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“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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When you’re standing in a place as spectacular as Phillip Island or Wilsons Promontory in Victoria, Australia, you want a camera setup that can capture everything. Vast coastal landscapes, wildlife on distant horizons, dramatic rock formations, and fleeting travel moments all demand flexibility. At the same time, nobody wants to haul a backpack full of…
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Travel photography often begins with a simple question: what happens when you stop chasing landmarks and start paying attention to the streets between them? During a spare day in Beijing before flying home, I decided to do exactly that. Armed with an AliPay rental bike, a Leica M2, and a Voigtländer VM Vintage 35mm f/1.5…
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The Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D lens, despite its simple design and budget construction, is celebrated for its sharpness, durability, and charm. It provides excellent value for photographers seeking quality at a low price, earning its reputation as a reliable companion.
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The Olympus 75mm f/1.8 has long enjoyed a near-mythical reputation among Micro Four Thirds photographers. Released back in 2012, it quickly became known as one of the sharpest lenses available for the system and remains highly regarded more than a decade later. Having owned mine since 2013, it has been one of the lenses most…
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Let’s talk about 135mm lenses. Not the legendary, collector-grade optics that command eye-watering prices on the second-hand market. I’m talking about the humble, often-overlooked 135mm lenses gathering dust in the lower reaches of eBay listings, sitting somewhere between “well used” and “please check photos carefully.” For reasons I don’t entirely understand, old 135mm lenses seem…
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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…
Mark McMahon 