Tourism Queensland asked us to provide them with a 500 word story. They've now pulled quotes from it for the creation of our bio page on islandreefjob.com. This is my story.

I am James Hill - intrepid photographer of worldly pursuits - and I would like to say at this point that I’ve been fortunate to experience some of the most incredible globe-trotting experiences a man could ever wish for.

Now, what’s most important to me in life? that’s a toughie… Travel would, without a doubt, have to be up there with family (mine are pretty awesome), photography and technology, but to pick one thing...

Perhaps if I share with you my brief potted history you’ll understand why there’s so much jostling for that number one position.

I grew up in the picturesque Southern Highlands of New South Wales, the youngest son in a family of six salt-of-the-earth farming types. My younger years were filled with Duke of Edinburgh expeditions, rugby tours, boating trips, and even an exchange to Sweden. Once home I finished high school and started a degree in Engineering, but before long I was struck with wanderlust once more, and travelled to the USA to work as an instructor in the Vermont ski fields.

On my return I discovered that my folks had decided to retire to the Whitsundays. Lucky me, eh? I would have been delusional not to take advantage of that opportunity, so I got a job as a photographer on Daydream Island, and in my spare time explored the region, fascinated by the sugar cane industry, the rain-forests, and the amazing tales of locals, backpackers, farmers and tour operators.

Reluctantly I returned to Sydney to knuckle down and finish my degree, but not before organising an incredible once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to visit Antarctica. There I spent 15 days aboard a research vessel photographing some of the most stunning landscape on earth.

I did end up finishing that degree, and was offered work at a London web marketing agency – a job that would also allow me to sneak beyond the borders of the Emerald Isle. In my three years away, my nephews have grown from bubs to boys, my family from strength to strength - all things I’ve missed being a part of. So I’ve decided to come home and embark on my most ambitious project yet, iamjameshill.com - a collection of portraits and short stories of the people who have made me who I am today. When you ask me who I’d bring to share in the Hamilton experience, that too is a tough one. My folks already have their little patch of paradise, so I have to look further afield for my island companions.

I would repay the favours of all those overseas friends who’ve literally given me the world, while also extending an offer to one of my closest friends, singer-songwriter, Sophie Paterson, who you might have seen recently on Australian Idol. Soph’s now working tirelessly on her debut album and I know she’d just about kill a few music publishers for a patch of sand on Hamilton to do what she does best: create fantastic music.

BBC Documentary filming outside my farewell party at Smith's of Smithfields - Photo © Evan Wheatley 2009

WOW! What a crazy 48 hours... It's so difficult to describe, such a surreal world that is completely new to me on so many levels. My emotions elevated to new heights, a workload to match, and my mind racing at speeds I never thought possible.

So after receiving the call the other night, I had to get moving on the packing front, with the shipping company due at 7:30am the stress of compartmentalizing my life had set in. Along with rushing to get the phone call video out I obviously had to make calls to mum, dad and the rest of the family.

Having taken care of the relational duties and the majority of packing done I hit the sack somewhere around 5:30 am. I thought I'd have troubles sleeping with an anxiety over journalists calling in odd hours that coupled with my articulation being limited in the best of times how would I come across to the media! Luckily the next call I would receive was from the shipping company sometime around 8:30am.

Top 50 finalists: Sarah, Myself & Jackie - Photo © James Hill 2009

With the majority of my possessions en-route to the lucky country it was time to hit the office for my last day of work. I reluctantly walked to work in a clouded daze of tired-excitement, overly cautious to on-coming traffic as my mind is extremely susceptible to day-dreaming in times like this.

After the congratulatory rounds at work, I realised that my emotions and fatigue weren't to be conducive to productivity, I decided to postpone my final day of work in favour of sleep and finalising the details of my farewell bash.

Friends: Tiff & Yemi - Photo © James Hill 2009

The BBC documentary crew had failed to attain filming permission at Smith's of Smithfields (location of my farewell party) their first request of me was to move my farewell party to a new location with less than 4 hours notice, rightly I declined this request and suggested they compromise with shooting out the front of Smith's, with me ducking inside every now and then to rotate the friends that would support me on camera.

With the interview over it was time to get back to the act of fare-welling. Having knocked back a few coopers my even more relaxed Aussie temperament came out to shine, allowing me to causally catch up with the many friends London has afforded me. From my point of view it was a fantastic display of support, that I will cherish in my memories and some-what blurred photographs (the camera was passed around the crowd with varying levels of competency ;-).

Many thanks to all of you who attended, I'm honoured to have you in my life and will undoubtedly keep you all posted on the exciting times to come.

Click thru for more photographs of the evening.

It's somewhere between late night and early morning, my head is pounding probably something to do with the amount of adrenalin that was floating around my body and has now stopped.

I've had a bombardment of text messages that I just can't keep up with, phone calls from the press, twitter overload...

I'm about 40% complete with my packing and the shipping company arrives in the morning to take away the boxes... I haven't filled in the forms. Once again I'm running on hype, and I hate this time difference between Brisbane and London.

It's time for sleep.

So while I compartmentalize my life into boxes marked bedroom1, lounge & kitchen I thought I best set the computer to crank out another video... This is just some of the outtakes from the footage I've shot over the past couple weeks for the bestjobintheworld campaign.

So a couple weeks back I made a photo of a strange SCUBA man on the London underground and posted it to flickr along with the free metro papers in London. Interestingly the curious public did speak up and there were mentions in the London Lite of some strange man running around London in a wetsuit and snorkel. Caped crusader for Queensland if you will.

I've been meaning to edit the making of sequence for quite some time alas my todo list has grown to an insurmountable size:

Unfortunately with only a couple days left in London I've had to postpone many of the creative content I've wanted to edit until I arrive back in Aus.

Anyway, I needed a break from all the life administration and content creation was just what the doctor ordered, thus over a quick cuppa I whipped up this short little ditty of how I went about shooting it. Unfortunately due to the fuss some of the passengers made I've decided not to show anything but me and Rob.

My life is climaxing into one 24 hours window of time.