEAKER_01

That's a real fake it till you make it kind of. I mean, I guess we all are.

SPEAKER_00

We all are, but I just like she was like, I don't know how you're doing this. I'm like, project confidence, yeah, it's fine. Like the first wedding I shot, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, and I think I charged them like 300 bucks, and then the next one was 500, and then the next was 800, and it just I got better very, very quickly because I was so critical about what I was doing. I was spending so much time in posts, like recropping and reframing things, and then I was like, Well, if I get it right in camera, then it's easier. And then we just started going on trips, and we bought another camera, then we were like, Well, we should buy another camera housing, and then we started buying strobes, so underwater lights. So we were traveling at one stage with two housings, so two cameras underwater.

SPEAKER_01

Because I'd be like, Well, I need to take shots to paint from, and they would be like, Well, I need to take shots to build a portfolio, so yeah, we've just got to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_00

So there's this phase where there's actual like behind-the-scenes stuff, but I remember for one flight we got on, and they were like, How much gear do you have? 60 kilo, and you're flying on small planes, and it's just like okay, and I'm like, Well, we don't weigh that much, so it's fine. So everything expanded, expanded, expanded. I bought a drone um when I there was you may remember the Do It and Douglas campaign first kicked off. Yeah, I was like, Yeah, I can shoot drone footage, that's fine. Didn't own a drone, but I played heaps of video games.

SPEAKER_01

I need someone to do some video, and you do drone, right? And Dave's like, yeah, yeah. And I'm listening to this conversation, going, you don't even own a drone, you know.

SPEAKER_00

And you don't shoot video, you shoot stills, you're a stills photographer. And I was like, Yeah, but I've got I've I've got a camera that shoots video, it's fine.

SPEAKER_02

I know I'm capable.

SPEAKER_00

I'll just so I bought a gimbal, had never used a gimbal, and then I've since spoken to friends who who run production companies and stuff, and they're like, No, we don't use gimbals, they're too complicated, they're too hard to use. But I'm such a crazy person that if I'm shooting handheld, it's just shaky like hell. Because I'm just like, and and freaking whereas the gimbal made me slow down. Yes, and then once you start using gimbal well, oh yeah, you get these really cool movements. So I was like, oh, that's kind of cool. Um but bought the drone, it arrived the day before I needed it, went out to do some practice with it.

SPEAKER_03

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00

Flying around manually, not a problem. Played heaps of video games, it's far less complicated than flying a jet or a or a helicopter on um Call of Duty.

SPEAKER_02

Marley has told me this actually.

SPEAKER_00

They're actually they're they're designed for an idiot to be able to use them. Um so I'm flying around manually, not a problem, and then I start using all the automated settings, and I'm flying around this old shack out of town, and there's only one little section of trees, so I put it into this really cool helix mode, so it's doing the figure of eight, and it just flies at 30k backwards after uh doing a loop, and I'm like, cancel! And I watched it just go straight into a tree.

SPEAKER_02

No, I did that at Rex Mill Park, and I almost wiped out tourists. Oh no. It's okay.

SPEAKER_00

So I threw sticks at it for an hour. Um, I grew up playing baseball, so I've got a fairly decent arm on me.

SPEAKER_01

You must be doing a really good shoot out there, it's taking eight.

SPEAKER_00

Hit it a few times, it couldn't come down. I had to drive back to town to get signal, and I called uh MPDT. Oh and they're like, Yeah, mate, we're gonna- It was Friday afternoon.

SPEAKER_01

Friday afternoon.

SPEAKER_00

So they rock up and they they throw a string line up with a little um sandbag attached to it, and they're like, Alright, we're gonna pull it, it's it's gonna fall, like, gotta catch it. So they pull it, and there's three of us there, and it goes straight towards the big dude who like gorilla slams it and luckily catches it in both hands. It had two broken propeller blades, which it came with spares, it swapped them over, and I was using it the next day.

SPEAKER_01

Wow, and he had to buy a few cases for the guys for coming out and giving me a hand on the battery. I agree, yeah, fair enough. Friday afternoon.

SPEAKER_00

That's just the drone footage I shot for that content was so abysmal. Um, it was terrible. Um it actually wasn't that bad. It's I thought it was into this.

