Ash Farman is a drone photographer from Melbourne, Australia. In his interview with us, he not only shares how he got into photography and why he is so passionate about the ocean, but he also discusses his unique editing style, drone photography, how he is able to monetise his hobby and—maybe best of all—the finest beaches around Melbourne. Ash is well established in the Australian photography scene on Instagram and has an evergrowing fanbase throughout the world.

Could you please give us a brief overview of your journey up to this point in your life? Your beautiful Instagram feed, I presume, expresses three of things that you love: the ocean, surfing and drone photography. How and when did you discover your fondness of them?

Having a father who worked in advertising, I have been around cameras my entire life. The passion for actually taking photos started at a very early age and since then, I have always had one by my side. I originally started with portrait photography, taking photos of family and friends etc. Urban/street photography was the next thing that I fell in love with, but now aerial photography is where my passion lies.

Having very active parents who had me in the water at only 8 weeks old, the ocean has played a huge part in my life, whether it was sailing, scuba diving, surfing or just swimming. Some summers as a kid, I would spend more time in the water than out of it. So, naturally, I gravitated towards the coastline when I bought my first drone about 3-4 years ago.

What's amazing to me, and I'm sure to a lot of others as well, is how you've managed to combine these three passions of yours and monetize doing what you love. Would you agree with the saying that one should "choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life"?

I completely agree with that saying and putting it into practice has been one of the most challenging yet rewarding things I have done with my life so far.

The learning curve has been steep – especially the video side of things, the hours on the road are long – sometimes getting up at 3 am to drive several hours to catch the sunrise. The weather plays nice only half of the time, so there is a massive rollercoaster of luck and frustration that comes along with it. But what makes it so rewarding is when you end up with amazing images that you can be proud of.

With regard to the more serious aspects of life, what advice would you give others: Is it important to diversify income sources or concentrate on one or two different methods? What are some of your favourite ways to make a bit of money from photography, and in which ways do you think you can expand and improve moving forward in regards to your portfolio and gaining more experience and income?

I think it’s a good idea in life to have a few irons in the fire and give yourself the best chance to be successful. I’ve worked full time in the automotive industry for the past 15 years, which helps pay all the bills. It allows me to concentrate on my artistic side and to do what I want to do, without having to do things I don’t want to do to survive, like aerial real estate photography, for example.

With regard to making money from my photos/videos, I sell a lot of prints locally and internationally and also do the occasional video work for corporate companies, which pays extremely well. To improve and expand on this position, all you really need to do is be present. Don’t be afraid to send an email, pick up the phone, get your foot in the door and make yourself known. Presentation is half the battle, people want to work with people they get along with wherever possible. So, if your work is as good as the next person, but you connected with them in the right way, they are more likely to sign you up.

In almost every single one of your images, you have a person in the shot. You also seem to love capturing movement, whether it is waves washing up on the shore, a surfer catching a wave or someone walking along the beach casting a shadow. Can you explain why you enjoy capturing these types of shots and what you're looking for when you're sending the drone to take some photos?

To put it simply, creating compositions with subjects is extremely satisfying. It adds to the story by adding in a human element that you can relate to. As much as I do go out with intent, I generally fill the card on each trip with a variety of different types of shots that just appeal to me in the moment. I do most of my shooting between first light and an hour or two after sunrise to catch the golden hour and that morning vibe.

Weather plays into a lot as well, and funnily enough, I never want to be shooting on a perfect day. I find that a bit of cloud diffuses the light and adds mood into your shots. I also like shooting between rain showers, when it’s blowing a gale. Some of my best shots have come from short breaks in almost cyclonic weather.

Swell is another factor that makes it challenging to get the timing right. A lot of the time during winter, the big stuff is breaking mid-week whilst I’m sitting in an office in the middle of the Melbourne CBD, and it absolutely kills me. Due to this, I keep a close eye on the swell charts up to two weeks out, so I can make sure I am available to go hit it when it comes on the weekend.

