Please do not worship me, but I just wound up a dish cloth tightly and whipped a fly to its death.

Age groupings

Imagine being on the Q train from Brooklyn into Manhattan, a regular Tuesday morning in September 2001, the train comes above ground and the World Trade Towers are just on fire then it sinks underground again and you don’t know what’s going on.

Snapper Rocks

One of my earliest memories - and there's only a few from this traumatic time in my life - is watching my new step-mother, Selena, pile up all of our childhood photos, memories of my mother, and the family before Selena arrived, and burn them in the backyard. It was quite ceremonial and I imagine it must have felt quite nice for her. But I've always wondered what the significance was.

Burning the photos didn't make my mother burn, despite her absence at the time, but it wasn't until later in life that I recognised what she was burning: my story.

My first camera was a Nokia 7600 with an almighty 0.3 megapixel sensor and the magic of capturing photos overcame me.

Which leads me to today.

I make photos today, they're ok, but I'm really interested in discovering how photos matter to people, how my photos can matter to people, and if they would.

My plan

The plan is to document these learnings, what I've experienced and learned so far, dive into equipment, techniques, and talk about money, in an email/blog called "Shudder Speed" and you can subscribe, all free, shudderspeed.co

I'll share what I've learned, ask questions of my friends that are practising photographers, and reach out to strangers to ask the same questions.

Sometime in the next decade or so maybe I'll figure out how to make photos that matter to people other than me, and I'd love to drag you along for the ride.

I've been lucky enough to create weddings all over the globe and I've been trying to make photos that matter that entire time. Generally speaking I've been mostly unsuccessful at reaching this goal, but the few times one of my photos has mattered to someone will be documented in upcoming emails.

I'm still creating weddings and elopements, and intend to continue until people stop asking me to.

How do floorboards work?

Like, if your toddler vomits and there’s vomit between the floorboards, is that no longer my responsibility now that it’s out of my paper towel’s reach?

What are the floorboard rules?

Real talk fam, are people really paying $50 or $75 a month for LinkedIn?

A little demo of Adobe Photoshop 2022’s Neural filter on one of my photos

Qantas: Yeah, look, there's been a slight delay with your flight, you're going to be four weeks late …

I hope one day I can look back on my life and say I was wrong more than I was right.

That will mean I wasn’t on the sidelines, but I was on the field, fighting, having a go. I’ll not be proud of being wrong, but admitting it when I am.

That distinctive, earthy odour that is associated with rainfall is called petrichor. When raindrops land on a porous surface, air from the pores forms small bubbles, which float to the surface and release aerosols. Such aerosols carry a scent as well as bacteria and viruses from the soil. The scent is called petrichor.

Via the very good Dense Discovery email.

“I heard that Warren Buffett addresses the early drafts of his shareholder letters to his sister, Dorothy. Once he finishes it, he replaces her name with "Shareholders."

The lesson: Writing for a huge audience is a fast track to getting writer's block, so write for one person instead.”

via Monday Musings

How I’m feeling through this season:

“Each time you stopped, you would descend into a depression, believing that you had hit a wall and lost the ability to work, that you would never work again.”

From: The life and the work are equally important - by Shaun Usher

Can you believe that we’ve turned Australia off and on again a few times, but we still have this silly Melbourne Cup virus running around our system.

Surely after the last two years we could of learned how to get drunk and eat roast chicken without needlessly killing horses?

Boy, am I feeling this after the last two years of hell in my business.

Tim Ferriss tells the crowd at South by Southwest in 2007 that:

“their professional lives were unsustainable, and that they should consider doing something more interesting with their time.”

I've never been more interested in quitting work and becoming that crazy man that lives in the bush.

Netflix says 142 million households have watched Squid Games. Wikipedia says there are 2,178 million “households” in the world. So, 6.5% of the households have seen the most popular Netflix show ever.

You don't need to win everyone, you just need to win a few. Be unpopular. Be niche.

