Back when I decided to dive headfirst into photography as a hobby, I was anxious about all of the technical jargon and understanding the myriad camera settings. The good news is that it wasn't all that bad. I read and watched and learned a lot through trial and error. Owning up to failure is always important. Being able to move on from a mistake to the next moment is even more important for continued growth in any field.

It was about the perfect afternoon for us to ramble along a walking trail through century old goldfields nearby. I'd decided to pack the Nikon D40 and the Fujifilm S6500fd. As it happens, I totally forgot about the Sony RX100 sitting in the zipper pocket of the camera shoulder-bag - my usual go-to in case an old camera flakes on me…

It's a public holiday here and I'm working my way through old photos in hopes of finding some stray winners I'd forgotten about. I've always been my own biggest critic, editor, and curator, and I think it's good to develop your own taste as a photographer over time. It's important to connect to our own photos without judgement, reflect on the image and the subject choice, consider the chosen settings, and remember our photographic vision versus the actual image.

How do you store your digital photo files? In this modern world, it's a real concern - how to safely and securely store all of the digital detritus that builds up around us. It used to be so easy when we just had to remember a few passwords. There was no such thing as 2 factor authentication years ago. Security breaches and cyber-hacks have put paid to having an easy life when it comes to digital security.

I've previously written about the Nikon D70 in another post. As I seem to have some affinity for older Nikon cameras, and as my D70 is also pretty beaten up, I couldn't resist a deal on a Nikon D70s with an attached Nikkor lens that has long been on my list: the Nikkor 35-70mm 3.3-4.5 AF lens. First released in 1986, the 35-70mm is most definitely a lens made for film cameras of the time as a cheap walk-around unit.

In my previous post, I revealed a cache of old photos I'd discovered on a hard-drive backup. Apart from giving me an excuse to go into Lightroom and do something that isn't related to my day job, it also provides me an opportunity to reflect on why I made those photos. What was my intent? What did I find interesting at the time?

Do you remember waiting for a roll of film to be developed? I used to enjoy going to the photo lab and collecting those envelopes filled with photos. I'd sit down on a bench somewhere and pore through them excitedly. Sometimes, they'd be from rolls of film I'd been sitting on for a few years, so looking through them was a joyous exercise in reliving those memories.

As disappointed as I was in my last post about the Pentax I recently acquired, I can't deny that I did manage to make some decent photos on the day. The small backscreens on old cameras aren't good enough to determine much of anything about sharpness or focus, so I usually make a few photos of the same subject to have some redundancy in case of faults.

I have a vivid memory of going to their home one day and looking up to see a large camera I'd never seen before sitting on a shelf in the dining room - a Pentax. Bigger and more professional looking than the usual plastic film cameras I was used to seeing, it seemed to suggest that someone in that family was a little bit more serious than most about making photos.

Often, we're too focussed on making photos that announce our presence to others. That makes sense if you're looking at things through an economic or self-marketing lens.

The West MacDonnell Ranges stretches west of Alice Springs (Mparntwe) for 161km. The area is known as Tjoritja to the local Arrernte people, and includes magnificent natural wonders like Ormiston Gorge, Standley Chasm, and The Ochre Pits. It's a huge area that rewards exploration and requires more than a single day.

My first digital camera was a Kodak DSC 3200, purchased in 2002, I think. It seemed like magic at the time ~ the fact that I could make photos and NOT have to pay to have film developed was pretty amazing. Even better - I didn't even need to go to the trouble of using a flatbed scanner so I could transfer them to my computer!

Have you ever been involved in a flame-war online? Have you witnessed the sort of dog-piling on social media that causes crushing anxiety in the vulnerable? If you have, maybe you've largely retreated to safer spaces online, cozier and more comfortable spaces where you feel like you have more control over your privacy and your online interactions. In these spaces of the…

In my previous post, I sang the praises of the Nikon D200 - first released in 2005. Back then, I could barely afford a decent digital point 'n' shoot, let alone a premium DSLR like the D200 ! Even RAW photos from it feature similar contrast, punch, and compressed dynamic range to those from the Olympus E1 - …

The Nikon D200 was released to market in 2005 - a long time ago in the world of digital cameras. Everything about it screams digital retro - the hulking black body, the CCD digital sensor, a mere 10.2 megapixels, 11 auto-focus points, and 5 frames per second shooting speed. Anyone who reads this journal regularly will know that megapixels aren't the best measure of quality…

When I look in the cupboard, I see lots of cameras and lenses - some would say, rather too many! Plenty of my film cameras are still piled up in boxes, so they barely add to the shelved pile. When I look over my digital cameras and lenses specifically, I see quite a few Nikon branded beasts, and I begin to wonder if I've become brand loyal without really intending to after all these years?

When the noise and dust of the day settles into quiet night, the mind turns inward. No longer are we distracted by the daily scramble. Night heralds a time when we have the opportunity to reflect on our day and our part in it. A solitary light bulb glows behind the large window of a closed shop on a quiet street; city lights glow in the distance, leaves rustle in a light breeze, and the moon shines overhead; during a long drive at night alone, the music on the radio synchronises perfectly with your thoughts and the world gliding by outside.

Things have taken a grim turn recently. I've been pre-occupied with thoughts of the small web / indieweb / personal web and then followed it up with some murder in the small outback town of Larrimah. It's fair to say I probably need a sunset or two! Looking out from The Point - Fujifilm Finepix S6500fd This small bridge camera from Fujifilm only has a small - 7.44 x 5.58 mm - digital sensor, but it features…

By the time you pass through Alice Springs, the landscape begins to change noiticeably. You start to see termite mounds on the side of the road, often dressed up in bras, hats, and high-visbility fluorescent vests. That seems to be something of a cheeky tradition in the Northern Territory. Other things change too. The red rocks, boulder formations, and rough-hewn ranges that are such an iconic part of the Australian outback give way to flatter landscapes dotted with grasses and tall trees that only grow in more tropical zones.

My interest in rust is, as you might imagine, slightly more than that of the average person down the road. I don't have data to back this up, but I'm not convinced that the idea of making photos of rusty things is of primary importance to many people as an activity. What I'm quite certain of is that people are definitely interested in the answers to big questions: …

One warm night on the ourskirts of Darwin, we pulled the car over to the side of a busy road. The marina had caught our collective eyes. I grabbed my camera bag in a hurry, threw open the car door, looked both ways, and made a dash to the other side. I could see the water more easily from there, but there was no wide walkway offering protection from the speeding cars, so I was stuck close to the concrete siding that formed the road's crash barrier.

How do you feel about sunsets? What do you think about when you're watching the sun dip slowly below the horizon line? Are you an avowed opacarophile? I think most of us love a good sunset! Fiery water - Nikon Z5 How do you go about framing a sunset? What decisions do you make when you compose? The so-called…

In my last post, I discussed the idea of the Indieweb and the state of the World Wide Web. If you have any interest, I urge you to go and read Olia Lialina's fantastic essay on the transition from the idea of My to Me on the web. It's lengthy, but contains a wealth of information about how the web has changed and how the web user has changed.

Do you ever find beauty in everyday things? Those mundane objects are part of the fabric of our daily lives, existing quietly in the background. I've been thinking about this a lot lately, especially on days when I feel as though I lack photographic inspiration. I can't help but think that we're somtimes looking for the big things as photographers, hoping they'll catch the attention of online communities that are often engulfed by their own search for attention and validation.