Hi there, and welcome to my blog. If you’re new here, I use this platform to write about my life as a writer, photographer, podcaster, partner, and parent. For those of you who have kept pace with my blogs recently, you’ll notice that I haven’t written here for many weeks. First and foremost, I’m sorry about that. I’ve been incredibly busy with work as I’ve had a lot going on. It’s also been a busy time for the family as the Doctor has had two out-of-town work events, and I’ve also had several days away from home with work. Two of our kids celebrated birthdays this month, one turning 19 and the other 23. It’s also getting to the pointy end of the year, where there’s the ever-present spectre of Christmas. Everyone is making plans and, being parents of five kids, there’s lots of shopping to be done. I’m not a massive fan of Christmas, nor is the Doctor. Given we are a family of seven, we tend to have the family over to our house for the day. It’s just logistically easier. We always have a great day with the family. Only 8 weeks to go!

The highlight of my creative month has probably been BFOP. The Bright Festival Of Photography is an annual event held in Bright, regional Victoria. While the festival has been running for eight years, and I’ve heard plenty of good things about it, this was my first year. I attended BFOP as a participant and an ambassador for Lucky Straps. It was an incredible weekend as I met many photographers with fascinating stories. I also got to spend more time with Justin (founder of Lucky Straps) and get to know him better. I trained North from Southern Cross Railways Station in Melbourne to Seymour. Justin picked me up from Seymour on his way across from Bendigo, and we drove together to Bright. It was an incredible four days of photography workshops, fun adventures, community building, and hanging with like-minded folk. I have written an in-depth piece for Shotkit detailing my adventures at BFOP, so I suggest you read it here.

Lucky Straps has also kept me busy this month with my article work for their blog and The Camera Life podcast I host each Thursday morning with Justin and Jim. During October, the podcast covered a wide range of photography topics thanks to our guests Mark (founder of Shotkit), Natalia (underwater boudoir photographer), and John (acclaimed street photographer). We also recorded a podcast to unpack our BFOP experience, and it was a lot of fun to reminisce with Justin about the many fun, challenging, and crazy things that happened over our weekend away. I love the podcast as I get to research and engage with exciting guests and talk shop with them for a couple of hours each week. If you’re interested in checking it out, take a look at The Camera Life channel. One of my key focuses with Lucky Straps is to build greater brand awareness within the photography community. That was also a big part of Justin and I attending BFOP – to soft promote the brand, get involved, and understand what we can deliver to BFOP in 2025. As a result of our time in BFOP, we got a lot of interest in the brand and also managed to snag a lot of the workshop instructors for the podcast. Since returning, I’ve been contacted by a couple of camera clubs wanting to collaborate with Lucky Straps – something we’re always happy to do. I’ve also been asked to attend future club gatherings and talk about photography, Japan, and travel.

On top of all that, I’ve been swamped testing and reviewing some new Fujifilm gear – always very exciting. I was lucky enough to get hands-on experience with the new Fujifilm XF 500mm f/5.6 lens before launch. It’s a massive pearl-silver super-telephoto prime lens with enough reach to satisfy a stalker. The trick with testing a new bit of kit while it’s under embargo is that you can’t show it to anyone else. And being such a whopping big lens, it’s hard to conceal, let alone not draw attention to yourself. Fujifilm sent me the XF 500mm f/5.6 and the flagship-level Fuji X-H2S. It was so much fun pairing these two together and marveling at the autofocus performance and output. I spent an early morning exploring the Melbourne Botanical Gardens, photographing birdlife. I also spent an afternoon at the local skate park, testing my skills at tracking fast-moving subjects.

Fujifilm also sent me the recently announced X-M5 entry-level X series camera. It’s a tiny camera with an impressive set of specifications. While it’s marketed at young, influencer-savvy creatives, I had a lot of fun testing it and pushing it to its limits. Aside from those items, I also borrowed an XF 70-300mm zoom from Fujifilm Australia to take with me to BFOP. I prefer to shoot with primes; my longest focal length is 50mm. I decided to borrow the 70-300 for Bright as I wasn’t sure if I would need something with greater reach and flexibility. While I took it away, it sat safely in Justin’s van for most of the weekend. I managed to get a couple of nice shots with it; however, I was trying to keep my bag weight down so that it didn’t cause too much strain. I used a Wandrd Prvke 21 that neatly held my two cameras and three primes – 16mm, 23mm, and 50mm.

The final bits of kit I received for review were a couple of prime manual focus lenses from Thypoch. I hadn’t heard of the brand until I was approached to review the lenses for Shotkit. I looked into Thypoch and discovered that they make gorgeous manual-focus lenses for a wide range of lens mounts, including Fujifilm X. I said yes to the review and received a Thypoch Simera 28mm f/1.4 and a Simera 35mm f/1.4. The two lenses are nearly identical and feature a superior all-aluminum build. While it took me a while to get used to manual focus, over time, the muscle memory kicked in, and I was far more confident with them. I will finish that review this week.

As you can see, there’s been a lot happening for this crusty old street photographer. Despite being so busy, I still managed to head out solo and with mates on street walks. I’ve spent most of this month with a camera in hand or photography on the brain. It’s been delightful! I love what I do and feel so fortunate that I can work in such a creative industry. I’m also relieved that my past spinal issues haven’t impacted my capacity this month. Earlier in the month, I underwent a procedure to block and reset some of the nerves at the back of my skull. They’ve been causing me constant headaches again, and it was getting to a point where I wanted to spend all day in bed. While the procedure knocked me out for a week, I am in a much better space, and the headaches have mostly receded. It’s such an uplifting feeling to not have a headache dominate my thoughts and mood. Putting all that aside, life is great, and I’m motivated to be creative and contribute to my community.