Retrospective January 2026

Now call me crazy but didn’t I just send out the December retrospective and tell you all to have a great time? How has January come and gone already? The whirlwind has continued for me as you will see below. I have very much hit the ground running and I know its going to be a very busy but very good year.

Writing more: Substack, Newsletter

This month I published my first mid-month post you might have seen. It was also the first new piece that went onto my Substack as well.

I found the writing process for having a much tighter scope of a single longer form thought quite refreshing and have a few ideas scribbled down for future ones so keep an eye on your inbox.

Arca Swiss baseplate for the M10

I finally bit the bullet and then ordered something I’ve been looking at for months and months. Every camera I have owned has always had a baseplate with an Arca rail built into it, it makes life so convenient to not think about tripod plates and having to remember them.

This one isn’t the IDS or Kamerakraft one. I found this model on eBay by YuWoodGrip, it shipped quickly and is really well fitting on the M10, it also came with a spare set of magnets for the quick release battery door and the base to tell the camera that there is a base on it which is a really nice touch.

New job

After a redundancy in the last week of November and chats just before everyone went on Christmas break and then our families busy run of Christmas and then my daughter's birthday on January 1st.

Spinning up conversations again once people started coming back from their holidays, it was all a bit of a whirlwind. I’m very happy to say that I have a new job, and I’m very excited to return to regularly scheduled programming.

There will be more of a juggle with this being my first hybrid role with everything previous to this being fully remote. The office looks back on some iconic views of the Sydney CBD so expect some pretty stunning B roll in future videos and my IG stories.

New Videos

They have been recorded and won’t be out by the time this hits your inbox which means I haven’t published my 2 videos for the month but I did record them! I even recorded them on 2 different setups in the same day!

Keep an eye our for vol.2 of Pixels to Paper and another video that is a bit of a retrospective of the year creating more in the open and getting more out there.

Hands on with the Nikon ZR

This has very much been an opportunity I have grabbed literally with both hands. I got a ZR on loan from Nikon AU for just a weekend and I will be shooting by the time this newsletter comes out but I will have some more thoughts and hopefully some results from it for you in the next newsletter, keep an eye on my Instagram though for more.

Captured my interest

• Fujifilm Instax Mini Evo Cinema: I put this one on the list early on in the month as it was just released and honestly much like the X-Half I think the shine has come off a little to what it was going to be in my head. I would love to get hands on with one but I don’t think I will be parting with the astonishing $600 AUD asking price (I had to look up the price and thought it was a mistake…)

• Incredible photojournalism: In crazy events one thing I always love to see is the people that put themselves in the scene to capture and share whats going on. I have always loved photojournalism and I think this image will win awards for sure.

• Red dot Casio: This was very nearly a straight to cart purchase but I held myself back. I love the stuff that PPP Camera has been creating and this is just another tinkerers dream and would look great on the wrist next to my M10…

• Printing starting guide: A great little guide of considerations for getting into printing your own photos at home.

• Firmware: This article really caught my attention as someone who has always been keen on looking at new features and things that get shipped but also working in software so versioning and moving software forward is very much part of my day to day. This one could be something I go a bit more in depth on a mid month thought email so keep your eyes peeled.

• Vimeo’s woes: Great timeline of things just going from bad to worse for Vimeo, honestly looking through it there appears to be a lot of self inflicted injury in where they’re at.

Best of January 2026 Gallery

That wraps up January 2026

So as we can see we’re off to a big start for 2026 already, and it’s only going to get bigger. I really want to keep going the way I was through last year and create some more on top of that so you will be seeing a lot more of me in the coming months!

Bye for now,

Tom