SPEAKER_02

This is the time that I met you guys.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02

You didn't come across like that at all. I thought you'd been doing it for years.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so we need to put it out there like that for sure. Yeah. Um, yeah, because that was around the time you that would have been 2020. When you opened makeup you'd open makeup and we'd come up with the idea, like we'd we'd always move back to port with this idea of a gallery. Um and we kind of had this concept in mind, and we we'd been up a couple of times the year before going, okay, let's find a space, like we'd missed out on sites, we'd been turned down for sites, we'd um sites that we'd thought were coming available weren't. So it was it was kind of in the back of our heads the whole time. Um and then um obviously COVID happened, so we were a bit like, okay, now what do we do? The market wasn't accepting new people, which had been our backup plan. So we moved everything online from my business. Dave branched into this direction with photography. I started doing web design for people. You're doing web design.

SPEAKER_02

Well, that yeah, that's when I meant, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I think I remember you as a business photographer web designer, which I'd studied in my bachelor's 10 years ago, which had the photography aspect too. So we were able to there was quite a few businesses that still in town have websites that Dave built with photos that he took because it was a really nice way to kind of use use his skills in various ways. Um, and yeah, then Maker opened, and I remember popping in and just being like, Wow, this is so cool!

SPEAKER_00

Like it's funny because like back then it was just so empty and so that's why it worked because it was like hero products scattered everywhere, and like it was all design focused, and no one up here was doing that.

SPEAKER_01

No, that's it, yeah. And it had it it celebrated that, you know, those local makers and designers, and because the markets was sort of having that moment, you then were able to be a physical place for people to sell things as well, including us. We ended up stopping. Any chance you want to sit my art? I don't think that's a good thing.

SPEAKER_00

You're like, this is amazing, it's possible.

SPEAKER_02

And I remember we had like so bad, like Kmart crates and just like a random table at the back, and the only way I could display print was like, okay, let's put it.

SPEAKER_00

Display prints are so long.

SPEAKER_02

And then it was just like, and I remember just always looking at it being like, we need to fix this. Um but yeah, and then and then you were one of our first um uh people to host workshops as well. Yeah, not that I did the workshop, but back then I used to, for those who were aren't familiar with the old store, our big table now when you come in, that was the centre of our old store. Yeah. Because our old store was half the size of this one. It was that and the couch. It was that and a couch, exactly. One table, and every time we'd do a workshop, I'd have to completely clear it all off, make room, set up the workshop, and then we'd do our workshop, and then I'd be there till like nine o'clock at night, cleaning it, putting the whole shop back together to open the store the next day. Thank goodness now that we have a space where I can close the curtain and do that. Um but yeah, it was so wonderful because we we'd only we it wasn't the new kind of like me getting used to doing events and stuff as well, but it was nice because you had the experience, and I was like, great, could you just come in and like run a workshop and show me how to do this?

SPEAKER_00

And then remember I'd be like hanging around the back just walking around with a gimbal filming stuff, no idea what I was doing, but obviously looked like I've been doing it for years, so it's nice to hear.

SPEAKER_01

Oh no, I totally thought you were all over it, so definitely, and for us it was a nice way, like at that point we were working like at home, yeah. We wanted to driving each other insane and driving ourselves insane, like because we're still in a small apartment.

SPEAKER_00

We don't we don't work well together when we first started We do and we don't need to be separated because we are so different. Steph just like put stuff everywhere.

SPEAKER_01

I might yeah, I need to kind of lay everything out and figure it out and then order it. Yeah, so we see my mom. Your mom and I'm Dave.

SPEAKER_00

When we started uh back when I lived in the Central Coast, we we set up our desks in the same room, it lasted half a day. Yeah, I think I'm just like and she's like, shut up.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I need to be in my zone.

SPEAKER_00

Like, I need to and I'm like, why are you so angry? What's wrong? What's wrong? Are you okay? So I I got sent to the other side of the house, which great.

SPEAKER_01

I feel like a lot of people relate to that side of the point.

SPEAKER_00

Like, oh, you guys work in the gallery together? No. No, we don't. Uh I have my desk. I'm like, please don't put anything on my desk.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Just let me have a space. No one puts anything on there. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01

Our staff can vouch for this. Don't put anything on Dave's desk.

SPEAKER_00

I hate post it notes. My mum has post-notes everywhere, and it's just like maybe like, no.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So being in the apartment would be Oh, it was a lot. Yeah, it was um, yeah, we kind of I mean, we we made it work. That our our customers were amazing. We'd gone from doing, you know, markets all the time down in New South Wales to moving up here, not really knowing anyone, to then like basically having our whole business like have to move online and we had no like no idea what was going on. But all our customers from down south and over the years all came online, which was amazing. They all started like really like took that um call to support local. And I think a lot of makers found this at this point, yeah. And they um, yeah, they just went on the online store, bought things, bought gifts. We were sending things all over the place. Um you couldn't believe it.

