Tash and Matt are a mighty, adventure-seeking duo, now looking through the same lens.

Sydney’s Tash and Matt, or Matty and Tashie, (or as a mash-up, Mashie?) or whatever you want to call them – are a couple besotted with both photography and each other. Three years ago, their photography journeys intersected, then ran parallel, and now intertwine. We happened to catch them after a particularly significant week in their union, which you’ll find out more about below.

After establishing herself as a graphic designer in the property industry, Tash Simmons expanded her creative horizons into travel photography. Her sunny and emotive disposition reflects the warm climates and luminous surroundings depicted in her work.

Matthew Hopkins works a day job in print and signage, while moonlighting as superhero nature photographer. To talk to, Matt is quite modest and matter-of-fact, which belies the dreamy and almost fantastical quality of his work.

Meeting the couple, it’s clear that they balance each other out – both in life and in creative pursuit. We sat down for about an hour to discuss love, travel, the future and their recent holiday into the Nikon universe.

How did you guys meet and did photography play a role at all?

MATT: Yes, photography played somewhat of a role. We were both into hiking and through friends of that hiking-

TASH: We met at a photography friend’s party, and then a week after that we went on a hike with our cameras to a waterfall. After being friends for a few months, for our first proper date weekend we went up to Caves Beach near Newcastle to do a big sunrise mission. I guess a lot of the stuff at the beginning was mainly hiking and photography and sunrises…

Well, that sounds kinda romantic, right?

[Matt laughs.]

TASH: We actually got engaged on the weekend, so…

Oh, wow. Congratulations.

TASH: We went up to a place in New England. In 2020, Matt got a really good photo, but the camera “was set to JPG” on a brand-new camera. So, he told me that he wanted to go back and I just went along with it and thought he was desperate to go back there. We drove 8 hours to get this one photo.

And then… well, yeah. He hid it really well.

That’s some good acting there, Matt.

MATT: Yep, it all went to plan [laughs].

Fantastic. Down on one knee and everything?

MATT: Down on one knee and everything. We’ve got a great photo of it that you can put in the article if you like.

Oh, great. So, what was your first experience with photography, or at least, the camera?

MATT: I’ll go first. My dad did a lot of travel for his job, a lot of international work. He was a sales rep and always had a nice Nikon SLR that he took on his trip. He used to come back and show us all his photos. I got a bit interested in it that way.

Then eventually I got my first camera and Dad and I would do little sunrise trips together, or fishing.

And you, Tash?

TASH: Growing up, I always loved beautiful places. I really liked painting… Oh, hi Matt!

Matt, who was up until this point could only be heard, flicks his camera on.

TASH: You’re beautiful! [Laughs]. Yeah, so in school I always loved painting. My favourite things to paint were always landscapes. From that I started taking photos when I was out, as inspiration… on my phone and then eventually moved up to cameras.

At the same time, I made a group of hiking friends that were all into photography. It was something that we all did together. But yeah, painting was just a lot of mess and a lot of time and photography was cleaner, easier and you’re able to do it in the moment.

A bit different to Matt. I didn’t have anyone in my family that was creative at all growing up.

I know you both have full time jobs, but do either of you remember what made you think: man, I want to do something with this photography thing?

MATT: Probably wasn’t a particular moment. I think through learning and seeing the progression, that kind of inspires you to keep going. And then with posting on social media, even if it is social media – getting a response from people that appreciate it kind of inspires you to keep going too.

TASH: I think I knew I really wanted to pursue photography when I was on a trip in Samoa and my boyfriend at the time had a camera. I remember having so much fun on that trip. Everything looked so good on that camera in the light. I thought, I wanted to do this more.

As a job, I guess it partnered in really well with my work. I worked in a rural real estate agency as a graphic designer, and opportunities kept popping up to shoot properties. Now, I/we do a bit of work with Riparide too. I’m always on my laptop so it’s nice to move away from it and do a little more with my hands, taking photos out in the field.

Do you feel your skills as a graphic designer transfer to photography at all?

TASH: I think so, yeah. Obviously, all the editing skills were very transferable. And even just basic things like composition, understanding balance. Also, I’m always aware of the purpose of the photo – as a graphic designer I need to know if the image going to be portrait, a little side panel, a full page, if text will appear on it. So, I think it’s good to be able to do two things at once. Helps with social media too. Understanding how it will look on the screen.

Kind of doing post-production in your head, while you’re taking the photo…

TASH: While I’m thinking, yeah. How I want everything to be, the final thing.

And if you had it your way, would you be doing only photography or are you happy doing both?

TASH: I think it’s nice having a balance. I’m always doing something different. But I’d like more photography to be in that balance.

