RAAF Corporal takes a different shot

FOR Steven Underhayes photography is only a recent discovery, and amid his emotionally draining job, he’s glad
it came along when it did.
As a Royal Australian Air Force Corporal, Steven was deployed to Afghanistan for six months in 2007 and 2010,
whilst he has also been deployed to the Middle East, East Timor and the Solomon Islands as part of the Navy.
Following his last deployment in Afghanistan, 31-year-old Steven said when he returned to Australia he decided to
take a much-deserved holiday to Japan.
“I only took a little camera with me,” he said.
“I came back and my friends said [the photographs] were quite good, so I thought I’d go out and buy a better
camera.”
And that he did – a Nikon D7000 to be exact.
Since that defining moment, Steven has enjoyed snapping landscapes and nature, but is moving into architecture
and built-up areas as his skills progress.
Steven acknowledges that photography is more than simply looking through the lens of a camera as it provides a
distraction from what is considered his ‘real’ world – the emotionally demanding battlefields of Afghanistan and
the like.
“It’s relaxing, it’s a good hobby and it’s exactly what it is – escapism,” he said.
Once he discovered that he had a knack for taking photos, Steven entered a number of photography competitions
including one initiated by local architecture and urban design firm degenhartSHEDD.
The inaugural degenhartSHEDD Place Prize competition set out to discover and explore all the great places, big
and small, high profile and hidden, that exist on the Gold Coast through a dedicated Facebook site.
“My friend’s daughter entered and it popped up on Facebook,” he said.
“I checked it out and thought ‘yeah I’ll enter that’.”
Steven took an incredible photo of the Carrara Markets whereby he stitched together more than 50 images taken on
his iPhone.
Steven said the Gold Coast is so cliché in terms of the photos that people take that he decided to do some research
to make his photo stand out, and stand out it did!
“I researched what [already] existed, what the Gold Coast offered, what would be interesting and what the Gold
Coast was missing,” he said.
“I thought the popular Carrara Market was a great example of what the Gold Coast had to offer.”
“There is no interesting angle of the Carrara Markets; even if you get up high you can’t really get a good aspect.”
As a result, he decided to explore the markets in a 360 degrees dimension and the only way he was going to get that
image without “spooking” anybody was on his iPhone.
“I stitched it in the iPhone with an application, extracted the jpeg out of the phone and downloaded the image onto
the computer,” he said.
“I then did some tone mapping and played around with the colours a bit until it was a bit surreal.”
Steven won the inaugural degenhartSHEDD Place Prize competition thanks to his imaginative and unique Carrara
Markets photograph, taking home a much-needed $1000 bounty.
Steven’s fascination with photography meant he was spending a lot of money to upgrade his tools and invest in
new equipment.
“It’s getting a bit out of control – thank god I won some money because I’ve been spending a little too much
money on camera gear,” he said.
As for the future, whilst he is still committed to his day job in the Royal Australian Air Force, Steven said he
definitely has photography in his sights and is even thinking about studying photo journalism in the future.
“I’d love to get a little bit more serious but try and stay humble – don’t get carried away because it’s a big
industry.”
DegenhartSHEDD is pleased to support Steven’s passion for photography and others like him, and award members
of the community with a monetary prize in recognition of their creativity and efforts.
The company looks forward to running this competition again in the future, connected with the degenhartSHEDD
Facebook page.
If you would like any more information contact degenhartSHEDD on (07) 5562 5100 or head to
www.degenhartSHEDD.com.au.
If you’re interested in any further information about Steven, please contact him via email at
stevenunderhayes@bigpond.com.