SPEAKER_00

You're sending like an original a week, and you're like, oh yeah, how is this happening?

SPEAKER_02

Well, people couldn't go outside, so it was our 2020 was the best.

SPEAKER_00

And we had a website, we weren't rushing to make a website when COVID hit, we had it. Yeah, yeah. I'd spent a year already doing that.

SPEAKER_01

So we were kind of I think we were really prepped for that period of time in a way as other people were really chasing their tail. We were so lucky that we'd already done a lot of things to try and move it in that direction. Um and when we'd lived up here the first time around, we'd um I'd always remembered, you know, it always felt like unfinished business up here, and I was always like, if there's a place I want to move back to that like just resonates with what I do with turtles and marine life and that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_00

You kept booking holidays up at least.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, waiting, waiting for Dave to say it, and then one trip he was like, I think. I heard it at the airport. Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

We got off the tarmac in February in Cairns Airport, and I was like, Yeah, this feels good. Yeah, it's like 35 degrees, 100% humidity, like midday flight. So, yeah, we can move on to the floor. Like if we can too as we get off the moment.

SPEAKER_01

I always say, yeah. But I don't know if you remember Des Spencer had a gallery in town, and um I remember walking in there as like it was 23, and like, oh, this is the dream. Like, this guy's just sitting here surrounded by work, talking to people, and he's just painting all day. Like, how good is that as a as a job? Yeah, and I'm like, if there was one thing I could do, like. This would be really cool. Um, and then we came up and that space became available that used to be his gallery. And we were like, this is the sign. Like, we've been we've been turned down for this and this hasn't worked out, and that's it.

SPEAKER_00

We took it as a pop-up, we were shitting ourselves.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, but we've got two days pop-up now. You know, doing doing his MBA and looking at the numbers the way he did, he's like, Steph, you were spending the amount we're gonna spend on rent here on market stall fees last year.

SPEAKER_00

Like and how much more time we're gonna have without driving around everywhere.

SPEAKER_01

It's gonna move work out of home, it's gonna be better anyway. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00

And it was instantly.

SPEAKER_01

So we I don't think at that point we even uh planned to have Dave's work in there. We didn't. But we got the keys, we did a coat of paint, we um put like put a whole bunch of my originals in there, and then um it just went nuts and it's not.

SPEAKER_00

Well you were like there's not enough space, we need we need more pieces.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, well we like as soon as the doors opened, we started selling things, and I'm like, I can't paint this quickly, and we don't have like the prints. I was like, Dave, quick, print your stuff. Yeah, like you've got some beautiful things, and he was like, No, no, no, it's not, and I'm like, do it, just you're gonna have to. I'm not sure it's a function. I was shocked, I was just like, I was like, we can't have blank walls in here, like you need to I need some time to paint, and this is a we'll just test it out, and then yeah, yours went really well as well, and it we it was lovely because we'd we started with like a small section of Dave's on that front, you know, front wall as you walk in, and I it was only within a couple of months that he'd basically spread out along that whole wall and it became 50-50 wall space. And we realized as people were walking in, they were kind of gravitating in one direction or the other. Yeah, which was awesome because it's like, well, you know, art's subjective, so everyone has different taste. And Dave was speaking to a different audience that my work was talking to, and then sometimes you get a couple coming in who are similar to us, completely different personalities, and one would go there and one would go there, and they'd end up getting a piece of each because it worked. Oh, for sure, they complement each other, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00

Like the image and the painting, and it's like these are gonna have separate walls, like adjacent, not next to each other, because that looks yeah, it's too jarring, but like bang bang, it's like that's so cool.

SPEAKER_02

Well, it's cool because you can break that up between yeah, like the different textures and stuff as well, and slightly different colours, but still bringing evoking those same emotions and that same life and everything.

SPEAKER_01

And like you know, like I said, we can you can be inspired so easily up here, and we were both finding that we were inspired by different sections of you know the life up here and the rainforest and the reef, and um yeah, what we were sort of getting out and when we were getting out and and adventuring and looking at the area, we were seeing different things and then bringing that back to the gallery as well, which was really cool.

