Hi, I'm Mike Launder, an Australian landscape photographer based in rural Victoria.

My journey into photography began almost by accident.

In 2018, while on holiday in New York with my wife, I picked up a camera simply to document our trip. I knew very little about photography and spent most of the time happily shooting in auto mode. I certainly had no idea where that camera would eventually take me.

When I returned home to Australia, something had clicked. I enrolled in a short six-week course to learn how to shoot manually, and from there, I was hooked. I haven't really put the camera down since.

I was 42 years old, and for the first time in my life, I knew what I wanted to do.

I'd found my love for photography.

Today, my photography is driven by a love of exploring Australia and finding those moments in the landscape that make me stop and simply take it all in. I'm particularly drawn to rugged coastlines, misty forests, waterfalls, mountains and the quieter rural landscapes that are often found along the roads less travelled.

But photography has become about much more than beautiful locations for me.

I've lived with mental health challenges for many years and was diagnosed with ADHD later in life. Both have shaped who I am and, in many ways, the photographer I've become. Photography gives me somewhere to slow down, quiet the noise and be completely present. When I'm standing beside the ocean, walking through a forest or watching light move across a landscape, the rest of the world can disappear for a while.

Over the years, my relationship with photography has changed. I used to feel that I needed to photograph everything and come home with something to show for every trip. These days, I'm learning that sometimes the most important thing is simply being there.

I'm becoming much more selective about what I photograph. I look for mood, light, atmosphere and emotion rather than simply a beautiful view. Fog, storms, moving water, dramatic skies and fleeting pockets of light will almost always get my attention. I want an image to make me feel something before I press the shutter.

Photography has also given me a reason to explore this incredible country. From the wild coastlines and forests of Tasmania to the Victorian High Country, the Great Ocean Road, rural Victoria and the coastline of New South Wales, I'm constantly discovering places that remind me just how diverse Australia is.

Not every photograph requires travelling hundreds of kilometres, though. Living in rural Victoria has taught me to appreciate what's close to home — an old tree standing alone in a paddock, a country road disappearing into the fog, a field of canola catching the afternoon light or a storm rolling across the landscape.

I'm still learning. I'm still experimenting. And I'm still discovering the kind of photographer I want to be.

Perhaps that's one of the things I love most about photography.

I didn't discover my passion when I was a kid. I didn't grow up knowing this was what I wanted to do. I found it at 42, almost by accident, with a camera in my hand on the other side of the world.

And it changed the direction of my life.

This website is a collection of that journey — landscapes that stopped me in my tracks, places that meant something to me, and photographs that tell a small part of my story.

Thanks for taking the time to look through my work.

Mike