Retrospective July 2026
New financial year, new me
Happy new financial year for all those that celebrate it. This month has some fun updates and things that have been happening, and a new section so lets dig in.
Mid month thought - Creativity in repetition article
This months mid month is a bit of a reflection on my weekly commute to work and how repetition can be a great source of honing how you see things and react to the same spots under different lighting conditions and times of day.
Frames from the weekend project
I have been putting together instagram carousels of late that are sets of images from our weekend adventures and it’s turning into a bit of a project really the more I see them. I am going to put together a page on the website to keep as a grouping of them all but I feel that this will really help and further my skills in storytelling and learning better sequencing . I have been using SCRL for building out these Carousels as well and it has been good fun.
Print from Iain
What feels like an eternity ago now I sent a print over to Ian Farrell host of Prime Lenses Podcast and the other day I received a present in the mail which was a very nice surprise. This beautiful black and white image he took of Scotland being very Scotland over Loch Ness. I also got a prime lenses sticker and pin which will go into the collection as well!
In Good Company Launch
I remember when I started doing my newsletter one thing I also listed that I wanted to do more of was spend more time in person with the photo community and build out more people I know. There hasn’t been enough of that lately it has all been through Instagram but the launch date has been announced for In Good Company Aus which is the project of Nathan Hyratt and Visuals by Maz looking to connect the local community. I am super excited for the launch so keep an eye out or next months update on it.
Pokémon Fire Red
I am in a big nostalgia binge on this game at the minute. Not quite the original game I played which was the original Pokémon Red. Never the less we get the the remake of the original game with the quality of life improvements we got from the gen III games. It has been a very nice little break from the modern internet and being able to go back to a connectionless game that is pure nostalgia from when I played it.
Another fun adventure with the little dad crew I have off to the iconic Henson oval in Marrickville for the 10th anniversary of more nostalgia spending and afternoon on the hill, drinking beer, watching footy and eating food. There was even some wrestling thrown in for good measure.
Odyssey in IMAX
I went on an end of financial year event with work where we managed to get tickets to the IMAX in Sydney which is well worth the effort if you can get a seat. I plan on seeing it again with Verity as she did say she would like to watch it as well, I think we will try and see a Projected 70mm screening of that at the Ritz in Sydney.
Verity Makes product photography
Design and development of new and improved Christmas products for my wife’s new store has been in full swing this month getting to the point where I can start photographing them before they end up on the website. As with most of the setups I have gone the simpler the better with them to really bring out naturally how good these are. As always for my product photos, the trusty Panasonic Lumix S1 with the Laowa 58mm f2.8 2x macro.
Captured my interest
Aphera RAW Editor – A new editor built to run natively on Mac immediatly caught my eye when I started reading about this and with the release I have been looking closer at it to see if it would make a viable alternative to Lightroom, the quest of a 0 Adobe life continues.
Stow by Lumira Studio – I love utility pieces of software like this one from Lumira Studios, knowing if cards are safe to format is always something I stress about so a little cross check beforehand is a welcome addition to the toolkit.
How to Fix Your Website as a Solo Photographer and Filmmaker – This is a great article to spark a bit of introspection on your own website, or if you’re thinking about a new one something you could go through as considerations for what it needs.
Something to think about
I have a new section for you all! When I was listening to the Prime Lenses Podcast episode with Mike Chudley and him talking about the process of creating his new book Find Your Focus and the weekly chat about different thoughts revolving around photography. I loved this concept and wanted to find more ways to think more in-depth about a subject or a topic. So as the first one I have for you is this. I would love to hear your thoughts on it so hit me up on my Instagram.
“How are you changing your perspective on being creative and creativity in the current landscape of AI?”
Best of June 2026 Gallery
That wraps up July 2026
It’s been quite a busy month all in all with the different things going on, I would love to hear your feedback on the new section as well. I am going to keep carrying on as I can already feel the slow tip starting to happen as we move towards the end of the year.
See you next month,
Tom