SPEAKER_02

So then do you feel like you kind of outgrew that space?

SPEAKER_00

And how did you get how because like so we were shooting weddings together, we were shooting photos, we were doing hybrid coverage, so we were close, we were there was a point where we were closing the gallery to go and shoot weddings.

SPEAKER_01

You are and there was just and then you got married yourself. Yeah, 2022 was a really big year of awesome going on.

SPEAKER_00

Um last year I didn't take a single commercial client on in any way, shape, or form. And it was the first time ever as a photographer I wasn't doing work for other people, and it's allowed us to focus on the gallery operation, um, and that was the best decision ever. It's it was just too much, it was too hard to do everything. You can't wear all of the hats. You need to realise what you're better at, and for me, that is shooting underwater and aerial photography. That's what I enjoy, that's my passion.

SPEAKER_01

Um we were getting pretty overwhelmed at that point. Um, I mean, we'd done it to ourselves, but we were wearing all the hats. Our friend Annetta, actually, who I'd met at a workshop, um, kind of kept popping in and being like, guys, I think you need a hand. Like, can I just come in on my days off and and work for you guys? And she was like, she's got a wealth of Macross and Street retail experience. Um yeah, and soon like she'd quit her other job and was just working with us um and kind of helping to run the the sales in-store side of things so that we could do all the other aspects. Um, but then it was that okay, we've got online orders coming in, in-store orders, Dave's trying to edit photos, I'm trying to paint, and Annette is trying to package and we run the store. This is just not working anymore.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, you couldn't do more than one task at a time. No, like if you're packaging a piece, that was it.

SPEAKER_01

Like you said with your table, you know, packing down and then setting up again, like we were having that as well. And then I was trying to run workshops out of that space, so we'd spend half our time just getting the next task ready, packing it up. So yeah, um now we have benches everywhere.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so we looked at But it's still full of stuff, but at least it's like you can work on that job, that job, that job, that job without being like, Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_01

We did look at hiring a studio space, I feel like out at Craigley or something for a while. We were on the verge of doing that. We looked at a very a variety of other like we knew when Alice was up with the with the smaller store and we're kind of looking at different options. Um, and then I think I walked into your store and I knew that this was getting redeveloped. And um I was under the impression they were all gone. Like I think everyone was. Yeah, um, and then I walked in and you and your mum were on and we were tagging as we do, and you were like, Oh, like we, you know, we might have just taken on a lease for this, and I think there's like and I was like, Oh god, they look amazing! Like, I love that. And you were like I just wanted a creative hub.

SPEAKER_02

I was like, I want all three to be all creative, yeah. And we get in. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so that's it.

SPEAKER_01

Balances everything in.

SPEAKER_02

But you guys, like, I feel like you had grown so much, you're in that beautiful space, and then you had such a busy year, you moved out to Mowbray New and bought the most beautiful home.

SPEAKER_00

It was a one and a half bedroom house when we bought it.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, you've made it into this renable place now. But I I remember watching you guys. I remember watching you guys. I think did you say 2022, you got married, you bought the house, you were outgrowing the space, and then I was kind of watching you. Yes, you hope you felt pregnant with your first. Yeah, and then I was kind of watching, I was like, you guys need a space too, come be next to us. So yeah, and then when was that? 2023. So moved in here at the end of 2023 after a mammoth of you know, months of getting it ready for the craziness, but we won't go too into that too much.

SPEAKER_01

Exactly. Yeah. But it was nice to I think it was good that we had a couple of months of it just being slightly quieter, and then it headed into season and we could re you know, even out everything and iron out all the um teething issues we had, and and then we kind of opened and it was like all you know for that peak period of of tourists, everyone's kind of going, where did this come from? Like, look at these two next to each other, and it was awesome. From that moment, it just felt right.

SPEAKER_00

The amount of people like locally who walked, they're like, Where did you come? We're like, we were we were four doors down for three years. They're like, We've never seen you before.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, fair enough for us because we were tucked down the end of the street.

SPEAKER_00

We literally moved up the road, a bunch of mates came and helped, picked everything up, dragged it in. So easy, so good, yeah, and like we do not regret moving into bigger space, that's for sure. Yes, it's been amazing. Like double double the hanging space. Oh god, you're like I've actually finally got a proper print studio instead of a you know room out the back that's yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And we kind of have an aircon in the other one too, didn't we? We had no aircon in the back. Horrible. I don't know how it was.