People across the liberated democracy of Australia celebrate as they are now liberated to visit other countries muted cheers as everyone realises they've got to go through LAX customs in a few hours

“I just want to fucking make it one more day.”

– Dave Grohl on Foo Fighters, His Memoir, Life After Nirvana in Vulture

Chinghee Creek on a Saturday Night for Travis & Christie

“Some people die at 25 and aren't buried until 75.”

Benjamin Franklin

Rob Bell on the comments section

Not in a million years could I of imagined Miley Cyrus, Elton John, WATT, Yo-Yo Ma, Metallica’s own Robert Trujillo on bass + Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith on drums covering Nothing Else Matters - and that I’d love it.

Remember that time that the Black Eyed Peas hadn't hit the big time yet, but when they did they had to re-record one of their songs? I'm prepping for a wedding I’m DJing tonight and wondering how people would react if I pulled out the OG.

On @danilic's prompting I've installed DaVinci Resolve and am trying it for the first time this morning. I don't know what this does but I am frightened at how it could edit me.

My favourite macOS Monterey feature is the bug when you spread your four fingers to expose (Mission Control) the Desktop but the Desktop isn't usable to drag and drop onto, or into folders.

Luna’s learning the ancient story of Saint Vincent de Paul, the mysterious saint that roams the homes of naughty children taking their favourite toys to sell them for a gold coin.

The most fascinating grave in Hollywood

Friday sunrise at Snapper Rocks

Corporate headshots don’t have to look like you were just dragged in front of a photographer to get a photo for the website.

Created for Lightning Broadband.

Zuckerberg chose Meta over Oasis?! That’s $100 to the bookies I’ll never get back.

Dreading the day that I see in VR a friend commit real-life suicide in the middle of a metaverse flame-war because they’re antivax or think pineapple on pizza is important.

It’s super cute when people talk about national debt like it’s not a completely made up concept, not a scientific force of nature like gravity.

Sunrise elopement at The Calile Hotel this morning

Sorry sir, I am all out of way

It’s hot, damn hot. If you're getting married when it's hot: 1) Bring cold water, so much flipping water, 2) Get married as late in the day as your venue and photographer will let you, 3) find the shade, for the love of god put us in the shade.

All of my Apple devices are upgraded and now there's a openthread.thread.home.arpa on my network. Nest Smoke Alarms, or HomePod Minis?

FCKGW-RHQQ2-YXRKT-8TG6W-2B7Q8. 20 years of Windows XP #neverforget

Monday afternoon in Burleigh Heads

Luna’s birthday week comes to a close. Now we have 51 weeks of mourning until her fourth birthday celebrations can begin.

When Apple started using the phrase “there’s an app for that” in 2009, they were definitely not thinking of an app that simulates a cat purring on your lap being released today.

Uh, oh, watch out petrol cars, the Chief Health Officer is coming for ya!

Panic’s Cabel Sasser shares a prototype original iPod on the iPod’s 20th birthday.

Steve Jobs’s resume:

“I’m looking for a fixer-upper with a solid foundation. Am willing to tear down walls, build bridges, and light fires. I have great experience, lots of energy, a bit of that ‘vision thing’ and I’m not afraid to start from the beginning.”

My Kindle Oasis is starting to get a bit long in the tooth, almost four years old and it’s battery barely lasts a day or two.

Is there a new Oasis on the cards or do I just replace it, considering the battery is non-replaceable?

“I’ve long thought that the destruction of time in which to think – and do nothing else – is a much more massive problem than anyone cares to think about, nor has time to.”

M.G. Siegler in his email today, and then links to his 2015 piece: The Death of Thought.

Just some personal news, I’ve decided that I know about the same amount about epidemiology, public health policy, firearms, the movie industry, bushfires, human rights, sexuality, religion, climate, and nuclear submarines.

But if you want any ideas on which MacBook to buy 🤙🏼

Facebook’s algorithm automatically sent a bot “full-on Qanon” within 48 hours.

One day I’ll write an essay about how the Facebook algorithm’s tendency to send people this way has made my life rather painful.