Inflection Points

I am now well past my 60th rotation of the sun. I recently attended a former teachers funeral and this has me thinking about lots. I’m planning on posting a little more often here as a consequence. Also, I recently read over on cogdogblog ways to use a blog as an aid to your memories. This current blog only dates back to 2020. So to really get a sense of what I have done since the internet arrived in 1995  I’m listing several other blog and social media activities  that have formed part of my creative online life. As best as I can remember. Here’s a list on my static site. The idea with this post is to hopefully have an archive of this activity.

a screen grab of my blower.com page
My blogger.com page I posted a phone camera image daily , in a curated and interconnected way from 2004 to 2010

From 2004 to 2010 I blogged on blogspot.com, now a google property, and used a phonecam to achieve this. It was called s2art’s mophone photography blog. I was at the same uploading regularly and frequently to Flickr.com. Then I used tumblr for the same ends called lo-res daily. This was just before Instagram became big. The tumblr still exists but my posting frequency is spotty at best. This particular  tumblr was actually a Sub-Tumblr as I had already setup a tumblr in 2007 [s2z.tumblr.com] which mainly hosted links and other text snippets; in the beginning anyway.

A screen grab from my Tumblr page taken on 22nd of January 2024
A screen grab from my Tumblr page taken on 22nd of January 2024

Somewhere in all of this was a self hosted movable type, blog thanks to Cos. I blogged there from 2006 to 2011, thanks to the way back machine [internet archive] you can still read it.

My Movable type site archived at the internet.org
My Movable type site archived at the internet.org

Instagram became a huge focus for me around 2010. My original account is long gone however. Flickr and Tumblr at this stage were figuring highly in my life anyway. In amongst all of this were dalliances with Facebook, [I have deleted my data at least twice from that space]. Posterus, also sold and rebooted. ello.co now defunct and twitter a site that never really captured my attention. For all intents and purpose twitter has become colloquially, a ‘Hell Hole”. I still have an account there but rarely login to it.

Screengrab of my old free wordpress site
Screen-grab of my old free WordPress site

In 2015, I had setup a free worpress blog, [s2zart.wordpress.com], this I ran until 2019, I briefly switched back to blogspot.com for 2 years, then setup this blog on my own server. My concerns over ‘data’, ‘search‘ and ‘privacy’ drove this change, along with ideas about the small web which were beginning to percolate though the internet generally.

a screen grab of my pinboard.in links page taken on 22 January 2024
A screen grab of my pinboard.in links page taken on 22 January 2024

All the while I am uploading content to Flickr very frequently. Although these days not chronologically, and of course the ‘Camera roll’ part of flickr forms a part of this process these days too. [This may form the content of a future post.] Other online activities include a Mastodon account, a pixelfed account [an alternative to instagram], a public listing of links/bookmark on pinboard.in a notion website of notes links and other digital artefacts a pika micro-blogging account and a threads account.

Why I do all this has shifted since 1995 when I began, it’s now about leaving a legacy, a digital footprint if you will.

☛ Website | Flickr | Instagram | Photography links | s2z digital garden | Tumblr

Why Flickr?

North Geelong, Victoria, Australia 2022-10-26 14:12:21
North Geelong, Victoria, Australia 2022-10-26 14:12:21

Back in 2004 when I first signed up for a free flickr account I had no idea what I was doing with the service. I did know that the volume of digital files I was creating with both cameras and smartphones needed to be seen and shared. Flickr’s initial offering allowed users to create sets as they were called then and also join groups. Groups could have an obvious common theme or be rearlly obscure. JG Ballard is an obscure group, whereas Paths we walk is more obvious. These seemed to be a great way to share my work.

Deer Park, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. 2022-12-12 13:03:49
Deer Park, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. 2022-12-12 13:03:49

Outside of these ideas albums allows me to interconnect images. Historically an exhibition has an overarching idea, the work on the walls expressses this.  The viewer can choose to walk through the space and engage anyway they see fit.

North Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. 202-10-25 16:26:42
North Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. 2022-10-25 16:26:42

Albums on a site like flickr are a far more web like experience, non linear and open-ended. Each picture I post can have multiple ideas runnng though it. I achieve this by putting images in mutiple albums from a simple time based one, for the year the image was made for example, to other ideas that constantly run though my work. Some of those ideas have their roots in the Situationists and their ideas about the derive. Others explore the added metadata that can add a layer of context or meaning to an image.

Pascoe Vale, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. 2022-12-12 16:25:53
Pascoe Vale, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. 2022-12-12 16:25:53

Lastly, each image I choose to upload needs to speak to the preceding image in some way. This forms an angoing process that has me dipping into my archive regularly. The connections may be obvious, subject matter or location for example, or subtle like line, shape or composition. I treat my feed as a permanent 24/7/365 gallery. Available for all the world to see.

Deep down this does not really answer why I photograph the places I do, or even what drives me to pick up a camera. Perhaps that idea is for another day?

☛ Website | Flickr | Instagram | Photography links | s2z digital garden | Tumblr ☚

Alternative to Instagram?

Glass is setting out to fill the void that Instagram has created for photographers.

glass.photos website
will this new startup replace instagram?

I signed up for one year.

As of this writing I have 2 invites left, contact me if you’re interested. They are offering a 2 week free trial, then charge 43.99* per year.

*Aus Dollars on 2021-08-15.

☛ Website | Flickr | Instagram | Photography links | Twitter | Tumblr ☚

Weekend Notes?

Here’s a few web  links:-

☛ Website | Flickr | Instagram | Photography links | Twitter | Tumblr ☚

More thoughts on Blogging

Short form blogging as a form of note taking, thinking out loud, and public learning has taken off quietly in the last few years. I have spent some time recently reading about and  trying to setup my own disparate set of tools to do this as well.