SPEAKER_00

It was pretty intense.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, uh I think the aircom worked, um, and then we literally moved, got the keys, moved in, and then it just died the day that we moved in. And we were like, Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00

And we were like, and then they were like, well, no, we're not replacing it. I was like, well, I'm not buying one, so bugger replacement.

SPEAKER_01

We just make do. So that's insane. You know, all these bootstrapping things you do at the start.

SPEAKER_02

Isn't it character building, isn't it? We're more resilient for it.

SPEAKER_01

And it makes you really appreciate when you sort of get to that next level and move into a different spot.

SPEAKER_02

So yeah, it's been cool. So moving forward now, what have you guys got in the work?

SPEAKER_01

So you know we love doing far too many things. Oh, you can't sit still.

SPEAKER_00

So well, we spent last year um refining Elenja linen, so that's kind of done now. So the cushions and the tea towels that's done. And then we've brought our own brass mouldings in from overseas, so they're done.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, we've been working with artisans um to get these made, and they're all out of recycled brass, um, and they're like manta rays and turtles and things, and they're kind of in the process of getting moulds made ourselves that we'll then um do two, which is cool. So we're trying to, I guess, have a little bit more gift wear in there that complements what we do currently. Um, and especially with internationals coming back, they're kind of enjoying seeing a few different things. They want their little you know, something from the barrier reef and their time here.

SPEAKER_02

And if it's not if they can't afford a big painting, then they can buy a coaster, a swaddle, uh or you know, a cushion, whatever else exactly.

SPEAKER_00

Well, the coaster and placemats are a work in progress, so that's finally now done. We have supply of them, so they're all pressed. Yeah, so it's a submation press. So that's a mirrored image that then gets stuck onto the placemat coaster, and then it goes in the clamshell um and it transfers via gaseous ink, which is really cool.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, they kind of segued into the giftware side of things for us, and then we're like, we can't physically make everything, like we need to find ways. We made sure that wherever we did bring things in, or if there's things with our designs on that we know the full story behind it, where it comes from, like where it's made, who's making them, like last year, this year, last year we went over to Indonesia and we went to the factories where everything's being made. Yeah, we were my my lovely auntie, who is a retired costume, like film costume designer, moved up here and I was like, any chance you want to sew some cushions with me? And then I was like, We can't keep sewing cushions on top of everything.

SPEAKER_00

Like, we we could not keep stock, we just could not do it. Everything just was on the shelf and then out the door.

SPEAKER_01

So we found found a um yeah, found a warehouse that could do it for us, and um I was like, I need to go up, go and like find out how it is, and I'm there. I'm like, oh, and they're ordering Uber Eats and they're sitting, and I'm like, okay, so we're not gonna be able to do that. Everybody's graduated. Yeah, like making sure that like having a chat with everyone, like, okay, no, this is a really like yeah, a good place to be getting these done.

SPEAKER_02

And aligns with your values and everything. Yeah, that's it, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, absolutely. Um, so yeah, that's kind of we've we've spread that range out, we'll be bringing new cards and things out. Um, and then we've got um affordable art fair coming up, which is something we've wanted to do for ages. Um we have roped your mum into it as well, which is I don't know whether she loves or hates us for that.

SPEAKER_02

I said, Do you want to record your podcast this week? She's not this week. Yes, sir. We'll see, maybe closer or maybe after the fair.

SPEAKER_01

That's it, yeah. It is, it's creeping up on all of us. And we had a big meeting with them over Zoom this week, and we're like, oh, like we could we need to take a lot of work. Um and Dave's like, it's fine, you know, being I know that press go on the printer. I just create.

SPEAKER_00

But then we're in this meeting, and I'm going, but I don't want to take my current stock down, and I've got all these new shots to work. So I've got a whole new range that I'm gonna work on. So I've given myself two weeks to um edit 20 new images, get them test printed, ready, printed, and then offer the primer down there. Yeah, nice. Um, and then I'll be driving down with the van full of all of Steph's art. And she's just painted this amazing new range with a whole new style, so that's really freaking cool. So excited.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it's I'm a bit nervous about putting it out there. I love it.

SPEAKER_00

Everyone that's seen it loves it.

