Kanuka Brook, Glenbrook © Phil Young
Few long-term residents of the Blue Mountains express their love of where they live as effectively as Blaxland photographer Phil Young.
Phil recently set up an online shop for his ever growing collection of landscape photography. He offers quality prints of the beautiful places he's photographed over the past quarter of a century – and much more.
His website carries personal comments and maps of each spot he's visited with directions about how to get there – invaluable guidance for those looking for a delightful bushwalk with a pleasant picnic spot.
His bushwalks cover not just the much visited upper Mountains, but places in the lower Mountains off the tourist track and best known to the locals.
Yet it was a chance conversation with a colleague at work that brought him to the mountains back in 1983.
"I was working in town and I said to a work colleague I was thinking of buying a place up the coast. He lived in the Blue Mountains not far from here and asked had we ever thought of having a look in the Blue Mountains because he'd found it a great place to live – very family orientated.
"So we came up here one weekend, put a deposit on a house, and we've just loved living in the mountains ever since."
Phil and his wife, Sandra, have raised their four children here with much of their outdoor activity focussed on exploring many trails, creeks and lookouts.
"In the summer months," recalls Sandra, "I'd pick up the kids from school, have all their swimmers packed and afternoon tea. Then we'd go into the national park where they'd swim for an hour or two. Then we'd pop back in the car and come home, get bathed ready for bed. It was a really nice way to spend a summer afternoon.
"They have beautiful falls as you go into Blue Pool and really nice cascading water. I would sit there with a little baby three months old on my lap with water running over us. It was delightful."
Phil is a graphics designer who gave up commuting to work in Sydney in 1991 so he could from home. He then did a Bachelor of Design course as a mature age student at the University of Western Sydney. The mountains proved perfect for his hobby of photography - so much beauty that's so easy to access.
"The seasons bring great variations in weather and light which affects the look and feel of any scene. So any day is a great day to get out and about in either the lower or upper Blue Mountains and that is what I love to do – put on a backpack full of gear and go for a hike along a trail hoping to capture that next fantastic scene."
Phil may visit a site a number of times, looking at cloud formations and the sun's position, checking the weather and the time of day best suited for a good shot.
"You've just got to have have the patience to sit there," says Phil. "You can't say, now hurry up and give me it, you've got to sit there and say it'll come. And that's kind of a cathartic, restful, peaceful thing."
Pressing the shutter button is just the beginning for Phil. Tweaking the result in his digital darkroom, his Photoshop software, brings fresh pleasure.
Study the work on his website and you'll see how he can intensify shafts of light beaming down through gaps in the clouds, or get the colours of vegetation, cliff faces and skies to just the hue and clarity he desires. These are skills beyond the average amateur photographer, but which can be learned through experience.
Phil and Sandra encourage other families to enjoy what the Mountains have given to them, their children and now their grandchildren. Perhaps, with the help of Phil's website, more will now explore the delightful picnic spots and bushwalks that Phil has photographed so sensitively.
Phil's websites:
Phil Young Photographs – his online shop for photographic prints
Phil Young Photography - his wedding photography site also offering hair and makeup styling by his wife, Sandra, a beautician.