About

About Me

Photography has been part of my life for much longer than I’ve owned a serious camera.

I still remember walking down Queen Street as a student and seeing Nikon cameras sitting in display cabinets that were well beyond my budget. At university I completed a black and white film processing course, and watching an image slowly appear in the developer tray was something I’ll never forget. Learning about negatives, chemicals, grain, ISO and printing taught me that photography is as much about observation as it is about pressing a shutter.

Like many people, I spent years taking family snapshots before buying my first Nikon DSLR in 2011. To me it seemed quite natural to work with the camera settings.

That purchase came at a significant time in my life. After being diagnosed with a life-threatening medical condition, photography became a way to focus on the people around me rather than solely the illness itself. It naturally led to photographing friends and family, architecture, where I visited, building websites, editing thousands of images and developing an eye for quality photography and imaging.

My professional background has always been in information technology. Over many years I’ve worked with Linux and Unix systems, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Akamai/Linode platforms, website hosting, DNS, VPNs, email systems and the technical side of keeping websites online. All part of an end-to-end design and delivery solution. That experience fitted with my IT background and best practices.

I moved from Brisbane to Sydney to further my IT career, starting on Brisbane wages, knowing what it was like to stretch every dollar. I felt how hard and yet noble it was for working families to prioritise their expenses. Earlier in life I experienced a lengthy period of unemployment following the economic downturn of the late 1980s. Those experiences, and later irreversible losses in superannuation/stocks, shaped the way I think about money, people and the value of helping others when I can.

In 2016 I returned to Brisbane so I could spend more time with Mum as she grew older. Being able to support her through chemotherapy, seizures, dementia and eventually aged care became one of the most important chapters of my life. It reminds me how valuable photographs become as the years pass. I am concerned about loss of digital media.

In late 2025 I experienced a serious compromise of one of my AWS environments. Recovering from that event led me to spend many months studying modern cyber security, utilising AI,  and the ways technology and social engineering continue to evolve. It has modified how I build and secure websites today.

Photography by Shaw has since been rebuilt with a stronger focus on both presentation and security. The gallery reflects a collection of photographs taken over many years—not an enormous body of work, but one that represents places, people and moments that mattered to me, as well as some light-hearted blogs, technical articles, and my music.

One project I particularly enjoyed was researching old family photographs and historical records relating to the Shaw family and its connection with early Brisbane. This content deserves clarification and protection.

I also maintain a completely separate private archive containing family photographs, scanned documents and everyday memories that aren’t intended for public viewing. These personal collections and ordinary moments become more valuable with time.

Thank you for visiting Photography by Shaw. I hope you enjoy the photographs as much as I’ve enjoyed creating and preserving them.

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