Thoughts and musings on everything…and nothing…
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Invisible
You may never read this. These words may well remain simply in this notebook, undiscovered, unread, never seen by mortal eyes other than my own. So why write it, you may ask? Well, is it not in the nature of man to record his thoughts, to journal his life? I’ve never really kept a diary,…
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On writing about mental health…
I’ve been staring at the blinking cursor on a blank page for almost half an hour now. I’ve managed the first few steps in finally getting around to writing about my mental health; I’ve set aside time, away from distractions; I’ve made a fresh pot of coffee; I’ve gathered and read through some of the…
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Another chapter…
A couple of months ago I was asked to write “my story.” That may seem an odd thing to be asked; I’m not a celebrity, not a renowned sports player, business mogul, or community activist. In many ways there’s nothing remarkable at all about me or about my story. And yet we all, each one…
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Out and about with the Samsung Fino 105 Super QD
Are the best things in life free? One benefit that comes from having a hobby like photography is that people will sometimes just give you their old, unwanted cameras, completely gratis. That’s how I ended up with the Samsung Fino 105 Super QD – the “QD” simply standing for “quartz date,” a feature of photography…
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Another charity shop find: the Pentax IQZoom EZY-80 Date.
Mention the name “Pentax” in a conversation and any photographers within earshot will come to attention – that’s how iconic and loved the brand is and has been for quite some time. The Pentax K1000, a fully manual SLR from the 1970s, still manages to make many of the top ten lists of 35mm film…
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Analogue fun for less than a tenner? It’s still possible.
I got into cheap film photography a couple of years ago, and I only wish it’s something I’d tried much sooner. I’m of an age where I can remember film photography as being a part of my childhood; my parents, like many families in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, captured moments over the years using…
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My latest 99p camera – the Akica KR-737.
Never heard of Akica cameras? You’re not alone: I struggled to find out much information about my most recent 99p eBay point-and-shoot purchase. But then that was never the point of my little hobby, and it certainly wasn’t something I thought about when I placed a bid on it. It was simply one of many…
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It’s a Minolta, but is it any good? The Minolta AF-E II
A while back, before the pandemic and the subsequent lockdown, I had been popping into charity shops on the lookout for old cameras, and this is one I think I bought towards the start of this year. To be honest I’d forgotten all about it, and indeed the roll of film I managed to get…
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The Vast of Night – an enjoyable homage to classic sci-fi.
I didn’t know what to expect when I sat down to watch “The Vast of Night” – I’d read no reviews, had seen no trailers, but I was vaguely aware of the buzz it had created on the internet. Looking for something to watch last night on Amazon Prime, I selected it without much thought. …
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The Zenit 11: A Very Satisfying Soviet era SLR
My journey into film photography started off with a few simple point-and-shoot cameras, with next to no manual control. I wasn’t really sure that I was ready to try anything much more complicated than that, and I was definitely keeping to a strict budget. But when I came across this hefty SLR, complete with case…
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The Erratic Pen 