About The Wildline

The Wildline is wildlife photography, landscape documentation, and philosophical inquiry on Dharawal Country. Learning in public with a Canon R8. Honest documentation of skill-building, constraint as creative filter, and what shows up when you stop chasing and start waiting.

What This Is

For seven months (September 2025–March 2026), I'm property-bound near Dharawal National Park in the Illawarra region of NSW, Australia, with limited mobility. Three months in, four months to go. Instead of treating this as a limitation, I'm treating it as a creative filter: what can I see, what can I learn, what shows up when I work with constraint instead of against it?

The practice:

• Wildlife photography (cockatoos, lyrebirds, wrens, echidnas, turtles, ducklings—whatever the bush offers)
• Landscape documentation (dawn light, post-rain atmosphere, seasonal shifts, fire ecology)
• Gear mastery (Canon R8, RF 50mm f/1.8, RF100-400mm—learning through doing, mistakes visible)
• Philosophical reflection (Stoicism, Taoism, continental philosophy applied to creative practice, not academic theory)

This isn't wildlife photography tutorials. I'm not an expert. I'm a learner showing my work—the autofocus struggles, the wrong lens moments, the gradual improvement through patient observation.

The YouTube Channel

The Wildline documents wildlife encounters and rural creative practice through shorts and long-form videos. Early discovery: my physical presence on camera resonates. Shorts featuring me—reactions, reflections, learning process visible—consistently hit 1,900+ views. Voice-over-only content typically stalls around 1,000-1,500 views.

Current content:

• Wildlife encounter shorts (20-60 seconds, authentic reactions, no polish)
• Landscape/mood pieces (atmospheric, minimal narration, custom Suno soundtracks)
• Gear learning documentation (Canon R8 techniques, lens struggles, honest failures)
• Long-form videos (2-5 minutes, deeper reflection on encounters and practice)

Building toward YouTube monetization while maintaining authentic documentation over algorithm optimization. Content is a byproduct of skill-building, not the primary goal.

The Wildline also includes earlier philosophical episodes (Plato's Cave, Heraclitus, Zeno's Paradoxes)—testing ancient philosophy through material practice and rural creative work. These still exist on the channel and inform current practice, but the focus has shifted toward wildlife photography and landscape documentation.

[Watch on YouTube →]

Who I Am

Visual artist (MFA), volunteer firefighter, rural-based on Dharawal Country in the Illawarra region of NSW, Australia.

Before this, I worked in city galleries—exhibitions, theoretical frameworks, the traditional art world. Then circumstances changed. Moved rural, joined the fire service, started encountering philosophy in ways that couldn't stay abstract.

Out here, you can't read Stoic acceptance without testing it against Australian weather. Can't think about presence and patience without sitting still in the bush for hours waiting for lyrebirds. Can't explore phenomenology without paying attention to how space actually works in isolation. Philosophy stops being purely theoretical pretty quickly.

The Wildline grew from that tension—between what ideas claim and what reality demonstrates when you actually test them.

The Multi-Platform Practice

YouTube: Primary platform. Wildlife shorts + long-form documentation.

Ghost newsletter: Weekly notes from Dharawal Country. Behind-the-scenes, photography learnings, philosophical reflections. What didn't make the edits, what I'm struggling with, honest documentation of the messy middle.
[Subscribe to newsletter →]

Pinterest: Visual portfolio. Wildlife photography, landscape documentation, behind-the-scenes workflow.
[Browse Pinterest →]

Spotify playlists: Curated soundtracks for encounters, creative practice, philosophical moods. Built from 20+ years of vinyl collecting—post-rock, ambient, experimental. Music that supports observation and making.
[Listen to playlists →]

Gumroad: Digital products when they emerge naturally from practice. Midjourney prompts for Australian landscape (because algorithms default to Northern Hemisphere forests), Notion templates (actual working systems), Suno prompt libraries (custom soundtrack generation).
[Browse digital tools →]

Not trying to be everywhere. Each platform serves a different aspect of the practice—YouTube for visual documentation, Ghost for depth, Pinterest for discovery, Spotify for mood, Gumroad for tools that actually work.

The Philosophy (Without Naming It Constantly)

The approach is informed by Stoicism (working with what's in front of you), Taoism (wu wei, not forcing), continental philosophy (Deleuze, Foucault, Bachelard on place and power and material reality), and creative practice philosophy around constraints as filters rather than limitations.

But I don't announce this constantly. The philosophy is in the work—how I approach waiting, how I respond to failed shots, how I think about constraints, how I document learning. It's practice, not performance.

The Gear

Photography:

• Canon R8 (mirrorless, learning curve visible and documented)
• RF 50mm f/1.8 STM (portraits, wildlife at close range, shallow depth)
• RF100-400mm f/5.6-8 IS USM (telephoto for birds, autofocus struggles ongoing)
• DJI Action 5 Pro (filming reactions, behind-the-scenes, handheld bush documentation)

Post-production:

• DaVinci Resolve (self-taught video editing, free version)
• Canva Pro (thumbnails, design, now includes free Affinity Photo for RAW editing)
• Suno AI (custom soundtrack generation with perpetual licensing)
• Artlist (additional music library, also perpetual licensing)

Other:

• Extensive vinyl collection (informs Spotify playlist curation, shapes aesthetic)
• 15-year-old Camelbak Mule that lost its bladder but still carries everything
• Gore-tex Salomon X-Ultras for scrambling over rocks and creek beds
• Hat bought in Tenterfield, NSW (slip slop slap isn't just a slogan)
• Pokemon Go (yes, really—gets me walking to locations I wouldn't otherwise explore)

Nothing fancy. Nothing sponsored. Just functional equipment for documenting wildlife and creative practice in the Australian bush.

What's Next (March 2026+)

When mobility returns in March, the practice expands:

• Car access means wider location scouting across Dharawal Country
• Pottery kiln becomes available again (wild clay work, material practice)
• Horse photography opportunities (community building, word-of-mouth growth in rural networks)
• Potential print sales, stock photography licensing, brand partnerships

But those are possibilities, not plans. Right now, the focus is the seven-month intensive—learning to see what's here, building genuine skill, documenting honestly.

Revenue Model (Honest Version)

Current:

• Building toward YouTube monetisation (subscriber + watch hour thresholds)
• Gumroad digital products (slow-build, only when systems are actually refined)
• Photography opportunities as they develop organically

Future (March 2026+):

• Ghost paid newsletter tier (only after building free subscriber base to 50-100+)
• Print sales (wildlife/landscape photography)
• stock photography licensing
• Workshops or brand partnerships (only if requested, not chasing)

The goal isn't to monetise everything immediately. It's to build sustainable creative practice where revenue emerges naturally from genuine skill and authentic documentation.

Why Document This

Because philosophy shouldn't stay safely theoretical. Because rural creative practice offers perspectives that urban-centered work often misses. Because learning in public—showing the failures, the autofocus struggles, the gradual improvement—creates more honest content than polished expertise.

Because constraint can be a creative filter, not just a limitation.

Because someone should document what it's actually like to learn wildlife photography on Dharawal Country, one lyrebird encounter at a time.

If you're interested in authentic creative practice, wildlife observation, and philosophical inquiry that gets tested rather than just discussed—you're in the right place.

[Watch on YouTube →] | [Subscribe to Newsletter →] | [Browse Resources →]

Land Acknowledgment

This work is created on the traditional lands of the Dharawal people. I acknowledge their continuing connection to country and pay respects to Elders past, present, and emerging.

Located in the Illawarra region of NSW, Australia, on Dharawal Country.