Retrospective September 2026
Another year around the sun for me.
This month puts me on the other side of 35 as I start my 36th year. It has been a fun month of adventures, renewed progress in the photo guide, an idea that span out into a working concept for a desktop app and lots of photos along the way, We have plenty to get through so lets get into it.
Mid month thought - You're the archive creator
This is the follow on from last months something to think about as I have been thinking a lot over the last few months about all the images I have taken, where they are, how can I access them, how can others access them?
Photography is by far one of the best hobbies in my option, one of the things that makes it stand out to me is the ability for images to last the test of time through history. Go through any vintage store or the drawer or boxes of photos usually found at a family members house and there will be an absolute treasure trove. This is where the photographer in the family becomes the person in charge of creating the family archive.
City adventures
We had a big month and ended up going into the city twice for a family day out. We absolutely made the most of a toddlers adventures going on the light rail and ferries just for the fun of it. Visiting the Australian Museum as well to see the dinosaur exhibit as well as the Australian Geographic Photographer of the year exhibit which was incredible and resulted in a new photo book on the shelf. We had some very different weather on each trip so there was some very different photo results which will look really nice printed out.
Additions to the photo book library
On our city adventures this month I added 2 more books to the shelf with the Australian Geographic Photographer of the year 2026 and Joel Meyerowitz's A question of color which I have wanted for quite a while now but had never seen at a shop. Loved going through it so far and I think that I am absolutely a colour shooter.
Billingham Hadley Small Pro
I have been very lucky this year for my birthday with my family pooling in to get me a bag addition to my kit I have wanted for a while now. The best thing about it that I am so excited about is the Midnight edition which is the black FibreNyte and leather but the deep blue stitches which looks incredible.
Building a desktop app 🙃
As you may be able to tell by now I love tinkering and projects. After playing around with a few tools and not really finding what I think I wanted in my head I started tinkering around at creating a mac desktop app to scratch the itch.
It is going to be for cataloging and referencing B roll footage. So, if you're like me and have lots of video clips across a lot of different hard drives and locations this might be for you.
It doesn't have a name yet and is just a series of things I've been thinking about so if this sounds like something you would be interested in trying out I would love to hear from you, shoot me a message over on my instagram @insideframelines
Captured my interest
Mandler 50mm f1.4 Pre-ASPH - Mandler are at it again creating an M mount lens that really fits a budget and from what I have seen in the test shots looks like it really has something nice to it like the 35mm based on the KOB 35mm.I am very tempted to add a silver one to the bag.
Calibrite Color Checker turns 50! - Crazy to think that we have had the colour checker available to photographers since 1976!
Ember film app - I have been looking at going back through my film collection and rescanning a lot of my old work. I have a little Plustek 7600i which is a great little scanner but have been doing some research on new workflows as I have not really liked the conversion results using VueScan's software. Ember has been where my research has lead me and I think I will give it a little trial after I do a few frame scans and hopefully have some results to show soon.
Something to think about
Around this time of year is when I usually get to look back at the previous months and see how many things I have been working on or done through the year. Then it’s the looking towards whats left for the end of the year that can be ticked off before we cap off the year. This newsletter and more writing has been a great way of looking through the year and seeing how many things I have been doing even if sometimes it can feel like I’ve not been doing anything.
“What markers do you set through your year that you can look back at not to measure success but as a reference point for progress made? ”
Best of September 2026 Gallery
That wraps up September 2026
I feel like I am at a race to the end of the year to finish off some things I have been working on, I want to have the Scroll Stopping Photo guide finished and ready to focus on launching and talking about it more at the start of 2027, I want to have a alpha/beta or something of the like for the b roll cataloging app I have started as well.
Somewhere in between those things I would also like to scan some film, print some photos, shoot the rolls I bought in January. Who needs to rest...
See you next month,
Tom
