Port Macquarie photographer Alex McNaught from Roving-Eye Photography has slowly been equipping himself with a toolkit allowing him to explore incredible scenery and showcase it to the world.

Last year Alex started dabbling with the idea of becoming a contributor for Google Street View and Google Maps.

"I had been thinking about getting involved in Google Maps and Street View for a while and I've been gearing up for it so I can take images across multiple formats," he said.

Using Google to scout a potential photography location is something Alex is used to doing.

"I have always used Google Maps as a tool when looking at how to access a place for my photography work. I will always search what a place looks like before I go out there," he said.

"A lot of popular places have plenty of photos already, but what piqued my interest was the places where there weren't any photos and I couldn't see what it looked like and neither could other people searching it.

"If I can go out and take those photos so other people can see what a place looks like in 360 degrees, then that's what I want to do."

Alex has photographed a number of locations for Google Maps in the past few months including along Port Macquarie's coastline, Queens Lake, Bago Bluff and Tenterfield.

A lot of his 360 degrees images are taken from the air with a drone, but Alex has also been heading out on his jetski to photograph the coastline from the water.

"Now that I've sorted myself out and have discovered a workflow that works for me, I plan to do a number of trips this year for Google Maps," he said.

"With the borders open I'll be able to travel further afield. I hope to go to the Kimberley as well as to the Simpson Desert and to Port Lincoln where I would like to use an underwater drone to take photos of great white sharks.

"I'm not just taking happy snaps at these places, I want to capture the essence of the location and showcase what the landscape looks like."

Alex has been working at building a photography career for himself since he moved to Port Macquarie in 2017.

"I have had the time over the past few years to get more experience and grow my understanding and knowledge of photography," he said.

"The community here has always shown me overwhelming support. Taking that leap of faith really worked out for me."

Alex recently released a 2022 calendar of his images and said they have been purchased from countries around the world.

"They've gone to so many different countries. It's amazing to think that in Iceland there's some of my photos of Port Macquarie in a calendar."

Now, Alex's 360 degrees images of Port Macquarie are able to be viewed virtually around the world on Google Maps.

"It's fantastic to see what has come out of it and to create images for Google Street View for people to experience," he said.

"Photography is a wonderful tool and it's a fantastic hobby to get involved in."

More of the work Alex has done for Google Maps can be found on his website.

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