Melissa Findley

Gold Coast, Australia

Melissa Findley is an Australian photographer who currently resides on the Gold Coast, Queensland.

Melissa’s extensive scope of work includes Travel, Portraits, Fashion, Landscape and Lifestyle. Working with brands such as Flight Centre, Lululemon Athletica and a number of different tourism boards across the South Pacific, Melissa has spent the past few years relentlessly chasing her dreams, wherever they take her.

She tells very intimate stories of the places she travels to and the people who make each place uniquely their own. Through her lens, her dedicated followers become her travel companions and are immersed in a sensory experience of culture, beauty and emotion.

Melissa photographed our 'Holiday', 'Day 365', 'The Long Way Home', 'You and Me, Into the Sea' and 'It's Not What You Look At, It's What You See' Lookbooks.

See more of Melissa's work and stay up-to-date via her Website, Instagram or Facebook

10 Questions with Melissa

1. WHAT GOT YOU STARTED IN PHOTOGRAPHY?
I picked up a camera and I never put it down…

2. FEAR OF?
Heights. Not getting enough time to spend with loved ones.

3. WHAT IS ON YOUR BUCKET LIST?
• See the Pyramids of Giza
• See the Northern lights in Iceland
• Complete Everest Base Camp
• See an Orca in the wild
• See the Titanic
• Free diving with the whale sharks in WA
• Overcome my fear of heights by going skydiving.

4. PLACE THAT YOU'D LIKE TO VISIT BEFORE YOU DIE?
Oh man, another never ending list: ummm Egypt, Morocco, Iceland, Alaska, Tibet, India, Burma, Mongolia, Canada, Peru… to name a few.

I also want to go back to Nepal, and to see more of the Northern Territory in Australia / would love to Ningaloo Reef as well. All of these places are relative to the above “bucket list” question I guess.

5. IF YOU COULD LEARN ANYTHING, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
Hmmm, forever wanting to know more.

Languages I’d like to learn: Spanish & Japanese.
Further study/interests: The human condition and planet, Biology of our ecosystems, Shark conversation, Astronomy, Cosmology and Astrobiology.

6. DOGS OR CATS?
All animals!

7. WHAT IS THE SCARIEST AND/OR HARDEST THING YOU'VE DONE?
Hardest and most rewarding thing I’ve ever done in my life, hands down is trekking through the mighty Himalayas. Scariest thing – Learning how to let go.

8. EARLY BIRD OR NIGHT OWL?
Early bird, always.

There's something extra special about making the effort to be present for sunrise.

9. FAVOURITE DESTINATION?
Nepal.

10. FAVOURITE QUOTE?
“make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt. So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservation, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun. If you want to get more out of life, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy. But once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty.”
― Jon Krakauer.