Retrospective October 2025

October in Australia usually gives us a glimpse of weather to come and this year has been no different. We’ve had cold days, incredibly hot days and cold mornings that end up being hot days with a thunderstorm in the evening to bring the temperature right back down.

One of the best things though is getting daylight savings back, the extended light lasting all the way up to 7pm now is brilliant. It brings a freshness of possibilities for what’s possible once we put Bronte to bed.

New YouTube Video: Pixels to Paper Vol.1

I did an Instagram reel that did really well and wanted to turn the format into more of a series. I have really enjoyed the printing and the idea of sharing some more insight into how the image came to be was great fun to make. It has been received really well so I have some more plans to make a few more of them.

Blog Post: Print your photos

This post goes well with the video as well. I put together a few of the videos that really inspired me with getting into printing. I wanted to make it in the hope that it would help inspire others to go out and print their photos.

Gura Gear Kiboko City Classic 18+

I got my new backpack delivered this month. I ended up going with this one from Gura Gear and I absolutely love it. I also got the City Insert as well, it just slots into the top and is more than capable of holding enough of my gear. The main part of the bag is also perfect for fitting everything I need in it, the first proper trip out it was christened as a nappy bag with some camera gear in the top…

Silly doodads a must

I was in Aldi the other day picking up some coffee beans and I got caught by their special buys section and ended up leaving with coffee beans, and this adorable little Polaroid Land camera Keychain. It now lives proudly on my Clever Supply Sidekick Pro 2L.

Captured my interest

How to Document Life with kids and staying present - This was a great read from the Moment blog and very well written by Reggie Ballesteros.

Leica EV1 - It feels like this has been a camera a lot of people are talking about with a lot of views on both sides of how they feel about it. I haven’t played with one but from just looking at a spec sheet I don’t know if I would be picking it over the M11. One amazing thing to come from it’s announcement is this video from David Imel which has an amazing visual explainer of how a rangefinder works.

Affinity relaunch - I have used Affinity for a few years now for little bits and pieces because for the amount of work I do in them I can’t justify the cost of Adobe for all those apps. When Canva bought Serif I thought it would be very interesting what they would do with the software and now we know. It’s free for all. This will be huge for Canva and I think.

Leica Leather Goods - I’ll be honest, I don’t think I will ever own any of the leather goods from Leica but if someone wants to get me an early Christmas present that film roll holder will fit perfectly in my bag.

Best of October 2025 Gallery

That wraps up October

The mad dash to the end of the year continues. Only 2 more of these newsletters to go for 2025! I have really enjoyed writing these and will be looking at how I can make any tweaks and improve going into 2026.

If you have anything you would like to see more from me in these emails drop me a line I would love to hear. Plenty of plans to commit to making more YouTube videos as well both now and into 2026.

Bye for now,

Tom