Bert Roberts was the oldest greenskeeper in the region but Smithwick felt elements of the St James Bowling Club were just as important to capture.

Prime minister Julia Gillard waves goodbye as she leaves the opening of the Holbrook bypass. Three days later she waved goodbye to her job. “There had been whispers Julia might be ousted so I kept an eye out for a picture opportunity that may have illustrated that,” Smithwick says.

Smithwick was just leaving a photo shoot at the Steamers rugby team training session when he noticed light reflecting off the boys in the rain. “I thought it was worth stopping to get a more moody picture out of what was a pretty typical night at training,” he says.

They say you can tell a lot by a man’s hands and in this photo Smithwick was trying to depict hard work, capturing Burrumbuttock farmer Ken Hall during harvest time. “You can see they’re obviously working man’s hands and the seeds he is holding are the results of hard work,” he says.

Smithwick loves the repetitious pattern formed by the horses and jockeys in this photo. “It came down to split-second timing to capture them in this formation,” he says.

The Library Museum always makes a striking background. “To capture William Brougham in a precision pose in a field he is obviously passionate about hopefully made this picture leap off the page.”

Vijay Kumar’s enthusiasm to wear a shirt and tie in the middle of a swimming pool absolutely delighted Smithwick. “I wanted to capture his love of swimming and studies ... and to my relief, he loved the idea. He was such a good sport,” Smithwick says.

Smithwick raced to the front of the Carnivale Parade in High Street, Wodonga, in March to capture the Asanti dance theatre group. “The colour and the theatre of it caught my eye and made for a really bright and bold picture,” he says.