Pete James is an internationally published fine art landscape photographer based in Ocean Grove on the Bellarine Peninsula in Victoria, Australia.

Born in the UK and moving to Australia 1981, it was his parents that instilled his love of the outdoors, always traveling around the UK, Europe, USA and to Australia. His parents preferred to camp as opposed to staying in hotels, and a camera was never far away, with his dad Jim and mother Judy constantly taking photos of the natural world and also of Pete as a young child in some incredible locations such as the Swiss Alps and Scottish Highlands.

It was no surprise that Pete developed a love for the outdoors, adventure, travelling and photography.

He got his first camera in his teens; back when digital cameras hadn’t been invented. Film was the only option and this required considerable knowledge to master as opposed to today's digital cameras people use and learn on. With no internet either, Pete would get every book he could find in the library on photography, and stand in newsagents for hours reading photography magazines until they kicked him out, to teach himself everything he could.

Through his 20’s Pete travelled a lot, within Australia and also to the USA, Bali, Fiji and Canada, doing long road trips alone with his camera gear, either camping or staying in backpackers or sometimes sleeping in the back of a rental car by the side of the road so as to be in the right spot for a sunset or sunrise. This continued into his 30’s and 40’s, regularly traveling to the USA and to Bali, where one trip was to film a documentary on the stray dog issues there.

The ocean has always been something that had a natural pull to Pete, drawing him to it and making him feel a little lost if too far from it for too long. He moved to Ocean Grove 21 years ago and plans for it to be his home forever.

Staying mainly as a serious hobby for much of his life, Pete made the commitment to turn his passion for photography into a career in 2014.

Wanting to make a living from landscape photography alone was never going to be an easy feat, and it wasn’t. There were plenty of times he wondered how he was going to pay rent and bills, and occasionally lived on baked beans on toast to get by.

But with a steely determination to succeed, he never gave up and as the years went by, he was rewarded with more and more success.

In 2017 he opened his own gallery in Geelong, which had been a dream of his for a long time. But after a year or two he realized it was too much like a ‘day job’ and stifled his freedom to be out taking photos and traveling, so he turned to promoting and selling his work through social media channels and his website.

Pete has also done a lot of teaching and guiding of landscape photography; everything from one on one sessions to weekend group tours down the Great Ocean Road to 7 day road trip style workshop tours around the South Island of New Zealand.

Having a strong social conscience, Pete has done a lot of work for charities, through his video work and also sometimes donating proceeds from the sale of prints or calendars. A large majority of the charity work has involved animals; a personal love of his.

While landscape is his passion and will always be his first priority, he also has had considerable success as a commercial photographer and videographer, which now forms part of his business.

Seeing the world with a different eye to most, his photography style has a beautiful dark, moody, atmospheric feel to it, creating emotions in the viewer, instead of just producing ‘nice’ images for the masses. It is a unique style and not for everyone, and Pete will never apologize for that. He seeks out certain locations, compositions and edits in a way that is from his soul, and this has made him stand out from other photographers.

Always considering himself to be a free thinker and free spirit, Pete has created a life around his loves and passions and simply seeks freedom, happiness and fulfillment.