Wollongong ocean photographer Warren Keelan is accustomed to reaching hundreds of thousands of people on Instagram, but one day he woke to an email from a much bigger fish.

A marketing director from Microsoft had got in contact wanting to license a number of his photographs to be used for the company's login and lock screens on Windows 11.

"I googled the gentleman in question and he's done a lot with imagery in Windows and, on reply, he came back and asked to have a video meeting with him and his associates," Mr Keelan said. "That reaffirmed that everything was legit and real and we went from there."

According to the tech giant, there are more than 1.4 billion active devices running Windows 10 or 11. Suddenly, the reach of his photography had the potential to explode across the globe.

"They'd [Microsoft] never really taken on a photographer and they had just licensed imagery from stock photography sites, so I was chuffed about that," Mr Keelan said. "They wanted to show the world the beautiful animals in nature as well as landscapes and seascapes. It ended up being a mixed collection of sea life, whales, turtles, waves, and some Wollongong landscapes."

Warren with the Microsoft screen (Supplied: Warren Keelan)

The deal was done around twelve months ago, but only now have Mr Keelan's images been appearing on computer screens across the world. In recent weeks he has been getting screenshots from friends who have had his images come up on their screens, and just recently he saw it for himself.

"It was amazing; it's a very rewarding feeling to see it," he said. "I'd heard about it, but I really wanted to see it personally."

The images appear with a photographer credit and where the photo was taken in the corner of the screen.

"This is the first one that's been published I've seen, but other people around the world have seen some of the whale shots. I'm really keen to see if the local Wollongong seascapes make their way onto people's monitors."

Warren has been shooting Wollongong beaches for more than a decade (Supplied: Warren Keelan)

Warren Keelan said the deal with Microsoft is both validation of his work but also a chance to share the things he sees in nature with people around the world.

"It's incredible, it's the epitome of digital photography to be able to showcase my images to such a broad audience, which means the world to me," he said.

"I love photography and sharing my images, but to know there are so many people worldwide seeing what I see from the ocean, it's beyond words."

// JUSTIN HUNTSDALE
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