Most beach towel designs start with a design brief and a stock image library. Will and Wind starts with a dive tank, a housing and a camera in demanding conditions offshore from some of the most remarkable marine environments on earth.
The underwater photography Australia behind the Will and Wind range is real. Here is where it comes from, who took it, how it becomes a towel design and why the locations matter for what ends up on the product.
Where the underwater photography comes from
Will and Wind was co-founded by Chris Burnham, a photographer who had been documenting Australian marine environments for years before the brand existed. The product range grew from an existing archive of original underwater photography rather than the other way around. The images came first.
The primary locations for the underwater photography in the Will and Wind range are Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia and the Queensland coastline, including the waters where humpback whales migrate each year from June to November. Both locations produce some of the most technically demanding underwater photography in Australia. Whale sharks at Ningaloo move fast and the light underwater changes constantly. Humpbacks on the Queensland coast require extended patience and significant luck to encounter at the right angle in the right light.
For the story behind specific locations and what makes each one photographically significant, see the most iconic Australian beaches behind our designs and the Our Photographers page.
Brooke Pyke: Australian underwater photography at its best
One of the key photographers in the Will and Wind range is Brooke Pyke, an award-winning Australian marine and underwater photographer with a body of work spanning whale shark encounters at Ningaloo, humpback whale dives off Queensland and coral reef documentation across the Indo-Pacific.
The Bottlenose Dolphin Mother and Calf design, one of the most recognised in the range, came from a free dive off Ningaloo when a mother dolphin and her calf approached Brooke with calm curiosity. The encounter lasted a few minutes. The photograph it produced became the basis for a collection and, later, the starting point for the Will and Wind and AMCS conservation partnership. That story is told in full at a mother, a calf, a community that cares for the ocean.
Brooke's work also covers whale sharks, which she has photographed at Ningaloo across multiple seasons. The Leopards Yin Yang design in the Will and Wind range is another result of that body of fieldwork. Getting two leopard sharks in frame simultaneously, in a composition that holds up both as a photograph and as a product design, requires time and repetition that most people underestimate. For her full profile, see the Our Photographers page.
How underwater photography becomes a towel design
The process from image to product is closer to editorial photography than commercial design. Each raw photograph is assessed for composition, colour balance, how it will work at scale and whether the image holds its impact when translated to fabric. Not every great photograph makes a great towel design. The framing that works in a gallery print does not always translate when the image needs to work across 160cm x 80cm of microfibre.
After selection, the image files are converted to the specifications required for dye sublimation printing on 200 GSM rPET microfibre. The colour depth available in the Will and Wind manufacturing process is high enough to retain the tonal range of the original photography. This is why the towels look like photographs rather than like simplified graphic versions of the image.
The same photography appears across the full product range. The whale shark image that works on a travel towel also works on a car seat towel, a beach mat and a gym towel, each at different proportions and orientations. The design library is built from original fieldwork and grows as new photography is added from ongoing projects. For the full current collection, see the Will and Wind travel towel range.
Why Australian marine environments specifically
Australia has some of the most significant marine environments on earth. The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system. Ningaloo is one of the few places globally where whale shark encounters are reliably possible from shore. The humpback whale migration route along the east coast passes through Queensland waters that are accessible to experienced divers and freediving photographers.
These are not interchangeable locations. The underwater photography Australia that comes from Ningaloo, the Queensland migration corridor and the Coral Sea is specific to conditions and subjects that do not exist in the same combination anywhere else. The biodiversity, the water clarity and the accessibility of the key species all contribute to what the photography can achieve.
The Australian Marine Conservation Society partnership reflects this directly. Will and Wind is a named AMCS partner and a portion of sales from select products goes to AMCS to support the protection of the marine environments the photography documents. The designs are not decorative representations of nature. They document places and species that are under active conservation pressure. For the full conservation picture, see marine conservation in Australia: why we care and what you can do and supporting our oceans.
The rPET connection: what the towel is made from
The fabric the photography is printed on is 200 GSM rPET microfibre, made from 16 recycled post-consumer plastic bottles per travel towel. The material commitment and the conservation commitment come from the same place: the same oceans the photography documents are the ones being harmed by the plastic waste the fabric repurposes. GRS 4.0 certified, independently audited annually.
For the full material story, see what is rPET. For how Will and Wind compares to other travel towel brands across sustainability and performance criteria, see why Will and Wind towels are different and best travel towels Australia.
Frequently asked questions
Who takes the underwater photography used in Will and Wind designs?
Will and Wind co-founder Chris Burnham and award-winning Australian marine photographer Brooke Pyke are the primary photographers behind the range. Full profiles and the stories behind specific designs are at the Our Photographers page.
Where is the underwater photography taken?
Primarily Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia and the Queensland coastline, including the humpback whale migration corridor. The Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea also feature across the range.
Are the designs on Will and Wind towels original photographs?
Yes. Every design is based on original photography taken at specific Australian locations by named photographers. None are stock images or AI-generated illustrations.
Do the same designs appear across all Will and Wind products?
Yes. The photography used in the travel towel range also appears across the hooded towels, car seat towels, beach mats and gym towels, scaled and formatted for each product. See the travel towel collection, hooded towels, car seat towels and beach mats.
Can I buy a print of the Will and Wind photography?
The photography is currently available as a product rather than a standalone print. For enquiries, contact us at the contact page.
Shop Travel Towels | Meet the Photographers | Customer Reviews