List of posts

  • Mark McMahon

    “To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place… I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.” — Elliott Erwitt

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  • If you have even a passing interest in film, you’ve probably heard of the Pentax 17 by now. Released last year in response to the growing nostalgia for analogue photography, it’s one of the few new film cameras to come out in the last decade—and probably the only one from a major manufacturer that isn’t

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  • in which I shop for a travel souvenir and end up with Nikon’s budget compact 28mm prime. It’s cheap, plastic and excessively cheerful but is the 28mm focal length overdone? Can I take it to the streets of Shanghai’s ancient water town, Zhujiajiao, and make it stand out from all of the phones with similar…

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  • You know how it is when you get a new family member and want to capture all those special moments? First day of school, first soccer goal, and so on. Well, it’s the same with puppies. Sure, their moments might be a bit different—I’m pretty sure I never licked myself as a kid, though who

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  • … in which I traverse the stretch of coastline between Aireys Inlet and Port Fairy in Australia’s South. This is part 2 of my Photographic Roadtrip through Victoria, chasing rainbows and the mythic Twelve Apostles in the quest to capture the magic of the crumbling Victorian coastline through the magic of photography. But will I…

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  • .. in which I pursue the perfect landscape photograph on the first leg of a road trip through regional Victoria, driving from Melbourne through to Aireys Inlet on the south coast of Australia. Beautiful conditions, but how to capture the magic of a sunrise and sunset when I’m more used to dystopian urban photography, where…

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  • So, I decided to embark on a little experiment to truly grasp the essence of expired film. My approach? A head-to-head comparison, using the same lens but different cameras. First up was my modern Nikon Z 6, followed by the classic Nikon F100, a relic from the film era. Loaded with a roll of Konica

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  • First Impressions of the Nikon Z 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3 VR

    …in which I strap on my new ultra-telephoto and take it into the wilderness aka the local zoo, to check out whether this lens offers the best compromise in cost, size, weight, and image quality for Nikon Z wildlife photography or if it is just too dark, too heavy, and too clumsy to be useful…

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  • …in which I unbox a new thrift store find and ask the question whether Nikon’s F50/N50 is their ugliest film SLR and whether its technical limitations and poor interface design are a dealbreaker, given it’s AU $19 price tag. Ok, it’s actually closer to $20 but still a bargain… surely?

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  • … in which I test out another relic from the early digital era. The Nikon Coolpix 4500 is a 4 Megapixel camera from 2002, when the millennial gloss was starting to wear off. But this machine is full of turn of the century optimism. Despite its aged LCD and sensor technology, it’s a well built…

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  • A MINI, an Olympus Pen F Digital, and the Concept of ‘Fun’

    ..in which I try to explore the notion of ‘Fun’, comparing my BMW MINI Countryman to my Olympus Pen F. Both camera and car are often discussed in terms of being fun to use but what does that mean? Are there any salient characteristics of ‘fun’ and how does fun impact on the experience and…

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