It's been a while since I've gone out and had a proper portrait session. The past few months I had only used my camera occasionally to take some snaps here and there. The happier I was when my friend Michele asked if I could take a few photos of her for a blog she's writing for. My partner and I had invited her and her husband for dinner that night so it totally made sense to venture out before that - A perfect distraction but more details later.

We decided to do the shoot at Carriageworks, an old railway workshop around the corner from Redfern station that has been turned into an iconic contemporary multi-arts centre. I love this location for its industrial vibe as it offers a lot of great spots for a portrait shoot in an urban setting.

Michele was an excellent and experiences subject. It was great fun trying out different backgrounds and poses as well as finding the right way to work with available light. Within two hours I took over 1,000 photos and it was hard work to pick my favourites for this post.

What I didn't know while we were there is that it was all just a set-up to get me out of the house for a few hours. As we were heading back to Bondi after the shoot, I was in quite a rush to make it to dinner in time as I assumed my partner had spent all afternoon preparing it. But Michele seemed not in a rush at all and kept looking at her phone, slowing us down even more. When we finally arrived at the apartment, I found it filled with 30 people who came together for a surprise birthday party. My partner had not only spent the whole afternoon cooking dinner, he had been working for weeks on preparing a marvellous German-themed birthday party for me. On top of that, I found a photo of mine enlarged, printed and framed on our lounge room wall - something I'd been wanting to do for a long time.

So I'm looking back on that day not only feeling incredibly happy with the photos of Michele, but also feeling very humble and grateful for the people around me who make it so easy for me to call Australia home.