Travel_LeisureIndiaSouthAsia-January_2017

TRAVELTRAVEL ++ LEISURE LEISURE / JANUARY 2017 / JANUARY 2017 5351

SEAN BYRNE/COURTESY OF LAUREN BATH

BEYOND

Mastering

the Journey

After fi nding a following for her stunning travel images, chef turned photographer

Lauren Bath traded her apron for a new life exploring the world one shot at a time.

Coming

into Focus

Bath captured

the Vermilion Lakes

in Banff, Canada,

on a campaign for

Travel Alberta.

L

auren Bath’s life can easily be divided into

two parts: before December 31, 2012, and

after. That New Year’s Eve, she was working

as a chef in the kitchen of Café Marina, a

casual Italian restaurant on the Gold Coast,

in Australia, and it was a particularly rough night.

“I had a few drinks with friends after service, and

was just over everything,” Bath says. “The next

day, I rode out my hangover, and on January 2,

2013, I told my boss I wanted to quit.”

Good thing she had a backup plan. Over the

course of the previous year, Bath had quietly

become one of Australia’s most successful

Instagrammers, teaching herself the tools and

tricks of photography with a professional camera

and then posting three to four pictures a day