Category: Daily Post

Captain’s log, 06:10 AM, 4th of June 2025.

Its cold today but no as cold as the previous week. The winter here tends to have days where it gets extra cold. Or it could be us getting used to the cold until nature cranks it up a notch.

This morning I decided to take my camera with me. The past few weeks haven’t good for me photography wise. My motivation / discipline / passion isn’t there. I’m spending more time reading about photography and photographers than actually doing photography¹.

I’ve mentioned it before and you might have experienced this yourself. The auto-focus of a compact isn’t always the best. It might be time catching up with my Kodak or I am just too used to how quickly a DSLR can find focus.

With this being said I decided:

Why not use this disadvantage to my advantage? Why not use the second, perhaps two where the camera struggles to find focus? Press the shutter button and as soon as the screen goes dark, indicating it is in the process of capturing, move the camera.

When I’m out taking photos I’ll rarely stop to look at what I’ve captured. One because the little LCD on the back of a camera tends to lie. Two I don’t have time to stop and check – I am on my way to work so I’m a bit crunched for time.

I suspect the difficulty to focus comes down to the lack of proper lighting. I turn the flash off and this time of the mornings there aren’t much light. Sun has not yet risen.

The next image is one of my favorites. I am walking downhill here. The house at the bottom is on the edge of a small stream. It is fed by a small lake further to the right of the image. This ‘valley’ is a prime spot for fog and it gets really cold in the winters because of the water.

At the bottom of this hill I take a right turn and head towards town. This stretch of road runs through agricultural holdings. This is one of the houses I find along the way.

On my home I decided why not try this ‘technique’ again and see what happens when it is sunset VS sunrise.

The image above is close to home. Morning & evening photography gives you great silhouettes. Except for the crop and the resize on these images they are SOOC.

I like this last one for two reasons. The self-imposed shaky effect and the orange & yellow of the sunset. Winter sunsets are my favorite. Yeah it’s cold once the Sun starts to dip but it disappears you can marvel at these types of sunsets.

Moral of the story.

Just because your camera isn’t the best, newest, fastest with auto focus doesn’t mean you can’t take interesting photos. Apart from the auto focus I find these images have a bit more “grain” in them. I don’t think grain is the right term but it looks grainy. Probably has more to do with the low resolution or something.

Take your camera and do something weird. Shoot with different, not-your-normal settings. Shoot where there is no light. Or shoot where there is too much. Experimentation is part of the photography journey. You don’t make cool images by just sticking to the beaten path.

In closing.

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Thanks for reading

1. It isn’t necessarily a bad thing considering the quality of images & writings I find on Substack.

‘Weekend’ has no meaning for me.

This is probably the only thing I miss from my time at school – having two days in a row off.

I’ve spent a few evenings this week taking some photos for my Apartment project. This is one of my favorites. I like the left side of the photo. The open window with a blueish tint and the orange & red windows next to it. Asking questions like what is happening here tonight. Or winding down for the evening.

I was fortunate to capture these images as the government is sponsoring power outages in the form of load shedding. If you aren’t familiar with this and you’d like to see the reaction of South Africans to this check out their X profile.

This is a photo I took back in 2022.

I’ve been spending a lot of time looking through my photos I took a few years ago. Mostly for sentimental reasons but also to see what I did back then when I got started with photography.

I took some photos during the COVID pandemic and I’m busy with something around those images. I’d like to see other photographers work around this – not the popular ‘togs but the snapped-this-on-my-phone type stuff. How the everyday Joe & Jane experienced it. If you’ve got something in this line I’d like to see it, feel free to share a link here or on Substack.

Thanks for reading : )

It’s been a while since I went to a gym.

Somewhere in April 2024 I went for the final time [ based on my gym contract ]. A two year path had come to an end. I started lifting weights and training at 16. Nothing too serious but I was in fairly good shape.

Going to the gym was another one of those “out of the comfort zone” things for me. Introverted person going into a space where extroversion is the name of the game. The guy with the biggest muscles standing in his tank flexing. The three guys I see each morning working out together – motivating one another to get that final rep in.

Long story short I started lifting weights again yesterday. Just bicep curls and single arm rows.

But my story isn’t about gym or exercises. Nope. It’s about starting.

Starting [ your thing ] is a difficult thing. Uncertainty. Will I succeed? What will my friends, family think? I will look like a complete beginner. People will laugh at me. All these are thoughts which go through the minds of tons of people starting out. I know because they went [ and still do ] through my mind when I went to the gym three years ago.

They went through my mind on the first morning I went out with my camera to start taking photos of the streets. They taunted me as I started my Substack. And when I bought my domain earlier this year and launched my website.

Looking back.

The best thing about starting is the part where you look back.

Hundreds of hours in the gym. Thousands of reps. More than 100 newsletters published. 38 posts. Thousands of photos taken. It is quite possible that you won’t believe how far you have come. We don’t really consider the journey, although we should. We tend to think about goals and achievements as a two part race.

The beginning and the end.

The part in between is just a important. It is where you reflect and look back. Where you take stock and look forward. These things, exercise, photography, writing they don’t really end. It’s a continuous thing. You summit one mountain and then see another in the distance.

Rinse and repeat.

Take a look at your own journey. No matter what you’re doing be glad you started. Keep putting in the reps. Day by day, line by line.

It will pay off.

Thanks for reading : ) If you felt inspired, motivated or enjoyed what you read consider supporting my work. I have a Paystack payment page in the side bar on the right. Alternatively please share my work or follow me on Substack.

It’s Thursday 1 May.

I’m sitting outside a small takeaway business in the town where I live. Because of the public holiday I only worked half-day which meant I had some time to spare.

Earlier in the week we decided to have smash burgers & chips for lunch. Double smash burgers. I have worked in the hospitality industry before and I can tell you stories about what happens in a kitchen.

I was pleasantly surprised by the food. Delicious burgers and a nice portion of chips (fries).

I try to support the smaller businesses in the area. The ones which were started years ago and are now being run by sons or daughters. The ones which compete with the big corporation who earn billions a year. Who doesn’t care if they send you a bad product because they can just refund you. Or who doesn’t care if you have a bad experience with their staff because you’re just a number. You won’t be missed if you leave.

The small business tends to have an overload of customer service.

Because the small business doesn’t move the same volume they need to rely on other methods to retain customers. Yeah, good product is definitely a must but good product minus people with manners aren’t going to do you any good.

I’ve always done this when possible. Big business doesn’t need more money. They have enough and they way they treat customers shows it.

End rant.

In part inspired by Mr Werkheiser. And the other part by big business being a bunch of tools.

Thanks for reading : )