"As one considers one's pictures less, one produces fewer truly considered pictures" - Stephen Shore

For  a while now I've been a little perplexed about my photography style. It seems that I've lost the feeling. Instead of riding along on my bike and finding interest in the way the light falls on something, I merely take photos of damn near everything. The scourge of digital photography I suppose.

So I bought three 35mm SLRs and a 35mm compact.

So over a period of two weeks I picked up:

1966 Yashica TL-Super (Japan) - M42 mount, needle metered.
1979 Fujica ST605n (Japan) - M42 mount, needle metered (TTL).
1985 Nikon F-301 (Japan) - Uses all my Nikon lenses, auto-exposure, the first Nikon with auto film advance!!!
1954 Voigtlander Vito B (Germany) - Fixed 50mm F3.5, no metering, from the oldest name in cameras (Est. 1756).

And a couple of lenses:
Tokina 35mm F2.8
Yashinon 50mm F1.7
Yashikor 135mm F2.8
Yashica 200m F3.5

All up somewhere near $300 with $100 dollars worth of film processing kit in the mail.

I'm having a ball getting shots and can't wait to start developing the film!!

Had a cool (sorry, freezing) morning of cyclocross madness with JP on the trails in and around Stromlo yesterday. Then we headed out toward Burley Griffen and then into Yarralumla for some bakery. It's amazing how tranquil it can be so close to town; crisp blue skies, not a person to seen and long smooth flowing roads.

JP's new (old) Ritchey Mount Cross is a sight to be seen. Note to self, get some bike-porn photos on the next ride.

iPhone camera, not too bad if you know what it can achieve. Luckily there is also a series of applications that turn a crap camera into something a little quirky, like the Polaroid emulator. So I thought I’d post these just because they never really get include in most of my real posts. (And yep, these are all straight out of the phone, no PS manipulation).

I met my niece last weekend for the first time. Happy days!!

After my stay in Queensland earlier this year I had mixed feelings about Brisbane. Luckily that was only because I'd spent too much time the the hell hole they call Surfers Paradise. This time round I stayed smack bang in Brisbane city, with a view of the river and surrounded by 24hr a day fun. Here's some pics from my most recent stay.

On two occasions this year I have had my euro/handmade/boutique bike snobishness drowned in a shower of asian mass produced bike parts.

The first was my Christmas vacation in Adelaide when I borrowed my brother’s carbon fibre Avanti for some extended rides leading up to the 'Be In It' stage of the Tour Down Under.

I picked it up from his house then spent an hour or so adjusting and re-assembling bits and pieces in order to get the Shimano 105 working well and the bike fitting me. To tell you the truth the 105 was pretty much flawless from the get go. I left Rach's house to head up the bikeway that heads south out of Adelaide on a 9km climb into the hills. The words - stiff, light and comfortable came immediately to mind. The front end was rigid and the bottom bracket wouldn't budge. Once over the hill it was time for some speed - precise, compliant and responsive. Soon enough I was in wine country on long smooth paths in the vicinity of McLaren Vale - all day comfortable-ness.

A sub-$3000 dollar bike that rode like an absolute dream! The Tour Down Under stage saw me ride 180km through city streets, winding roads, up mountain passes and along second rate bitumen roads with 40km'h cross winds. I was impressed and somewhat bewildered.
 
Then a few weeks a go I found an ad at work for a Mongoose Randonneur for $350. It’s pretty much a road bike with large clearances and cantilever brakes, built for touring or cyclocross type riding. I bought it with not too much expectation and really because I was thinking of building the same thing and thought the parts off of this two year old $1600 (market price) bike would come in handy.

I picked it up from work and spent half an hour adjusting it so that I could meet John for a softroad ride through Bruce Ridge and Black Mountain that night.

It was.......perfect just the way it was......