SPEAKER_01

Everything you do is great, so don't worry. Yeah, but we're always our worst critic. I've had this chat with your mom so much lately about like, oh no, like everything I do is rubbish, it's just a thought that goes through all of our heads, and then everyone else is just going, what are you talking about? Like that and serious, like your mom going, none of my work matches, and everyone else is going, that's totally a dog award. Exactly. And that's where I'm at at the moment. I'm like, oh, it's so new and different for me to do this. But I think you have to evolve and change as an artist to like you can't stay stagnant, it just doesn't sit well with us.

SPEAKER_02

Um you also have to just align with what brings you joy, and what you know, you don't the the point of being a creative is to do what you love, yeah, and it's not to drag the fun out of it just because now you're um you know making a profit on it or whatever. Exactly, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Like I could just sometimes that can be the worst thing in itself as well. It's like the pressure I put on myself a couple weeks ago on this trip, I'm just like, I have to get the shots, I have to get the shots, yeah. And it's just like you need to calm down and breathe. And then like I'm making up making mistakes with camera settings, with this, with that, because you're in your head. Yes, and then it's day two, and you're like, oh, I'm happy now, and I've got Elliot on my back while I'm photographing turtles going down the beach.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, and it's like this is oh this is the ground yourself with that a little bit every year.

SPEAKER_00

But it's so easy to get stuck in your head, and that that trap is it's the worst, but we'll do it.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, but do you I feel like you guys are really wonderful at balancing that work-life balance too, because you s you do try to make an effort to go to I've just forgotten what the island's called.

SPEAKER_00

We went to Karen and Lady Elliott.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I mean, I think recently like now we've got kids, we see things very differently. Um and we always did try and you know, we're we're fortunate that a lot of the travel we do um is you know tax deductible for us. It's all you know, getting shots for day, getting inspiration for us. Um and so we can do those trips as part of what we do for work. Um, but we have two kids to take into consideration now, and we never really wanted to be those parents that wouldn't take them along on adventures, and only one of us went or whatever else. So we try and I guess in this stage of life, we're trying to make sure the trips we do they can come along too and they have a good time and get something out of it.

SPEAKER_00

It's a lot like the downtime we used to have, we now have to turn the kids, so we just get sick. Yeah, um but they get included and you see the growth because they're out of their comfort zone, and it's so worth I mean, you spent your early years travelling around, so you would have just been talking to every random stranger that you met because that's what Elliot does. Like we were up in the tabland six months ago, and he's just gotten up from our table and sat down at the table next to us with 20 adults, and he's like, Hi, I'm Elliot. Amazing except that's day, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I I truly think that that is how it like that lifestyle has shaped me throughout my whole life. Like, you being in such social and um adventurous situations as a kid really sets you up. Like same thing, like I was always Reef and I both the kids, like adults would stop mum and dad and go, your kids actually stopped and shook our hand and said hello and looked as you guys and we were like, but the norm is not that anymore, and it's really sad. So it's wonderful to see that you are um you know bringing your kids up to build a hard.

SPEAKER_00

It's hard work, but that's because it's you've got to put the time and effort in. But we see the reward, like our our almost three-year-old says, please and thank you. I mean, he might have meltdowns as well, but his brains developing.

SPEAKER_01

But he might as well be having a meltdown on a tropical island. Exactly. He's gonna be having a meltdown at home anyway.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, he just spent the whole trip chasing birds this time round. Like last year he was like now he's like, birds, go get them, shoo!

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I know. It's so great to watch. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00

So like he came with us last year to Tonga when Steph was pregnant with Jamie.

SPEAKER_01

So he was just to see the yeah, see the humpback whale migration. Yeah, it's to talk about this with you after this. Yeah, it's very cool.

SPEAKER_02

And just pick your brain because I want to go and do that.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely go and hopefully get as lucky as I was to see an albino.

SPEAKER_02

That's you know that's just incredible. I was actually in tears last night looking at Tonga and whales.

SPEAKER_00

They are if if anyone, if you get the chance to go and swim with whales, do it. It's the best thing you'll ever do with your life. Um, you meet these beautiful big creatures and they look like the cast, especially, they stare into your soul and you're swimming whilst trying not to smile so you don't flood your mask, and then you start crying because they're looking at your heart, and you're like, Oh, and then you realize, oh my god, they're big.

SPEAKER_01

I think every time I think about that, I just think of how we almost hunted them to the point of extinction. And now like they've come back in such vast numbers, and it's just such a beautiful story of like conservation, and when we band together, and like definitely, yeah, we can protect things if we really try, and that's what has happened with with the humpback.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, um and I feel like that really shows through your work as well. Like when you step into your gallery, not only is it beautiful artwork and photography, but you guys also promoting that hey, look how amazing our world is, let's preserve this, and you know, remind everyone of how special it is that this is what we get.

