Canon T70 / Portra 400.

Hello Friends.

Recently, I’ve been keen on venturing to the fruit and veg shop on Stoke Newington’s Church Street instead of being disappointed buying underwhelming supermarket produce. One hurdle that I’ve been running into is knowing what’s in season and what to buy, especially as the shop is always busy and I don’t want to hassle the staff when the queue goes through the whole shop. I discovered this Seasonal Calendar (thanks to a tip by Alexis of Wander) which has been helpful – this week we’ve been enjoying some fantastic cherries, peaches, yellow courgettes, radishes, and heritage tomatoes. This website looks like quite a good resource for a quick glance too.

The picture above is from our honeymoon in Italy – this one from our last stop, the island of Ischia. We loved Ischia and it was the perfect end to the trip. The food and produce is incredible if you avoid the tourist-trap restaurants around the swanky harbours and instead go to the small, local restaurants. I know this is a tip you hear all the time but it always pays off.

We also hired a well-battered convertible Fiat Punto for a day of driving around the island and found a pastry shop in Sant’Angelo that had some incredible choices like pistachio cannoli and strawberry ricotta cheesecake. You can eat on a balcony over the sea and they hardly cost anything. Perfect!

I’m going to post lots more Italy honeymoon photos over the next week.

One more thing – I finally got to ride Ofo bikes over the past couple of days. They can be collected and left anywhere in central London, there’s an app to unlock them and they cost 70p for half an hour. So much fun riding about again. I wish there were more Ofo available bikes near me, I’d definitely use them.

Inchcolm (the island behind the tree) taken from Silver Sands, Fife, on my Canon T70 with Kodak Portra 400.

Since moving from Sydney to London last year, Becky and I have been able to visit Scotland much more frequently, especially because we had our wedding to organise and wanted to see more of our nephews and nieces. Missing out on seeing these family babies growing up has to be the worst thing about living on the other side of the planet.

This time we were up North for a couple of birthdays – including my Grandma’s which involved the whole family coming together.

Guardian of the Bridges by Debbie Ryan, a sculpture in South Queensferry, near my sister Melissa’s house where I had my birthday lunch earlier this year. Canon T70 / Kodak Portra 400. 

I love this sculpture, it’s so colourful, magical and its face reminds me of playing Pokemon in the 90s with my sister who now lives nearby.

Inchcolm again, on my Canon T70 with Kodak Portra 400. My school “house” was ‘Inchcolm’ (instead of Gryffindor – though our colours were red, which I take great joy in) so I feel like I have a connection to this little island on the Forth, which I have also been fortunate to visit thanks to my dad and his fishing boat.

I’m delighted with the colours and contrast in these images. When I returned to shooting on film, the landscapes that initially inspired me were by Cody Cobb. I found his work (especially this featured one from The Island) to be warm and nostalgic, like he had found the key to capturing the rose-tinted idyllic memory of a place, rather than the cold and clinical version perhaps with a blown-out sky that you often get with digital, and especially phone, photography.

While I’m talking about landscapes, a series that I have loved for years is Nadav Kander’s Yangtze, The Long River. The tones and layers created by the thick air between distances is incredible.

My dad fishing for mackerel off the Burntisland pier a few weeks ago, with Inchkeith in the background. Canon T70 (which was his) and Portra 400 film.

I’ve been doing a lot of film scanning and retouching inside over the past couple of days and was delighted when the storm in London finally broke the thick, humid, stinking heat yesterday afternoon. I love the sun but could do with a night off.

The cheese and chive drop scone from Gail’s, with Strawberry and Wild Strawberry conserve and the best butter I could get.

