When not out shooting weddings, Lucky can also be found photographing bands, music and studio projects as well. A couple of years ago, Lucky decided to take on the 52 week project as his personal goal, where he took a self portrait each week for a year. Talk about challenging! And, some of these portraits are hilarious. But it’s also amazing that he could squeeze this into his life between working full time and photographing weddings.

It was through the regular creative pressure to create something different each week that he really pushed and refined his photography and retouching skills. See a few of these portraits below – and more on his website – my fav’s are the Mulletgod and Cookie Monster shots.

Several of these portraits became quite successful on Flickr with with of them receiving over 200,000 views and an interview with the LA Times! Lucky then held his first exhibition to showcase the year’s worth of portraits.

Pop over and like Lucky’s Facebook page and visit his website for more of his fantastic photographs.

How have you got to where you are today?

My foray into the world of photography was actually pretty impulsive as I didn’t really have a creative past. I decided to buy a DSLR while I was doing my PhD and start taking photographs, that was it.

There was no method to it and no extensive thinking, I just spent a lot of time reading the manual and whatever information I could get my hands on off the Internet. When I started, I didn’t have any technical knowledge and I still have no idea about the history and important events or artists in photography!

I’ve always loved music and having failed as a musician after my band of 5 years split up, I still had aspirations of being around music. Live gigs were a great opportunity to photograph while also getting free access to shows. I photographed some amazing bands and some awesome festivals around the place and it was a great time for me.

It just so happened that my first ever gig photographing in Sydney was the source of my first wedding booking as well. The bassist in a band that was touring from Melbourne contacted me after he saw my shots online and asked if I’d fly down to shoot his wedding.

He saw something in me that I clearly didn’t at the time and after lots of thinking and nervous hand wringing, I decided I would go ahead with it.

I recently ran into him and his wife at another wedding I shot and it dawned on me that their wedding had been nearly 5 years ago. Time flies, they say.

In a few words, describe yourself…

I’m a pretty simple person and what you see is what you get. I believe in equality and fairness for everyone and I treat people the way I want to be treated myself. I think that’s a pretty good ethos to live my life by and it influences a lot of the way that I operate as a person and also my business.

What are you spending your time on at the moment?

I’ve just moved to Melbourne so I’m spending a lot of time figuring out the city, what’s there and how to get around.

I’m also, for the first time, able to focus single handedly on my wedding photography business. It’s always been a part time thing and I’m really excited by the prospect of committing myself to it fully.

I’m sorting out some of the administrative stuff of looking after a small business and also creative ways of targeting and marketing to potential clients. I’m not very business minded so it’s a fast learning curve but I pick up things quickly so it’s a great time for me.

Do you have a ritual for getting into the creative mindset? Or a creative process?

I don’t really have a way of getting into the process. Shooting a wedding is pretty instinctive and I just try to relax beforehand. I prepare all of my gear and the information I need in advance so I don’t have to think too much about things on the day of the wedding. My clients trust me so they just let me wander around and do my thing, which is an awesome way to spend your time. You’re not going to see me pulling a shot list out of my pocket anytime soon!

What or who inspires you?

From a professional perspective, I guess I don’t really have any inspirations… I don’t really read many blogs or check out peoples’ websites, mostly because I’ve never had time for it.

But from a personal perspective, my wife Kristen is my main motivating force. She has always encouraged me and has been my quasi-business manager dealing with album design, marketing and various other small jobs that make my life easier. She makes me want to be the best person I can be and her support means my mind is left free to concentrate solely on what I need to be doing which is taking awesome photographs!

I’m always balancing so many things in my life at the same time that when I have some down time, my mind keeps whirring away and ideas just go through continuously. In a perverse way, when I have spare time, I figure out ways of filling it up again… Just a few days ago, I had a new idea for a personal project which I’m really excited about starting in the next couple of weeks so I know I’ll be busy.

What are you most proud of?

I’m most proud of my family. Mum and dad came to Australia in 1977 with $250 in their pocket and they’ve not just supported our family, but they’ve worked hard and been successful enough to make sure that they can help out with my entire extended family in Sri Lanka. They taught me virtues of hard work, honesty and a good sense of right and wrong. Sure, like all families we have our ups and downs but in the wisdom I have gained at the start of my 4th decade on this earth, I’ve come to realise that there’s a lot of me that was defined by my parents and extended family.

Professionally, I’m really proud of having managed to keep a full time job and run my photography business on weekends. And when I say weekends, I mean all weekend and most evenings!

When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

This one’s easy. I always wanted to be an astronaut!! I thought about studying astrophysics and astronomy at University but at the last minute decided against it. I’d given up on the idea of being an astronaut by the age of about 15 when I realised I was too tall and that was a disappointing time.

But in saying that, my brain was always very analytical so I knew I’d be some sort of scientist. My mum and sister are creatives (architect and graphic designer respectively) but my dad and I followed the other path and spent our time solving equations and other sciencey stuff.