Retrospective August 2025
And so starts the rollercoaster decent
Remember when I said in the July newsletter that August was the tipping point to being busy? Welcome to the start of that rollercoaster to the end of the year! I have been to a few events at Leica Sydney, made some new friends and I feel like I have made some good work.
Leica photo walk with Jesse Marlow
I went to a photo walk at the Leica store in Sydney hosted by Jesse Marlow. It was my first in person event through Leica Australia and it was fantastic. Everyone there was so lovely and the challenges set by Jesse were great and really pushed me outside my comfort zone and I came away with one hell of a shot. If you're in Australia it's worth keeping an eye on the Leica AU Eventbrite page for free events they have which are always worth checking out.
Todd Hido book signing
After coming to the photo walk I kept in touch with Jesse and he told me about the book signing event with Todd Hido which I immediately booked. I came away from that night with a new perspective of my own work. It also sparked some vision in photographing my own Todd Hido inspired image in the backyard.
I also came away from the night with now just one but 2 books. I bought the limited edition version of Jesse Marlow’s book ‘Don’t just tell them show them’
Leica Visoflex
I have thought about adding a Visoflex to the bag for a while and getting the 135mm lens really did push me over the edge. I know this accessory cops a heap of flack for being incredibly pricey for it's spec sheet as a viewfinder, I agree as well. But I do think that it does add a level of versatility to both wide/long lenses and also allowing some assistance in tricky lighting situations.
Video making
As part of the print making I have been putting some effort into making a video from when I was printing one of my favourite images from my Honeymoon trip to Queenstown, New Zealand.
Printing
The printing bug has well and truely taken hold and I absolutely love seeing my work in a physical medium. I picked up some Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag in 5x7" and A4 to start with. I have some A3+ size in a shopping cart and will be adding that to the kit very soon.
New case
I love cases for having my gear all in one place. Pelican cases are beautiful and I think the TrekPak insert looks like an awesome system and being able to customise setups through places like Color Case has been super tempting. Having said all of that Bunnings Warehouse (The greatest place in the world, fight me) has cases that look like they would raise the eyebrow of copyright lawyers under their white label brand. The intention of this case for me is to be a catch all for my gear where everything sits.
My wife is an incredible artist. She is stuck reading this and has no say in me bragging about how good her work is. It has always been a passion of hers and in the last few years she has been really getting back into drawing, painting and using the iPad to create some incredible work. Our printer purchase was also made to produce her work and we have been printing/photographing things for her new site and the prints are available through her Etsy as well.
Captured my interest
Rediscover Your Photography Mojo and Learn to Print with Fotospeed - Going down the print rabbit hole has been so interesting and Fotospeed have a great YouTube channel and blog with lots of resources as well.
DJI Mic 3 - The new mic from DJI really has come at such a strange time in the timeline of their mics. I have the original DJI Mic's and they have been super usefully in a number of situations I have worked on. I then bought the DJI Mic Mini to use with my Osmo Pocket 3. The Mic Mini came out after the DJI Mic 2 which was an improved version of the initial DJI mic. The DJI Mic 3 seems to have come out of nowhere and feels like a replacement for the Mic Mini (I feel slightly short changed).
The Quiet Melodrama of Todd Hido’s Photographs - If you're wanting more of a deep dive on how he thinks this is a very good read.
Best of August 2025 Gallery
That wraps up August
That really was a busy month. Some work I am very proud of in there and also very happy I am getting to go to a few more events and meeting new people which has been great. The prints have been a really great addition to my work and I will be putting some prints that I made up for sale very soon. If you want to get your hands on one shoot me a message.Bye for now,
Tom
