Cairns Photoshoots

Locations

Where to shoot in Cairns

Palm Cove is the best beach location in the region — a curve of sand lined with melaleuca paperbarks that lean right out over the water. Twenty-five minutes north of the city and worth every minute.

Trinity Beach and Yorkeys Knob are the quieter neighbours, with the same palms and far fewer people.

The Cairns Esplanade and its lagoon give you the city itself, the boardwalk and the mountains behind. At low tide the foreshore is mudflat rather than beach, which is striking in its own right if you plan for it.

The Daintree, north past the Mossman Gorge, is the oldest continuously surviving rainforest on earth. Fan palms, buttress roots and filtered green light that exists nowhere else.

Crystal Cascades and the Barron Gorge give you waterfalls and swimming holes within half an hour of town.

Fitzroy and Green Islands put you on the reef itself, and Port Douglas with Four Mile Beach is an hour north.

Timing

The dry season is the season

Cairns runs on two seasons rather than four. The dry, roughly May to October, is warm, clear and comfortable, and it is when almost everything here works best.

The wet, November to April, brings monsoon rain, serious humidity and cloud that can sit for days. Waterfalls are at their most spectacular and the rainforest is at its greenest, but outdoor plans need flexibility.

The tidal range here is large. The Esplanade changes completely between high and low water, and the northern beaches shift in character with it. We check the tide against your slot.

Early morning is the answer to the heat and the humidity in almost every month.

What to wear

Light fabric, and expect to be damp

The humidity is the dominant fact for most of the year. Light, breathable fabric photographs better than anything structured, which will not hold its shape for long.

Strong colour reads beautifully against rainforest green and turquoise water. White works on the sand and tends to grey out under the rainforest canopy.

If the shoot includes the Daintree or the cascades, closed shoes are sensible for the walking, whatever you change into for the frame.

Before you go

Stingers, crocodiles and reef operators

Marine stingers, including box jellyfish and irukandji, are present in the coastal waters from roughly November to May. Patrolled beaches put up stinger nets during that season, and entering the water outside them is not advisable. A shoot in those months works on the sand rather than in the sea.

Estuarine crocodiles inhabit the rivers, creeks and mangroves of this region, including near the city. Posted warnings are not decorative, and we keep shoots to safe, signed areas.

Reef and island locations run through licensed operators on fixed departure times, so they are a planned day rather than an hour.

The Daintree and the reef are World Heritage areas with their own access rules, and commercial photography in national parks here can require a permit. We check before confirming.

Arranging it

How a Cairns shoot gets booked

Cairns shoots are arranged directly with our team rather than booked online. Tell us your dates, how many of you there are and whether you want the beaches, the rainforest or the reef, and we will confirm what can be arranged and what it will cost.

If you are coming in the wet season, tell us and we will plan accordingly. It is a very good time for the rainforest and a difficult one for the beach.