A South Australian photographer has just completed a 5,000-kilometre winter odyssey with little more than his bicycle and a camera to share a unique view of Australia's coastline.

Adelaide-based photographer Che Chorley endured wild weather and separation from his young family to create art from seascapes, landscapes and winter storms.

"Winter light really gets me out of bed, literally," he said.

"It's light that really grabs you — that interaction between the light after sunset and a big storm rolling through or rain on the water, that's the environment that I chase."

Mr Chorley said he was inspired by South Australian landscape artist Sir Hans Heysen. ( ABC News: Michael Coggan )

Mr Chorley started out at the Western Australian border in the hope that his journey would be assisted by the prevailing westerly winds, but he was hit with some of the wildest weather experienced in southern Australia in years.

"It's been front, after front, after front, it's been south-west bluster... some pretty interesting nights in the tent," he said.

"Eighty- to 100-kilometre-per-hour winds and it's just me in the middle of nowhere and you're holding on for dear life ... and then wake up and ride into that wind."

But Mr Chorley said it delivered him artistic material in spades.

"This is what I set out to do, I wanted to challenge myself emotionally, physically and artistically and this winter has set me straight."

The journey is part of an artistic project titled Land, Sea, You, Me in the planning since 2014, when Mr Chorley won the Hahndorf Academy prize honouring South Australian landscape artist Sir Hans Heysen.

Mr Chorley's 5,000km journey started on the Western Australian border. ( Supplied: Che Chorley )

His winning image of rain falling on the ocean has become a trademark of a photographer who loves to get into the sea to share a perspective that taps into the ocean-lover's nirvana.

"My photographic style is I like to see it at surface level, at sea level," Mr Chorley said.

"I like to bring in the dynamic variations in landscape and in light and try to bring that all together in the one image ... hopefully you get an image that makes you stop and take notice."

Heysen's approach to artistic endeavour helped to inspire Mr Chorley's journey.

"Heysen would go bush with his family for months at a time and immerse himself in his landscape.

"For him that was the hills, and for me, that's the coast so I said that's where I want to be."

Mr Chorley loves to get into the ocean to take photos from a different perspective. ( Supplied: Che Chorley )

The photographer is passionate about getting into the water to get a sea creature's point of view.

"You are immersed in your shooting subject, it fights back, it throws you around and it shows you who's boss every now and then," he said.

Mr Chorley's partner Myf Cadwallader and their daughter were going to spend more time travelling as a support crew, but a health scare with their two-year-old at the start of the journey put an end to that plan.

That separation has definitely been "the hardest part of the journey", Mr Chorley said.

Without his family in support it was harder for the photographer to ride about 100 kilometres a day and find the energy to set up camp and shoot photos early or late in the day after little sleep.

"It's been really tough on all of us and I think it's taken Che a while to fall into a comfortable pattern of creating art without having much contact with us," Ms Cadwallader said.

Even though Mr Chorley was regularly jumping into remote stretches of ocean to take photos, his family was more worried about the dangers of road trains than shark attacks or treacherous waters.

Photographer Che Chorley experienced lots of different weather conditions during his trip around Australia's coastline. ( Supplied: Che Chorley )

But it turned out the weather was much more threatening than anything else.

Mr Chorley narrowly missed being struck by lightning that hit a metal fence next to a camping spot on the Nullabor.

"It lit up the sky and sparks flew and, yeah, it was a pretty phenomenal experience to be standing next to it when it happened, but I wouldn't like to do it again, that's for sure," he said.

The journey has delivered "land" and "sea" elements of the project with spectacular landscape and seascape images of the SA coastline including the remote Pearson Islands, the sand dunes of Fowlers Bay and waves that would set any surfer's heart pounding.

"I love South Australian coastline, it's very simple and I wanted to bring that through my eye to others," Mr Chorley said.

The photographer's followers on social media have been taken along on the journey experiencing some of the "me" aspect of the project.

More of that story and the "you" — the characters he met along the way — will be revealed in a book and exhibition Mr Chorley and Ms Cadwallader are working to produce in 2017.