While they say you should never meet your heroes, no one said anything about inviting them onto your podcast! Justin (Lucky Straps founder) and Jim (Lucky Straps customer experience) were pretty stoked when I confirmed that Chris Benny was lined up as a guest on The Camera Life podcast. Both Js have followed Chris and QUBE Productions' work for years. Plus, having ordered custom camera straps in the past, Chris is one of Lucky Straps' long-standing customers.
As one of Australia’s leading automotive, corporate, and commercial photographers and directors of photography, Chris deserves more than a little fandom from like-minded peers in the creative world. His work is influential, compelling, and celebrates the art and science of image making to exceed a client’s expectations. There’s no denying the quality of video and stills output from Chris’ QUBE Productions - a Sydney-based visual studio working with some of the world’s biggest automotive brands. I sense a Lucky Straps / The Camera Life road trip to QUBE in Sydney is on our horizon! Especially given Chris’s studio features a full car racing simulator.
Chris’s photographic and creative journey began at the age of 10 when he attended a Melbourne (Australia) car show with his dad. He was handed the camera and spent his time photographing the cars - turns out that he had quite the eye. His dad and grandfather were both photographers and formed some of Chris’s earliest inspirations. In high school, Chris chose photography as an elective and discovered a love for image making and editing with early versions of Photoshop. He pursued photography further through two years of TAFE (Tertiary and Further Education) while also assisting a professional photographer.
While Chris developed his creative skills and knowledge of the craft across various genres, he also discovered valuable lessons and insight into running a photography studio. With TAFE and the assisting job ending, Chris set out to build his creative style, client list, and photography services. Some of his first paid gigs as a solo creative involved shooting for an Australian mountain biking magazine. It was at this point that Justin geeked out over discovering that he had shot for some of the same clients as Chris. Chris's work evolved from mountain and dirt bikes to include automotive shoots for the hugely influential Top Gear magazine. It was the catalyst for Chris’s future success in the automotive photography and videography world.
QUBE Productions, Chris’s commercial and corporate studio, represents Chris and his team. However, the brand also represents photographers and filmmakers specialising in genres such as automotive, lifestyle, tourism, food, products, and more. QUBE has been in operation for over fifteen years, and the core team of creatives can scale up or down to deliver on even the most outrageous client briefs. QUBE offers in-house services such as concept design, casting and talent management, and storyboarding through to production, direction, and post-production of video, stills and audio. Being a comprehensive commercial studio, QUBE also boasts partnered services such as graphic design, professional drivers, stunt coordinators, hair and makeup artists, and special effect operators. Regardless of the budget, QUBE can deliver at the highest levels of commercial content creation.
“Being self-employed and running your own business is nerve-racking. At no point do you feel fully relaxed.”
QUBE’s commercial and corporate clients include automotive heavy-hitters such as Volkswagen, Audi, KIA, and MG. Of course, QUBE also supports a broad range of commercial clients, both large and small. Chris and his team are highly skilled and offer clients everything from advertising and editorial outcomes to online and print content. If you need a studio to create content involving a Formula One race car and a Red Bull stunt plane racing down The Great Ocean Road in Victoria (Australia), QUBE has you covered.
“We provide a full spectrum of photographic and video production services across a broad range of industries and mediums.”
Chatting with Chris Benny live on The Camera Life podcast was an absolute blast. There’s no denying the quality and scale of his corporate and commercial output. Given the size of the brands he creates for, Chris has earned high regard and a reputation for delivering above and beyond. While Chris’s and QUBE’s client list is wildly impressive (to say the least), a humbleness and sense of humility shine through. Throughout our discussion, Chris’s down-to-earth nature demonstrated the strength of his work ethic and character. It was also clear that Chris never forgets his humble beginnings but instead calls upon his past experiences to refine his current practices and output while staying grounded. While Chris confessed to being nervous about appearing on a live podcast, his passion for his work, brand and team was evident throughout.
If you’re unfamiliar with The Camera Life Podcast, be sure to take a look at our YouTube channel for the latest episodes and, of course, our back catalogue of weekly shows. Our shows are also available on popular audio podcast platforms. If you like what you see, please give us a thumbs up, subscribe to The Camera Life, and click on the bell icon to receive notifications of upcoming shows. We host two shows weekly, the first being every Thursday at 9am AEDT (Australia), where we interview amazing guests. The second show, The Random Photography Show, airs every Monday at 7:30 pm AEDT. The Random Photography show is a little random, a little loose, and a lot of fun! Be sure to check them out.
Find Chris online:
