Environmental lawyers by day, travel photographers by night, Ling McGregor and Jason (Jase) Corbett have a unique respect for the natural world. The Cereal For Lunch duo’s dreamy, otherworldly snaps that depict the amber light-flooded landscapes of red rust dunes and sparkling oceans are an ode to the beauty of Mother Earth and all her awe-inspiring magic.
Home is …
“Green tea in the bush.” We’re both mixed race and have grown up with a blend of two worlds — living in very Chinese households but against distinctly Australian backdrops. What we’ve loved most about home is that it has meant living intergenerationally, with family in one place.
A few things are changing as we’ll be moving into our own terrace together soon. Our plans for the space are: hanging plants, timber piled with rugs from souks, painting art straight onto the walls, a kitchen filled with clay and spices, long linen curtains, skylights, a soft lounge for our friends and sunsets from our rooftop garden. We can’t wait.
How we start our day …
Neither of us are morning people, so we usually have lazy starts to the day. But when we’re on the road, we always make an effort to get outside early and see something. It’s so refreshing to beat the crowds and catch a sunrise somewhere new.
Our workspace looks like …
Our workspace has changed a lot in the last year. Before the pandemic hit, we based our lives around offices in the CBD. Sydney isn’t very well set up for commuting, so we were travelling for over two hours each day. We’re now extremely lucky to be able to work from home on the deck for the majority of the week, and couldn’t be more grateful to be surrounded by trees.
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On work/life balance …
Finding balance was a huge challenge at the start of our careers. We both began in pretty demanding corporate jobs, where the work was urgent and unpredictable, we had billable targets to meet and felt like we never left the office. We realised very quickly that lifestyle wasn’t going to be sustainable and the best thing we could do to find balance was make a change. We have more breathing space now and when creative projects come up, we drop down to part-time hours.
We are motivated by …
For both of us, motivation comes from a mix of wanting to do things that we enjoy and trying to focus as much as we can on the planet. There was definitely a turning point last year, when Australia was in the middle of catastrophic fires, when we felt like we really needed to be doing more. We started to be more vocal about the things that we’re passionate about and eventually found a way to incorporate them into our work. We’re now able to focus on social and environmental issues in both our day-to-day jobs and our photography together.
On the creative side, we’re really lucky to support small businesses through our work and it has been a dream to shoot for slow labels, sustainability initiatives and conservation or environmental organisations.
Alongside this, Ling’s day-to-day work has been in climate law and renewable energy policy. Addressing the climate catastrophe can sometimes feel extremely overwhelming, but a huge motivation has come from opening up many different types of conversations.
On “success” …
We both love a lot of different things and have always found it really hard to resonate with the idea of “being” or “doing” just one. So we’ve spent most of our 20s trying to redefine success for ourselves without the traditional markers we were given as adults — especially the unhelpful ideas that you need to accomplish certain things by a certain age, that something’s only worth pursuing if you’re good at it, that something’s only valuable if it’s monetised, or that certain job titles are inherently successful.
Success is really just letting go of every idea you were given. It’s knowing your own happiness, creativity and purpose aren’t things that you somehow have to “find” or “have”, but things that can be tried and formed.
On travelling …
We started saving up to travel while we were at university and, as soon as we graduated, left for a huge trip together. Along the way, we realised that surreal natural landscapes were our favourite places to visit, and so we started seeking them out. Our route became more and more remote, we began hiking further and further, and eventually made it to unbelievable places. On the high altiplano of the Atacama Desert, we saw flamingos crowding red lagoons, sly foxes between volcanic rocks, and even passed through a dreamy desert named after Salvador Dalí.
In places like this we could hardly believe what we were seeing and the camera became our way of comprehending it. We’ve been capturing landscapes ever since.
We feel most alive and wild when …
Our hearts are filled by the smallest things: hazy sunsets, roadside views, cold ocean dips, pulling over again to take in a view, long hikes, kicking off shoes, new city wonders, friends in the car, tyres stuck on sand dunes, sunset warmth and pitching tents in the dark.
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On ideas …
Nothing inspires us more than talking about ideas — it’s probably what we spend the most time doing with everyone we know. We’ve been thinking a lot about what holds us back from going after them. For both of us, it used to be feeling like change was too hard, that we didn’t know enough about photography, or that we wouldn’t be able to invest the time we needed.
The only change we really needed to make was to stop thinking about ideas as back-up plans and just go after them. All you can do is give yourself space and things grow from there.
Our night-time ritual …
Our ideal night is seeing the sunset somewhere close, cooking nourishing food, and watching something trashy. At the very end of the day, we always make time to talk about the things we love.
Where to find us?
We’d love to chat any time at @cereal.for.lunch, and our travel blogs are on cerealforlunch.com