I thought this would be a good place for a couple of recommendations, so here you are:

• It’s Alive With Brad is a youtube cooking show from the American magazine bon appétite, mainly about fermented foods. It’s scientific, wholesome and just feels like hanging out with friends.
• In The Dark is a crime podcast, along the same lines as another favourite of mine, Serial. I just finished the second season and it got better as it went along. I really enjoy listening to long-form non-fiction audio while I am working. I get a bit lost when it’s something longer – like a full audiobook – as I mentally tune out after a certain amount of time. I wish there were more podcasts like this and would love recommendations.
• Books – Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng, contemporary fiction that I finished recently and would highly recommend (but don’t think I should give anything away). Now I’m reading the latest David Sedaris book of essays, Calypso, and finding each one powerful and fascinating. I didn’t know anything about these books before I started them, but both come under the theme of family.

There are a few things I aim to do now that the weather is tolerable and I’m looking forward to Autumn:

• More cooking – and cooking for the weather/season. More visits to local produce suppliers instead of the more convenient supermarkets. BBQ on the roof terrace.
• Speaking of which, I want to get back into some food and lifestyle photography – especially with film cameras. I think I’ve grown and developed aesthetically since I last did any.
• Try my hand at watercolour painting using the set my mum gave me for Christmas.
• Get back to running. Start slow.
• More gardening, especially on the roof terrace. Swap out all the remaining plastic pots for real ceramics.

Do you have any plans for the rest of the year?

A shot from my test roll using the Pentax Espio around Cammo (Scotland) last week.

Unless I’m heading out on a shoot, I don’t like taking my film cameras out as they are heavy and cumbersome. After some missed photographic opportunities and a nagging feeling of guilt (photographers should always have their camera with them), I was on the lookout for something lightweight and portable, with decent image quality.

“The best camera is the one that’s with you” and my iPhone is always with me and it works well. But I never want to share anything I shoot on it, except with family and friends or sometimes Instagram Stories. I just love the process and aesthetic of film photography and it’s what keeps me interested.

When I saw Harry F Conway speaking about the portable 35mm cameras he thinks are best (on his Instagram Stories), the Pentax Espio jumped out to me for 2 reasons: I knew about all the other cameras he mentioned and my two workhorse cameras are also Pentax.

I found one on eBay for a very reasonable £20, including a new battery and a roll of film (FujiColor x24). Here are some thoughts I have from my test roll:

Detail outtake from a recent street profile shoot for Chronicles of Her.

My favourite characteristic is the quality of the image with forced flash outside, as seen in this outtake above. The nails and the dress (by Mimi Wade) accentuate this look, which reminds me of the 80s and trashy (but fun) movies.

Another thing I like is the data back, which allows the date or the time to be imprinted permanently onto the image, as seen above. It’s something I’ve always wanted – I’ve often almost bought a Canon Command Back for my main 35mm camera for this very reason. However, the years digit on the Espio only goes up to ’19 and then jumps back to ’87, so I should use this feature while we’re still living within the available year range (another 18 months). I’m also disappointed it doesn’t start at ’86 (my year of birth) so I could at least put in my birthday as a replacement signature.

It’s small enough to fit in my pocket (or a bumbag which I’ve recently taken to wearing over the shoulder) and I’ve already taken it out with me more than any other camera. I’m looking forward to testing it with film that I like better and in different situations.

The two shots above are from a pond I visited regularly as a kid. It used to be filled with tadpoles and I’d grab a few in a cup and take them home and build a mini-pond from a plastic sand pit and try to grow frogs.

I hope you have a fab weekend.

I’ve decided to keep a blog again.

I’d like a place to share my thoughts, outtakes, personal work, experiments and to keep a record of sorts.

I’m hoping it motivates me to be more proactive and positive.

I moved back to the UK with Becky in March 2017 and we decided on London (N16), a city with a greater amount of opportunities and which lacks the visa complications of Sydney. I miss Sydney and the lifestyle, but there is something attractive about living and working in London.

We’ve had an eventful 16 months since moving back: we got married in January and had memorable, long honeymoon travelling Italy in June. I’ve had some health issues since the start of the year which have set me back significantly. I might write about these things down the line if and when it feels right.

I’d love feedback and want to make this blog as transparent and interactive as possible. I hope I can make some posts that interest people.