SPEAKER_01

If people don't, yeah, they they'll people will protect what they love and what they're exposed to, and I think that's what we really want to be as a space that they come into and go, hey, like look at those turtle paintings, and then they go on the reef and they see a turtle and they come back and they're like, That's the one I saw. Like, yeah, and it's it's awesome to hear that. And like, yeah, it's you know, we live in this section of the world where we've got two um World Heritage sites, yeah, where there's such a biodiversity of you know which is out there, and that that's what it's got to be all about for us, is you know, spreading that message and um it's it's nice to be a little part of that people wanting to look after and protect that too. Yeah, which is awesome.

SPEAKER_00

So have those pinch ourselves moments we're like, oh, we could do this for a living, especially on trips. People are like, You're here for work? Yeah, they're like, We're we're just here on holiday to see, like to swim with a turtle. I've never swim with a turtle, what's it like? And I'm like, I've been swimming with turtles full-time for a career for six years now, and I never get sick of it.

SPEAKER_03

Yes, yes, it's like that's how good it is.

SPEAKER_00

You every every encounter is amazing, and yeah, and people are like, how how but how do how they always swim away from it? Like when you when you find a creature and you want to hang around with it, don't don't tell anyone, don't pull your snoop out the screen. Yes, just see the turtle and just have a moment, and they'll come closer and closer, and you just get to sit there and enjoy it, and it's so magical. There's nothing about it. I feel like it's just truly special.

SPEAKER_02

All of it, like being able to go and do that and then bring it back to your gallery as well is just amazing.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, we're super fortunate that it's uh the most stressful part of the way is culling. Yes, yeah, like editing and culling, and just like we do everything on trip, like sometimes it can be up to like 20,000 shots taken in a couple of weeks. Yeah, if you come home with more than 2,000 shots, you're gonna like literally have a breakdown. So, like we've come back from this current trip with 1500, already culled down to that. Yeah, thank god.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, goodness.

SPEAKER_00

But yeah, there's a lot that goes into it.

SPEAKER_02

We could probably talk forever. We probably go. We could talk forever, but we probably should open both of our stores, um, considering it's probably no else. Um but I would love to wrap up with two things. First thing, any advice, like a piece of advice that maybe you live by, maybe something to do with starting a business or maybe the way that you guys live. And then my second thing, I would love to know where people can find you if they're looking for you.

SPEAKER_01

Um my bit of advice would always be to follow your gut. Like if you've got a feeling that that's what you should be doing, then give it a go. What's the worst that can happen? I suppose.

SPEAKER_00

Uh I have a lot of advice. I'm really good at giving it and not following any of it. Um my number one bit of advice would be to take some time out.

SPEAKER_03

Yes.

SPEAKER_00

And think about what you're doing. And this is literally practicing what I uh yeah, I don't do this. Um, but take a second and realise what you're doing, and if you love what you do, enjoy it and take those moments to realise that it's pretty freaking cool. Yeah. Um also don't um move shops, have kids, and renovate all at the same time. Most people don't try and do 10 years worth of stuff in one.

SPEAKER_02

I disagree.

SPEAKER_00

Rip the band-aid off and get through it. Like, you know, that's also I don't know.

SPEAKER_01

You know, sure you can tackle anything by now. Well, that's it. I think if we've gotten through the last few years, then um it's a heavy smooth sailing. Let's open another site.

SPEAKER_00

It's like, no, no, no, let's calm down, let's just stop for a minute.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, it's a maker of franchise. I'm like, very much enjoying me today, guys.

SPEAKER_00

You can find us as well at cgallery.com.au.

SPEAKER_02

Yep.

SPEAKER_00

DavidLloyd.com.au, Stephanie ElizabethArtwork.com.

SPEAKER_01

Yep. No, just the one website.

SPEAKER_00

Just the one website, cgallery.com.au.

SPEAKER_02

There's a lot of that. And then Crossing Street. And then on Instagram, you guys go by c.studio.gallery and David Lloyd Photography.

SPEAKER_00

Fantastic. Double L O I D, like the bank.

SPEAKER_02

Um, we will be in your ears very soon. Um, but yeah, please go and follow these guys and um yeah, have a wonderful, wonderful day. See ya.