Gunnamatta Ocean Beach, Victoria, Australia

I touched on capturing shadows in some of your compositions a bit before. However, I think that you take things a few steps further than just playing with shadows. The level of contrast and details in your images are bold, very eye-catching and make your images stand out from the crowd. You also seem to make the most of contrasting complementary colours, such as teal and orange, in many of your images. Are these factors that you think about when looking for a composition and when editing your images or is it more of a natural progression of your editing style and thought process? Is there anything else that you are trying to achieve when editing your images and reaching a certain aesthetic?

Whilst out shooting, I think a lot of the thought process of what I need to do has become second nature to me, and if I’m honest, I don’t really think about it too much anymore—it just happens.

Editing, on the other hand, does require a lot of thought and planning. However, it’s kind of a similar process where I just let myself go and create something that I want to see from the heart. I usually put headphones on, open a beer and get myself into a good headspace so the creative juices flow. My particular style of editing has always had rich vibrant contrasting complementary colours in it, and it’s been a challenging road to refine that back from a very obvious overuse of it to a more tasteful look that is uniquely my style. When I first started out, I imitated my favourite photography to try and figure out the basics and how they did what they did, and once I learnt, I tried to put my own lick on it to create something different, which I think is very important. Always try new things, even if you think it won’t work—you never know what you will come up with.

What's your go-to drone? What was your experience when you were going through the process of becoming a certified drone pilot? (Was it challenging, a long process, expensive in Australia?) and have you ever crashed a drone or had any near misses?

My workhorse for surf photography is the DJI Phantom 4 Pro, it’s almost as good as my Inspire 2 quality-wise, but it’s a lot more discrete, which is important to remember when other people are out there trying to enjoy the serenity of the ocean.

Getting my RePL (Remote Pilot Licence) was very challenging, as I actually did it with a commercial pilot training school, so there was a lot of additional aeronautical training that came with it, which, in hindsight, I’m very glad that I did - having extra knowledge never hurt anyone!

Price-wise, when I did it a few years ago, it was very expensive, but I believe they have come down a bit since then. I would recommend the certification to anyone considering getting into the field commercially.

No. I have not crashed a drone yet – touch wood. I’ve had plenty of close calls but luckily, I’ve managed to fly my way out of danger every time. A couple of times that come to mind was almost losing my Phantom to a huge wave at Bells that I was strafing alongside at water level to emulate being inside a barrel. Another time, I almost put my Inspire 2 into a brick structure at 80km/h during a shoot for Mercedes at Sydney Motorsport Raceway. I certainly ‘buzzed the tower’ that day – haha!

For all the surf lovers, beachgoers and foodies out there, what are some of your favourite spots in and around Melbourne to get a great meal or to watch the waves roll in? And which beach is your favourite to photograph?

Beach wise, I have three, and they are all at least an hour away from Melbourne. Bells for the surf, Gunnamatta for incredible sunsets and Lorne for that tropical laid-back vibe. Closer to home, I love Half Moon Bay at Black Rock for traditional beach-going.

Food-wise, that’s a tough question. Don’t forget this is Melbourne, and we are so spoilt for food and entertainment. Just head to the city and you will find the flavours of the world and some of the best examples of it. If I had to choose just one area to eat for the rest of my life, it would be in Little Burke Street in the CBD. I absolutely love all types of Asian food.

Where can people find out more about you? And what social media platforms can we all follow you on?

Most of what I do is on Instagram under @highintheskyphotography. I also started to work on my YouTube game a bit more these holidays, so subscribe to my channel to stay tuned to all the soon-to-be-released video work I’ve been doing.

I’ve recently updated my website, adding a few new additions. I just released my first Lightroom preset pack and also a Cinematic LUT pack for videos: check those out whilst they are still at the introductory sale price.

https://www.instagram.com/highintheskyphotography/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2wP94EH2D1d8_1mlNO4MGg?

https://www.highinthesky.com.au/

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Australian drone photographer Ash Farman on beach/surf photography and creating a unique editing style

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