A serendipitous found moment, in which people stopped crossing the frame, and all the compromises of carrying a couple of kilos of glass in a lens disappear, when it lets you catch this.

For years, this empty lot on Burwood Rd, the main street of Belmore, Sydney, has provided refuge to local wildlife, and a dumping ground for discarded furniture, rubbish, and unwanted stolen cellphones. Situated next to a public housing block in a lower socio-economic area, the fences covered in graffiti, this location has since succumbed to Sydney’s property developers, and is now the building site for a block of “luxury apartments”.

The title of the work is a play on the Serengeti, one of the world’s most famous, and photographed, ecosystems. “Ghetto” for the appearance of the site, in what is nevertheless a vibrant and diverse community experiencing the relentless march of gentrification, which tolerates no gentle decay, or fallow land.

This location was shot as found, the arrangement of the orange traffic bollards serendipitous, and was accessed with the prior permission of the owner. If there’s one thing that can be salvaged from the debacle that was the Belmore warehouse experiment, it’s that I was able to create this image. At its full native size, it’s about 3 metres wide. If you’re interested in a print, get in touch to discuss sizes and costs.

Fireworks at Tewantin, Sunshine Coast, Queensland.

The final proof of concept for my Little Planet production process. This is the image where everything clicked into place – camera, panoramic mount, and stitching software. Shooting before dawn in this location yielded a number of images. The other major finished piece – Dawn at The Serenghetto Waterhole, was entered into the Head-On photo competition.

Redback spider from outside my studio.

My first attempt at a little planet shot with my Nikon D800 and 60mm lens. 142 images total went into stitching this together. This is a proof of concept – as you can see the flare in the lens to the right hand side. I’ll control for that in future