Darkeye photography's Brinae and Glen to go on tour discovering culture and making memories

Glen and Brinae Smith are embarking on a tour of the continent where they will make plenty of stops in various communities to learn and share their experiences.

"It will be the best thing we've ever done, just go back to basics and focus on our unit of five," Ms Smith said.

"We'll be doing cultural videos whilst we travel Australia... specialising in Aboriginal culture and learning about the different tribes, the different missions, different dialects of the different communities."

Their first video captures South East Gippsland in Lake Tyres mission and will depict the Bung Yarnda, where Ms Smith's family is from. She is a Kurnai woman while her husband is a Wailwan man. They are both born, raised and recognised on Wiradjuri Land.

Another reason for their travel is to find native bush medicine that could help heal their son's brain injury. After being in an accident in 2020, the family spends a lot of time with their son at Westmead Children's Hospital. Their trips will have to be in small stints to make his appointments in Sydney.

"You never really know how much time you have with your family, but a significant trauma really puts life into perspective," Ms Smith. "We live on my parent's farm at the moment in a caravan and are getting ready to travel."

The name 'Darkeye Photography' came from Ms Smith's grandfather mispronouncing their son's name. Because Durakai had really dark eyes, he was being called 'dark eye', and it stuck.

What's more, Durakai has his own camera to capture creative frames his parents don't think of.

Regardless of their substantial struggles, the family's hobby has flourished into a booming business. They have now taken on trainees to up-skill them as photographers and are seeking more staff to assist while they travel.

Before the power couple started as entrepreneurs, Mr Smith worked as a tyre fitter and Ms Smith worked in a government job.

It was only when Ms Smith was going to represent Australia at a youth conference overseas that her husband bought a camera for the trip. The photos turned out so good that people got in touch to ask the pair to take their family photos.

Soon, the couple were doing photo shoots after work, taking on jobs on their days off and even travelling interstate for weekend weddings.

"Any time I had a day off or we had a bit of a break, I would take photos basically," Ms Smith said.

"It wasn't until Glen's cousin contacted us and asked 'Hey, would you do our wedding?' that we were like 'Sh*t, we must be pretty good at what we do' because doing someone's wedding is a big deal," Ms Smith said.

The Indigenous-owned business does all kinds of photography, from photos for government organisations, day care centres and real estate firms, to people wanting pictures of their newborns, personal figurines, head shots for passports and even equipment for crane businesses.

"People say we've got to learn to say 'no' but nothing can be too unusual for us," Ms Smith said.

"It's been hard, there's some nights we only get a few hours sleep... but at the same time, we don't want to just take photos, we want to create a legacy that we can pass on."