A Random Folder
Looking through my files for a specific time I was thinking to write about, I found this folder called “Random.” So I decided to have a look at it and explore what was inside.
What would have made me call it random? And what I found was kind of interesting and random indeed. Turns out I had stumbled across an old backup of photographs from almost 15 years ago.
The folder contains a strange combination of iPhone 4 photos, DSLR photos, and other bits that walked me back through those steps from long ago.
Mine is the little one on the left… it wasn’t Canon yet at that time.
What did I see? Well, not talking about party photos, but focusing instead on what my younger self was seeing back then through multiple lenses, and by that I mean cheap, crappy ones. I found lots of explorations, mostly done with my first “professional” little entry-level camera that I loved and had received from my dad as a graduation gift. Others were done with the magic of my iPhone 4, often with those heavily (and awfully) applied Instagram filters.
When I write about my trips, I often focus on a single theme, something I can bring into my mind and expand on. But when I look at a random collection from 15 years ago, some magic happens. I can move myself faster in time. My mind scrolls back there and picks up on each memory from the past. It’s overwhelming, because there’s a lot to recall, but it validates why I never delete anything and why I keep it. You never know.
If I had deleted those photos years ago, surely the memories would still be there. But recalling them would be much harder.
In just 30 minutes, these images moved me in so many ways: I laughed, I felt nostalgic, lonely, not so lonely, in a party mood… but mostly grateful. Grateful that I lived through those times and learned the lessons I was meant to learn.
Like how much is too much when pushing HDR to terrible limits, or picking up a 16-hour shift on a construction site just to afford a camera bag, so my gear wouldn’t break again after I accidentally kicked one of my lenses. (The bag is still alive, by the way, and it’s come with me on every trip since. Worth every drop of sweat from that shift.)
Every photo has something: a creative lesson, a life lesson, and something to be grateful for. Like the time I captured the love of Dogus and Juan on a morning in March 2010.
Here you might not see pretty photos, but photos that matter more than a pretty one.
I hope you like them.
I do.
My first approach to a drone. I didn’t dare to fly it… Now I live off flying those things. (iPhone 4?)
My very first prints. I had no idea what I was doing, but well…
First attempt at food photography? (Nikon D5000)
Possibly the first time I did candid/portrait photos. Not too bad, I actually like it.
The breakthrough moment when I discovered perspective corrections. I was blown away, seriously. Today I just roll my eyes, LOL.
More testing of perspective corrections.
The first photo I took of the Melbourne skyline. iPhone 7, with lots of horrible corrections happening at the same time.
Flinders Arcade, amazing spot. It’s been closed for the last 7 years but will soon reopen. (Nikon D800)
