Based in Jervis Bay, on the south coast of NSW, 27-year-old Jordan Robins first got into photography after his parents gave him a DSLR for his 21st birthday. But it was a photography subject he took while studying for a degree in geosciences at Wollongong University that his passion truly began.
In terms of subjects, Robins first pointed his lens at the landscape and the night skies, but growing up on the coast and always having had a love of the ocean, it was only a matter of time before he dipped his toe in those waters.
Robins’ favourite style of ocean photography is shooting ‘Over Under’ images, also called a split shot or half-half, which reveal a scene above and below water, and are captured in a single exposure. He shoots his very best work at sunrise and sunset where he likes to capture atmospheric skies paired with the marine life or patterns and textures in the sand below the surface. “I will often use strobes to light below the water to create high contrast scenes to combine the ocean world and terrestrial world together as one,” Robins says.
Working professionally for the last three years, Robins has market stalls around the south coast selling his ocean photography prints, and during the week he shoots real estate and property photography which helps to pay the bills. He also gets regular commissions shooting for tourism boards and resorts.
In 2017, Robins was named the overall winners in Australian Photography’s Photographer of the Year competition, placed 2nd in the Ocean Art category of the 2018 Underwater Photography Guide Ocean Art contest, and was a finalist in the Australian Geographic Wildlife Photographer of the Year in 2017, 2018, and 2019. His career highlight to date was having one of his over under images of a turtle published in National Geographic.
“My dream,” Robins says, “is to one day open up my own ocean art gallery on the south coast to share with everyone the beauty of the underwater world.”
www.jordanrobins.com.au
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