Matt, what do you do outside of photography?

MATT: I’m at the other end of Tash’s job, so I do print production and signage. My work doesn’t flow into photography as much, but the basics are still there. How to compose something to go to print, using software.

Do you enjoy the work or are you wanting to make photography a full-time thing?

MATT: I would personally love photography to be a full-time thing, but to get myself where I want to be and to do that as a job, it’s a pretty big deal. I would love to run workshops full time, sell prints, licencing images. It’s a pretty big jump and I’m one who likes security in my job.

TASH: I keep telling him to take risks.

Matt, your photos are quite dreamy and have an almost fantastical quality to them. Is that a conscious thing and can you tell us how you achieve it?

MATT: I’ve built up that look over the past six years. It’s a conscious thing. When I take a photo, I have an idea of what I want it to look like and I shoot to make it look like that.

TASH: You’re always stacking images…

MATT: Yeah, when I’m shooting, I’m quite in depth. One image could be 10 images put together. Focus-stacking to ensure the image is sharp from the front to the back. I also take shots so that everything is perfectly lit. I’ll take a couple of bright shots and a couple of dark shots and blend them together, so the scene is almost as you see it. How I want it to look is a conscious effort.

Is there much planning is involved with that process, or do you figure it out once you get to the spot?

MATT: I go in with an idea of what I want to shoot, usually. Sometimes it can trap you into doing only one thing but that’s kind of how my brain works. I plan things. But depending on conditions and weather, it doesn’t always go to plan. Sometimes I go to that same spot five or six times to try and get the shot.

Tash. Your work makes me want to travel right now. Can you tell us a bit about being a Riparide storyteller?

TASH: When that opportunity came up it seemed perfect. I love travel, I love photography, I had experience taking photos of properties and houses. It gave us an opportunity to do that more often and go to places we wouldn’t ordinarily – like we stayed on a houseboat, private island…

What was the most recent Riparide accommodation you visited.

TASH: Three weeks ago, we went down to Narrawallee, near Ulladulla. That place was really cool. As soon as we walked down the stairs and opened up to get in, you could see it was really well designed, architecturally. Concrete floors, big rooms. The girl who owns it is an interior designer so everything was really well thought out. Lots of cool angles. The first thing I thought when I walked in was that this place would look good in photos. I don’t know if Matt thought the same thing, but it had great lighting, down lights.

I know that Riparide storytelling involves not just taking photos of the accommodations, but finding things in the area to do and capturing them. Anything interesting this time around?

TASH: We went out for sunrise most of the days and the nearby beaches were just beautiful. Calm waters, lots of rock pools. Matt loves seascapes – rocks and water are his favourite things.

[Matt laughs.]

TASH: That’s his thing. I like rockpools. The more dreamy, idyllic things. So, it was really good it had something for the both of us. We tried to do a trip down to Pigeon House Mountain but the roads were closed, so we ended up at Depot Beach for sunset.

We also went to the pie shop down there in Milton which Matt loves. On the way back we went to Bushrangers Bay… more rockpools. I love rockpools! So much to do, too many options. I think the sunsets were our favourite. We love the good light.

Matt, do you concur?

MATT: I concur with all of that…

TASH: Matt will pull us out almost every weekend, and be like: “let’s go to the Blue Mountains”. Too many times we’ve been getting up at 3AM to get the good light.

That’s something you both enjoy though, right?

TASH: It’s hard getting me out of bed but once I’m there I’m really grateful.

If by some ridiculous reasons, every photo you’ve ever taken was going to be destroyed and you could only hold onto one, which one would it be?

MATT: I have an answer to that… and it’s a photo I shot in early winter 2022. It’s a photo from Mt. Buffalo National Park in Victoria. I think it’s just the experience of going there, mid-winter last year. It was full snow. I was the only photographer up on the mountain, nearly the only person. I had the place to myself. I was on a frozen waterfall that was about a 200m drop, looking into the Bright Valley. Maybe it was the experience of taking the photo and how it came out. I’m proud of it. Everything lined up. The photo came up like I wanted it to.

I went on an eight-hour drive to get down there. Left straight from work, got there at 2am. Slept, got up for sunrise. It’s just the experience of it.

TASH: I’m trying to think. I think if I had to choose one photo, even though I don’t think it’s my favourite photo - probably one at Hanging Rock, the other year. It’s got both Matt and I in it. You’ve got the clouds, the inversion in the valley. I think because I like travel photography and when an image captures the perfect memory of a place. Nice and peaceful. Secluded, beautiful. That’s the kind of things I like.

Not an amazing photo, but just a nice morning. And Matt’s in the photo and he doesn’t normally get in the photos with me. So, I had a beautiful landscape and my favourite person. Everything in one photo.

