Moody Warlock

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I think that sometimes we get too used to the idea that every photo should be as sharp as possible. It's a common criticism in photography groups, of course. But what constitutues sharpness in a photo?

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...

A contemplative wander at sunrise with the camera

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.

Tjoritja aglow ~ The West MacDonnell Ranges

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…

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.

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...

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 !

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.

Z mount is excellent. And great modern lenses. I enjoy my Z5.

Nice 🙂 What do you like about Nikon? I'm very used to the menu layout these days. Love the ergonomics too. Your bio reminds me that I need to get back to music making!

Have I become a Nikon fan, unwittingly?

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…

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.

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!

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.

Rust and ruin are symbols of decay and time passing. Some people are terrified by this idea, perhaps hoping that science will one day discover the answer to immortality. Others believe they have the answers to the big questions already. For them, perhaps, ruin holds fewer terrors.

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.

Framing the sunset

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…

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 coalesces many of the thoughts I've been having for some years now.

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.

Absolutely. Nostalgia is a tempting mind-state. All it teaches is that nature is change. Thanks for your thought!

I’m glad you ended on that positive note. So often after we hit middle age we’re tempted to think what we used to like is gone when it’s really just not *mainstream* anymore. In fact today the raw numbers in those niches are sometimes higher than they were in the golden age.

Sometimes, I reflect on the way that the web has changed over the years. I began my online journey sometime in the mid 80s when I connected to a local BBS called Nexus, hosted at a nearby library.

Oh, where would I be without my little Sony RX100? Small, black, and set to silent mode, I re-discovered the joys of using it last year after keeping it in a drawer for too long. When the big Nikon fails, I'm always happy to find some fresh detail with the little Sony camera.