Brisbane based photographer and designer Ian Judd has over twenty years of industry experience to his name. His background in printing and graphic arts lead him to photography over ten years ago, and he hasn’t looked back!

A big turning point for Ian to start taking his photography more seriously was when he was awarded the UK magazine Practical Photography’s Photographer of the Year in 2001. It was a year-long competition across a variety of categories, and he was the overall winner with the most points for all categories.

Ian strives to have an excellent standard for his work across a variety of themes and subjects. Nowadays, he’s working on both commercial and personal subjects, having just completed a series of portraits for a football team.

And in another quick rap for Ian – he won two bronze awards in last year’s International Aperture Awards!

See full screen photographs on the AQUA PD and Perfect Day Photography websites, or “like” the Facebook page for the latest updates from Ian.

How have you got to where you are today? I originally started out in lithographic reproduction in the UK, in the days before Macs and technology. After a while, the Mac era started and I was lucky enough to get into the technology side of litho and develop my skills in those early days… Does anyone remember Photoshop v3.0?

I then started getting into design, with the design department at a company near Nottingham. All the while too I’d been a very keen photographer and also very interested in digital imagery. I immigrated to Australia in 2000 and in 2004 set up AQUA Photography & Design, which I renamed to AQUA [PD] late 2009.

In a few words, describe yourself… Sporty, perfectionist, friendly, accommodating and keeping my clients 110% happy.

What are you spending your time on at the moment? Just shot a series of football team sample strips for a product brochure – a project I do each year for one of my clients. Also putting together a website for another client.

Do you have a ritual for getting into the creative mindset? Or a creative process? I can’t start doing anything until I’ve had that first coffee of the day. I then check my emails, plan what I have to do for the day; which quite often gets changed as a result of outside influences or my deciding to change a schedule.

For creative flow, nothing beats getting out into the garden on a nice warm sunny day with the birds singing, sitting in the shade with my sketchpad and making notes on photo ideas or drawing a design for a client prior to getting onto the computer – again with coffee at my side.

What or who inspires you? I would probably say a lot of things… including nature, the outdoors, listening to music and seeing other photographer’s work.

There are so many talented folk all over the world, and photography competitions often get you thinking and aiming to produce something memorable. I would also say the ‘WOW’ factor! I strive to constantly grab people’s attention with the work I do. If they say ‘WOW’, then I’ve achieved my goal.

What are you most proud of? Getting published with my photography. Being awarded Practical Photography magazine’s Photographer of the Year in 2001 before I turned pro. It’s a UK photography magazine that is highly popular both in the UK and worldwide. I was the first overseas winner of the contest that is run over a number of monthly themed rounds.

The format of it then was the top 10 images each month were awarded points with 1st place receiving the most points down to 10th. The overall winner was the one who amassed the most points at the end of the year. It was a tough contest with the themes really making you think outside the square as well as being up against thousands of very talented amateur photographers.

When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? I wanted to be a pro-footballer as does the vast majority of young lads in England, and then a pro-golfer. I was into fishing a lot in my teens and wanted to become a fisheries officer but I didn’t have the required sciences to do it.

I received an SLR camera for my 18th birthday and loved every aspect of photography. I wanted to work for the National Geographic too.