If you could offer a tip to someone who wants to get into photography but doesn’t know where to start, what would that be?

MATT: I think the biggest thing with photography is to keep trying and failing. Once you fail and see what’s wrong with it —maybe you’ll see an image is too bright— next time you go out, change your settings and learn that way. So, yeah. Just go out and repeating what you’re trying to do. Improving.

Apart from that, lots of hours on YouTube, I guess!

TASH: Work out what you love and take photos of it. My background in loving travelling and hiking, showed me something I wanted to capture and I was passionate about putting in the effort to improve. I know I have no interest in cities. I’ve tried taking photos of cities and it wasn’t something I had the drive to keep improving on.

So, find something you love and then taking photos of it will be fun and something you want to keep improving on. As long as there’s that passion behind it.

I hear you both tried out some Nikon gear recently. Tash, you had a go with the Nikon Z fc?

TASH: It was amazing. Really fun. The whole vibe of it. You pick it up and it feels like the ultimate travel camera. I felt like I was in another world when I was holding it, because it had that retro appearance.

It was also easy to use. I like how the buttons were different to normal. Having the ISO and the shutter speed on the top dials just made it more of an immersive experience. I didn’t think I would love it as much as I did. I think it would be really good for travelling too. Compact, lightweight, and I was impressed with the quality of the images that came out of it.

And Matt, the Z 30 and the Z 7II, right?

MATT: Let’s start with the Z 30. I thought that was a great little camera. The way I was using it, and learning from it, it was a great beginner’s camera. Great as a starting base. It’s fully manual but still easy to learn off. It’s not a confusing full-frame with a bunch of settings that are hard to understand. It’s an easy base for a beginner. It’s something that would be great for a vlogger, or someone that wants to do portraits on the weekend.

In terms of quality, it’s a strong camera. Images that came out of it were excellent.

The Z 7II is the main one I tested out. I love this camera. The images were insane. Like nothing that I’m used to. Even though the quality is just as good as one of Nikon’s larger SLRs, its lightweight but strong and can be chucked in a bag for a hike without breaking your back. 

We also tried out some Nikon lenses. They were all fantastic.

TASH: I also tried out the Z 5. I was really impressed. You might have noticed that I like dark, moody photos that have a lot of atmosphere. The Z 5, the way the blacks came back, I was able to shoot moody photos and the blacks just recovered really well. Nice and clean. Nothing looked grungy.

The lenses I used with it were great too. I was using the wide-angle the most as that’s kind of my go-to. But I really like the zoom too. It was nice to shoot with. 28-70mm.

I like the camera a lot and am tempted to buy my own now haha.

Is there somewhere that you guys would love to travel to and take photos? Not necessarily on a honeymoon!

MATT: Yeah. So, I love everything up north. I would like to spend time in Iceland, Norway, Canada. Lots of snow, big mountains. Some of those bigger, harder-to-get-to things. That’s kind of where I’m inspired to go, but Tash doesn’t like the cold too much.

TASH: I like pretty places, so I’ll go! With a big jacket. And I might complain. But I’d have an amazing time. I really want to go, but I feel like it would have to be in their peak summer.

Mmm… well that sounds like a future discussion between the two of you.

[General laughter.]

TASH: We’re talking about going to Europe next year and doing a week in Greece and Italy so that I can get a bit of sunshine. But if I had to choose somewhere for us, I’d pick Hawaii as it has the mountains, volcanos, all that wild stuff. I think that would be fun for us.

But we need to do both, we need to win the lottery.

Well, you’ve got time ahead of you.

TASH: Yeah, forever!

Clearly, adventure plays a big role in your lives both professionally and personally?

MATT: Yeah. Rather than go out at night to a “cool” place out at night in the city-

TASH: I think we’ve been on dinner dates three times in three years… but we’re away every second or third weekend, or up for sunrise, hiking and shooting. All the time.

Lastly, when it comes to photography, do you have any dreams for the future?

MATT: Yes, I’ve always wanted to run workshops. International photography workshops - taking small groups overseas to really cool places and helping them get really nice images.

The other thing I’ve always wanted to do is open a café/gallery. So, have my own gallery but also a café joined to it. Lots of people coming into buy coffee but seeing your work around too. I don’t know if I’ll do it-

TASH: You’re going to do it!

They both sound very achievable. Tash?

TASH: I’ve always wanted to work with more people internationally. It’d be really cool to partner with a big client like an airline in Vanuatu or Fiji or Hawaii. Get to travel, go to some really cool places, stay in some great hotels. Do it more full-time. That would be really cool.

See Tash’s work here and Matt’s work here.