I get an immense amount of pleasure looking at Troy’s photography. He works with what the South Australian landscape gives him, creating clean, bordering on minimalist images with a certain nostalgia and plenty of negative space.

This is particularly true of Troy’s coastal scenes, often long exposures shot with beautiful pastels and textured water and skies. The notion of “less is more” is a great way to sum up his work I think.

Troy is also a passionate photographer who is determined to go his own way. If you’d like to see more of his work, check out @troystoryy_photography and @troystoryy on Instagram or his website at https://www.troystoryy.net/.

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1) Can you tell me the story of how you become interested in photography?

It was October of 2017 and I was in a pretty flat place in my life, so I decided to start this thing where I went to the beach for a swim every day.

It started out as a week, then I thought I’d push it longer, eventually starting to take photos as proof that I was swimming.

I soon traded my phone for my ancient Nikon D3100, which I’d barely touched since I first bought it, and never looked back! (for anybody interested, I made it to 364 days straight swimming at the beach)

2) I love the minimalist feel to your Instagram feed. Is this something you consciously aim for, or is it simply a byproduct of what you like to shoot?

I lean towards the latter. When it comes to landscapes, I’m definitely always on the lookout for the most uncomplicated scene I can find.

Whether that be a tree on a hill, some sticks in the water, or something abstract, I tend to use it to show the scale of the surrounding environment.

When it comes to Instagram, it’s not something I try to consciously convey on my feed as a “theme” or anything it’s just what I love to shoot.

3) For those who have never heard of the Centre for Creative Photography, can you explain what the centre does and how you become involved?

They are an amazing photography school, full of multi-award winning and inspiring Australian lecturers. They offer both a certificate IV and a diploma in photography and photo imaging, along with an array of day courses and masterclasses throughout the year.

The fact they cover so much really helps open your eyes to things you may never give a second thought to otherwise.

What drew me in to begin with was the fact they have a wide range of study options with classes in the morning, afternoon and weekends which really helped me as I work a full-time job Monday to Friday.

Their website is http://ccp.sa.edu.au and you can find them on social media also.

4) What is something that you couldn’t possibly leave home on a photography trip?

My sense of excitement.

If I’m not absolutely frothing about the chase and what I may see and find on my adventure then I may as well leave my gear at home.

I feel if you don’t have that drive to discover new places or find new compositions at places you already know and love, you end up taking different versions of the same photo. My 10-stop ND filter is also pretty handy though!

5) Is there a particular message that you want to convey with your photography, particularly your beautiful beach and landscape work?

Not really a message as such, but I love to showcase how much beauty is right on our doorstep, just under our noses.

People dream of holidays to Europe and the Americas for the stunning scenery but if you head away from the packed metropolitan beaches in Adelaide there is so much wild rugged beauty on our coastline, not even a 90-minute drive or so from the CBD.

To be honest, before I got into photography, I took the landscape for granted. The beach was no more than a place to head to in summer to cool off.

I suppose if I were trying to convey anything it would be just to help people open their eyes to our beautiful surrounds just as photography did for me.

6) Who are some of the photographers that you admire, and why?

Matt Symonds (@didi_photos) because he is probably the kindest human I’ve ever met, in addition to being an amazing photographer. He’s given me so much advice on photography and life, and most importantly constantly reminds me to enjoy photography, especially the chase and the fear of the unknown.

I only talked with Dale Sharpe of @dkphotographyau briefly over Instagram before his passing, but his passion was so contagious and talent unmatched.

Definitely a massive inspiration for both his images and his enthusiasm for life. It showed me when I first started out that photographers weren’t all snobby loaners and that I could hopefully one day be successful AND be myself.

The last one I will mention is Allen Koppe (@allenkoppe). I’ve never talked to the man but his black and white images are 100% goals and make me cry with happiness and pure jealousy every time I see one on my feed.

There are so many talented and inspiring togs that I admire though and I wish I could just mention all of them but you would need a separate blog to fit them all in!

7) The passion in some of your Instagram captions is contagious! I admire that. How important of a motivator is passion for all of those early mornings, late evenings, wet shoes and failed sunsets?

Thanks for that, I’m glad that passion shines through into my written words.

I guess I want people to get a taste of that chase I’ve mentioned a few times now, hence the generally wordy captions.

My passion is without a doubt what gets me through all the downsides and setbacks that have been thrown at me so far in my short photography journey (mostly first world problems).

I’ve dropped lenses into the ocean, had a tripod fall over with my camera on it, had countless shoots that resulted in zero keepers to show for it but it’s all worth it when you nail an image here and there.