Photo tour in Azores, Portugal
Join us in the Azores for a unique photo tour, where you’ll elevate your creative skills with expert guidance from Ronald Soethje, Bruno Ázera, and Nomadict.
Brad Flowerdew
@bradflowerss
Best of the week 5 at #nomadict 2025
In this article, Brad shares his journey from hobbyist to professional, highlighting key moments like landing his first client collaboration. He also discusses the importance of connecting with others in the industry and the shot that won the Best of the Week 5, 2025.
Photography has been my passion from a very young age. I was that kid at the skatepark creating everyone’s sponsorship edits. Born and raised in Australia, I had lots around me to capture and inspire me. When I was 18, I took a trip to New Zealand and fell in love with the big mountain landscapes. There, I realized my GoPro Hero 2 wasn’t sufficient.
Shortly after, I moved to Canada, looking for mountains, adventure, and snow. I bought a Sony A7R and started shooting landscapes. In the meantime, I worked as a cocktail bartender in a fancy hotel, so I also shot a variety of cocktails and restaurant scenes on the side, just for fun.
One of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned is that creating with friends and people in the industry gets you so much further than creating alone. I spent around four years of my photography journey before I met and learned from other photographers, and feel as if I learned more in about a month with them than I had in the four years alone.
It was about six/seven years ago that I landed my most important gig I’ve ever had. It was my very first client, and I was still shooting only landscapes with no human element. I had started following some creators on Instagram and saw them getting collaborations with brands, so I thought I would try my luck. I needed some new outdoor gear, so pitched some brands with the little work I had at the time and bingo – my first collab. It was unpaid, but I was SO hyped to get some free gear. Fast forward a month or two, that brand offered me a monthly retainer to shoot their products – at that moment I had no idea what a “retainer” was. To this day, I still shoot for this brand monthly, and it feels as if we’re family at this point. I love the team, and we’ve all grown together and learned so many valuable lessons along the way.
Winner
Best of the Week 5
Fast forward to more recent experiences, I visited desert-like countries, among which Egypt. The image that won the Best of the Week was taken in the Dendera Temple of Hathor. We spent the morning wandering through the beautiful temple when we heard many meows. A kitty ran straight towards us from the inner chambers. Cece – as we named her – loved being pet, and followed us around the temple for an hour or so. Right as we were about to leave, we found her sitting in this one ray of golden sunshine, so perfectly perched next to the pillar. I couldn’t resist capturing that! She looked like the queen of the Dendera Temple.
I started to frame up the compositing; I like to shoot a variety of wide-medium-close, so started with my wide shot. The light leaking in from the door, and Cece being the tiny subject in a huge room, I shot a few from both the right and left angles. Being the needy cat she was, I knew I only had limited time before she moved and the frame was gone. I rushed around to the other side of her and shot the same wide-medium-close frames.
This image was taken on the Sony A7RV and Sigma 24-70mm 2.8. For the edit, I knew I wanted this edit to be dark, rich and moody. I love using golden light and warm tones in my images, so I desaturated almost all other colors to then punch the yellows. The room was pretty dark already, so levelling out the highlights and adding a fade made this contrast feel a little less harsh.
A vital step in my editing process for this image was to ensure that the warmth and contrast matched the scene and that the highlights weren’t overpowering. Finally, I love to create a dreamy look by reducing the clarity slider to around -10 or -15, and I think that worked well in this image.
Looking forward to the future, I do not have a specific goal. I feel incredibly free right now with a sustainable business that isn’t just solely based around social media. I love what I do so much, and am so grateful to have this opportunity. Of course, I have mini-goals set for the future, but my love for travel and photography hasn’t changed over the past 10 years, and I don’t see it changing for the next 10 either. One thing I’m always aiming to do is connect with more people, and assist creatives with building their businesses and becoming financially independent, so that would be the number one goal for me!
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