How is it Halloween and Christmas at the same time?
I think October has been the busiest month of the year so far, it feels like I was writing Septembers retro yesterday. There has been a lot of events, gadgets, and new things, we have a lot to get through.
Mid month thought: Sharing what we know
I have always loved sharing my knowledge and this thought dives a bit into my feelings about this and how I think we should really share as much as we can with those who want to learn.
Dungeon Crawler Carl
I have been inundated with book series to start reading and this month while browsing a bookshop I bit the bullet. That first book lasted 6 days and the second lasted another 6… I just ordered the third book so here's to the next 6 days.
‘Meet me in the lobby’ takeover by Measured Guide
This was a bar takeover at the Ace Hotel by Measured Guide. My good friend Scott who goes by Poured by design told me about it and I was in. Having some incredible martinis and meeting Thurman from Measured who is an incredible person and so knowledgeable about the world of cocktails. Next time he is in Sydney I am sure there will be a few more Martinis had.
New Billingham Bag
For my birthday this year I was very lucky to get this variant of the Hadley Small Pro. I have wanted the small size for a while now but was never settled on the colour variant until I saw this Midnight version. So far it's been on a few outings and is absolutely the perfect size for my current setup and I look forward to seeing how the midnight edition ages through the years.
I have a decent sized film archive of film I have shot over the years and have scanned them on different scanners I have owned. The Plustek 7600i that I have paired with VueScan has never really jelled with me for results. I have talked to a few people about Ember after seeing it around and worked out how I could fit it into my workflow. The results have turned out incredible and I think I found a huge key to my workflow for film scanning now.
Sony TG-1 Camcorder
Camcorder dad is BACK BABY! Ebay struck again and came in the beautiful form of a Sony TG-1 from 2008. This beautiful titanium wrapped beauty records in glorious 1080i with a gorgeous 10x zoom lens from Carl Zeiss. Other notable features are one of the craziest macros I have ever seen on a camcorder and face detect, that's right FACE DETECT in 2008!
Photographer in focus: Landon Nordeman
Back at a Leica talk again at the Sydney store seeing a few familiar faces and hearing about the work and career of Landon who has some amazing stories and incredible bodies of work that are well worth a look. Currently up in the gallery are some incredible images from Todd Hido which are always worth a visit for.
The iPhone Duo (Not mine)
My boss got his iPhone Duo on the day of release so I got to look at it and have a little play around, It's very novel device. But as a software developer has experienced in the last couple of weeks, novel means pain when you translate it to software.
I need a new browser
As of December 22nd Arc browser is going to shut down and not function anymore. This means I have several Arc tabs open dedicated to alternatives to replace the thing I am looking to replace. The joys of loving technology…
Captured my interest
iPad Mini A20 - This looks like a very nice upgrade to an already tempting device, with a super slim design.
Touch screen MacBook Pro - Another device but an interesting change with the first time seeing a touch screen on the MacBook line. While I think the new screen is a very cool addition the idea of fingerprints on the screen are not great.
Something to think about
“No one moment is most important. Every moment can be something. ”
I heard this quote while at Landon's event at the Leica store and it hit me like a truck. This feels so relatable to the changes in how I think about photography and moving to capture more of my everyday rather than focused photography trips. I think it's also a perfect way to think about creating bodies of work that tell a story and connect to each other as you move through them.
“Looking through your own catalog what small moments connect and build on a bigger story?”
Best of October 2026 Gallery
That wraps up October 2026
Well if the decoration of the supermarkets are anything to go by Christmas is now here and November just merges into December I guess? There are still things I want to finish before the end of the year but the slow wind down is very much starting now.
See you next month,
Tom
