Hi, and welcome back to my blog, where I muse over my life as a photographer, writer, podcast host, gamer, partner, parent, and regular watcher of far too many Dash Cam YouTube videos. I can’t help it. There’s something really soothing about watching them with the volume off and adding my own commentary. I especially like the Instant Karma Dash Cam episodes where drivers act like dickheads and then the police swoop in to spoil their dickheaded-ways! Enough about that! Let’s talk photos!

If you’ve been playing along at home, you will have noticed that I have increased the content I am putting out on this site. I am going through a bit of a process to create more images, and as such, more posts here to share those images and my experiences in taking them. Last year, I barely wrote and published two blogs, and even those blogs were written reluctantly – perhaps to justify paying for a site and domain. I have started 2026 with a fresh perspective and a desire to return to regular personal writing about my life and times as a visual creative. So far so good. I have really enjoyed the challenge of planning and writing new blog posts. I have planned many potential and definite blog articles over the coming months, and, as I have always done, I want to fill them with the fruits of my photographic labour.

As it turns out, I recently caught up with a friend for a Sunday stroll through the Melbourne CBD. It was a pretty amazing morning, one I will certainly cherish. I grew up in the outer burbs of Melbourne and attended a pretty bland high school during the 80’s. I really didn’t enjoy my high school years and struggled to see the importance of it all – especially in my senior years. The flip side to that was the amazing friend group I had, including people I went to school with and those I only socialised with after school hours. One of the standout friends from high school was Luke. We were pretty close, and together we found our love of photography… and our homebrew bear! I often tell the story of how my friend and I built a darkroom in the bathroom of his parents’ home. It had all the plumbing we needed, so we installed some benches, and our film-processing equipment sat upon them. Below, we set up our homebrew and managed to make quite a few successful batches of lager. Luke and I had countless experiences together, sharing travel, photography, camping, and consuming plenty of beer. I moved away from my home base when I was 20, and Luke and I (having had a serious disagreement) moved apart and inevitably fell out of touch.

Fast-forward 30 years, and we have connected once again. We’ve been chatting on social media a bit and recently caught up, meeting face-to-face for the first time in over three decades. We met up in Melbourne at Flinders Street Railway Station early on a Sunday morning. It was amazing to see Luke, and we embraced before aimlessly wandering into the depths of Melbourne’s CBD in search of good coffee. We crossed Flinders Street, headed up Degraves St, before stopping in Centre Place for a coffee, breakfast, and time to chat and catch up on what’s been happening for each of us. With a full belly and the coffee kicking our brains into gear, we strolled all over Melbourne talking about the past and stopping here and there to take a shot. Luke remains a photographer, and he has maintained this art form throughout his life.

On this particular street walk, I carried my Fujifilm X70. Launched in February 2016, the X70 is a compact, fixed-lens digital mirrorless camera that I’ve owned and shot with since its release. The compact camera boasts an all-metal body, a flip-up/down touchscreen, and captures gorgeous images rich in Fujifilm colour science. The camera packs a Gen 1 16.3MP X-Trans CMOS II APS-C sensor, X Processor 1, and a 77-point autofocus system. The fixed lens is a Fujinon 18mm (28mm Full-Frame equivalent) with a reasonable f/2.8 maximum aperture and a leaf-shutter mechanism. And when I say it’s compact, it truly is at 113 x 64 x 44mm and weighing just 340g. It’s an amazing street photography camera, given its compact, unassuming size, wide-angle view, and rich image quality. I love it and have told the family that when my time is up, I am to be buried with it!

On this particular walk, I carried the Fujifilm X70 in my hand with a Lucky Straps Deluxe Leather Wrist Strap. The strap is strong yet comfortable, providing greater comfort and security on walks. Aside from that, I wore a small 2.5L Bellroy Sling packed with a couple of spare batteries, an SD card, my wallet, keys, and phone. The kit was lightweight, and I still had room in my sling to carry the X70 if I needed to. Given that the X70 lacks an EVF or OVF (Electronic Viewfinder or Optical Viewfinder), I had to shoot from the flip-out touchscreen. That, in itself, is a marvel, given that it was the first Fujifilm X Series camera to boast a touchscreen interface. I can shoot from the hip and quickly adjust my focus point with a touch. The overall shooting experience with this little touch camera is amazing. It’s a joy to shoot with, and the image quality is compelling, sharp, rich, and has a character of its own.

Luke and I enjoyed our stroll through Melbourne’s laneways and streets, and we also took some time to drop down into the newly finished Metro Tunnel Town Hall Station. Thankfully, given it was a Sunday and Melbournians are reluctantly accepting of their new train network and stations, it was actually pretty quiet with not many people around. This made for the perfect opportunity to grab some architecture shots without human distractions in the frame. We ended our street walk back at Flinders Street and warmly said our goodbyes. We agreed it was wonderful to catch up, and we look forward to seeing each other again soon. It was such an emotional experience for both of us, and it was amazing how natural it felt to fall back into conversation, to reminisce, and to grieve for the lost time. What’s more, it was so much fun to get out and shoot like we used to when we were a couple of young idiots out and about with our cameras. I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to rekindle our friendship and create new memories and stories together. G