It’s all a bit too technical right now. Some options I’ve considered are, Notion as a webpage, Voodoopad as a self constructed wiki, some suggest simply writing a html page and updating as I see fit, this is the least technical option for me and may yet take shape. At the moment I’m dropping most snippets of text, some pdfs and images into Apple’s notes app. From a search and retrieve perspective this is fine, however a digital garden is more than that. [See the links below for more on the ideas and approach to digital gardening.]

For now I have rejigged my WordPress blog in an attempt to better reflect this approach, adding a menu option in the main menu at the top for a links page. Also adding content to my about page that explains a bit about digtial gardens. I also moved categories to my sidebar to make the interconnections between my words/posts and other media seem more obvious.

Moving forward I will try to add as much link rich information as I can in each post. This will allow for some non-linear reading.  In the meantime my motley collection of links can be found on pinboard.in/u/:s2art, there is a social element there and it has a small annual fee attached, as well as a taxonomic tool for tags and organisation.

Here’s a list of articles that have been sitting in my open tabs in my browser for over a week now that have me thinking abot this idea of a digital garden.

☛ Website | Flickr | Instagram | Photography links | Twitter | Tumblr ☚

Photography & Blogging?

screen grab of final blogposts from blogger
a screen grab of the last few entries over at blogspot.com

Photography and blogging have become my two of my most pleasurable passions; well photography has been that way since 1987.

My history of blogging is not as long as some. I have been blogging using text, photography and on occasion video since the early 2000s.

As I contemplate my final days as a middle aged man, I  have been looking back over my digital footprint; consisting of some blogging and lots of photography. My time also includes some micro-blogging and  photography since 2004. I have been interested in all things web since my introduction to it in 1995.  I have  jumped and hopped from blogging service to service. The one constant? My photography.

I have used many blogging platforms and tools. I started writing blog style entries on my own website in October 2003, [A caveat these links may be broken.]

Then I blogged on blogspot from 2004 to 2010 with the lofty claim; “an online experiment in content publishing using only a mobile phone”.

I hosted a Movable type blog for a while on a server I was gifted, from August 2006, to May 2011. [Archived partially here, also many broken links] The server eventually fell over.  At some point I had started using Tumblr.com around 2007 .

Next I moved to a free WordPress account for a while 2015-2018. Then it was back to blogspot [2019-2020], and now finally here on my self hosted site.

Website | Flickr | Instagram | Photography links | Twitter | Tumblr

Elsewhere online?

Sunshine Circa 1999
Kororoit creek in Sunshine in the late 1990s

I have been interviewed by Gary over at Thought Factory, this is part one of a series of interviews Gary is undertaking. He is interviewing me and several photographers around Australia.

I was fortunate to have an extended discussion with Gary recently which was helped cement some ideas that I had not had the opportunity to contemplate before. I also created an album on flickr that demonstrates where I began with my photography.

Website | Flickr | Instagram | Photography links | Twitter | Tumblr

Tweaks, Additions, & Other News

Photobook Workshop

Next weekend I am participating in an event at the CCP around the Photo 2021 festival.

Titled, Reading Photobooks with Photobook Club Melbourne, .  Several photobook makers, academics and artists will, ask, ‘What does it mean to ‘read’ a photobook?’.  Join this meetup with Photobook Club Melbourne, and discover the new perspectives and depths of meaning that can come from exploring a photobook in a group discussion.

Photobook News

I’m considering a second edition of my book, Body Bags and other Misdemeanours for the Melbourne Art Book Fair next month.

One final thought, much has been made about Facebook’s response to the federal Government’s attempts at legislation. All anyone needs to do is subscribe to newsletters or newsfeeds of all the major media outlets and your knowledge of current events will be fresh. It’s how we did it before Facebook. It is how I am doing it right now.

Changes Afoot

I have tweaked my blog.

There is now a follow button at the top of the sidebar navigation on the right. If you want to be kept up to date on the goings on around here, just use that button.

Facebook &  The News?

I’m also wondering if I put a link to an Australian news article here then share back to Facebook what will happen. [edit, it does not work, in fact I cant even post a simple link to my blog!]

Website | Flickr | Instagram | Photography links | Twitter | Tumblr

Raw Files & the iPhone

A raft of new features were added in the recent iOs 14.3 update.

Two stand out for me.

Firstly the new Apple Raw file format. Since about 2017 or 2018 I used a 3rd party app that captured DNG files as I went. Called ProCamera. Now Apple natively supports DNG in camera.

Tap Settings.

Tap Camera.

Scroll down to formats.

Toggle Apple ProRaw on


The second is a setting about app tracking and privacy. You need to activate this setting to enable sites like Facebook to track your movements online. It is off by default. Personally I would leave it that way. More on the  Mac Rumours website
Tap settings

Tap Privacy

Scroll and tap Tracking.

Make sure the toggle is grey. No sites or apps can track your movements.

Website | Flickr | Instagram | Photography links | Twitter | Tumblr | altfotonet

Ten Years Ago Today

Ten years ago today is a series of pictures I blogged on both my old WordPress blog, and my old blogger blog.  I now also use tumblr as a separate standalone platform.

I continue this idea here on this blog, when it suits me.

This picture I made 10 years ago today on the 22-11-2020. It was part of a series I was exploring at the time, that looked at light and time. The project shifted focus when we renovated our home, and I picked it up from a different angle with a different set of parameters.

2010-11-22 19:52:52 from the facing north series
2010-11-22 19:52:52 from the facing north series

Website | Flickr | Instagram | Photography links | Twitter | Tumblr

Processed using Luminar 4.. If you use this link to purchase Luminar 4, I get some benefits.