Maraya Claire

Written By Campbell Mattinson

Wall art featuring Brisbane model Maraya Claire.

This image of Maraya Claire in Melbourne in 2025 has a bit of an 80/90s vibe about it, not in a good way. I like it though, mostly because of the off-centre orientation and because of Maraya’s eyes – complemented here by the highlights in her hair. This shot is a bit of a miracle/fluke shot; all the shots around it are ordinary. Immediately after this I flicked over to video hence the 10 seconds of footage of Maraya below.

This image was shot in the La La Land bar on the Sony A6700 with the Sony 50mm f1.4. So we’re looking at a 75mm full-frame field of view equivalent. The image looks a bit soft-out-of-focus around her mouth/cheek because I’m shooting at f1.4, but her eyes are dramatically sharp, focussed, compelling. Maraya-plus-Sony-A6700 for the win.

I’m always telling myself to step back because, when I’m reviewing files, I always gravitate towards the more environmental images. This image was shot on the Sony A6700 with the Sony 24mm f1.4. The 24mm lens is such a beautiful, small, exquisitely rendered lens; it comes into its own, for portrait work, on an APS-C camera body. 35mm equivalent, for the win here. It has to be noted that talent like Maraya Claire, who somehow manages to appear completely relaxed in a not-so-relaxed setting, are photography gold.

Short video clip of Queensland model Maraya Claire in 2025.

I’ll likely add another image or two from this shoot, at some stage. I’m including this 10 second video just as an example of how perfectly Maraya handles her time in front of the camera. She’ll no doubt be highly successful as a stills photography model but the way she holds herself, I would argue, works better again as footage.

 

Campbell Mattinson is a commercial photographer, novelist, wine critic and freelance journalist. He's based in Williamstown, in Melbourne's western suburbs, and has won multiple awards as a writer, photographer and filmmaker. Campbell specialises in portrait, editorial and architectural photography.

Campbell Mattinson

This post was written by Campbell Mattinson. Mattinson is a former chief editor of the Halliday Wine Companion book, former editor of Halliday magazine, former editor of Australian Sommelier Magazine and founder of The Winefront business. He is the author of five books on wine – four of which were bestsellers (The Wine Hunter, the Big Red Wine Book 2008, the Big Red Wine Book 2009, and the Big Red Wine Book 2010).

Mattinson is also the founder of the Mattinson Photography business.

Campbell Mattinson has been an independent journalist, wine critic and photographer for forty years. He’s the only Australian to have won the Australian Wine Communicator of the Year Award more than once. He’s a past winner of a Louis Roederer International Wine Media Award; is the author of the award-winning book The Wine Hunter; and is the author of the best-selling novel We Were Not Men. He’s also a winner of a St Kilda Film Festival Award (as writer-director) and is a former winner of the national Best Australian Sports Writing Award. In 2026 three of his photographs were short-listed for the World Food Photography Awards.

Campbell Mattinson, who is 100% independent, has tasted between 5000 and 10,000 wines each and every year for the past 25 years. He tastes blind, in comparative brackets, as often as is practicable.

Campbell Mattinson is a journalist, a photographer, a filmmaker and a wine critic. In all of these mediums his prime motive is to tell people's stories.

https://www.campbellmattinson.com
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