Some time ago, I wrote a blog post about starting to feel disillusioned with what I was doing for a living, and how much I was enjoying discovering the new hobby of photography (especially travel photography).

Well, it’s been a few months now, a lot of life has happened, and things have progressed a little. In summary:

• I fell even further down the photography rabbit hole, which has taken some unexpected twists and turns.
• I did end up enrolling in a Diploma of Photography through The Photography Institute; I am on my fourth module now (out of twelve in the base diploma) and learning a lot. Module four has taken the longest of all of the modules so far, but that’s largely due to other life events getting in the way.
• I found this video by the wonderful YouTube channel “Gear Doesn’t Matter“, which prompted me to think harder about my camera gear (especially on the endless chase that is buying new gear). It made me think about what got me back into photography, which was shooting an Olympus micro 4/3rds camera travelling around Japan.
• While my growing collection of Lumix full-frame lenses was cool, they weren’t going to help out as much with the travel photography goals (at least without some significant changes in travel planning). As such, I decided to sell my then-current collection of Olympus lenses (f1.8 primes and slow telephoto zooms) and move to something more travel-friendly – their line of pro f2.8 zooms.
• My reasoning was – instead of carrying a 12mm, 17mm, and 25mm prime, why not a 12-40mm zoom? And this was only further reinforced when it arrived – it feels outstanding, it’s a joy to use, and I was so much happier with the images. Their pro trinity of zooms is so sharp, weather-sealed, and balanced. They just feel great.
• I also invested in a secondhand OM-1 body to get the most out of this glass. The OM-1 quickly became my daily driver. It’s bigger and heftier than my first love, the Olympus PEN E-P7, but the EVF is incredible, the grip fits my hand perfectly, the stabilisation is magic, and I’m still learning more and more of the features packed into that camera.
• To the trinity of 7-14mm, 12-40mm and 40-150mm PRO, I added some specialists – the 8mm f1.8 pro fisheye, the 20mm f1.4 pro for low-light, and the 300mm f4 pro for wildlife.
• Other bits of kit that get used a lot are the MC-14 and MC-20 teleconverters (1.4x and 2.0x respectively, which work on the 40-150mm and 300mm lenses) and the EE-1 red dot sight (which is used exclusively with the 300mm for birds in flight so far).
• Finally, on camera gears, I also managed to find a niche for my full-frame Lumix S5 that my beloved OM-1 just couldn’t compete with – the Sigma 105mm f1.4 Art. This thing weighs a tonne and is huge, but it takes the most incredible images. It means my S5 is my studio or short-excursions kit, with the OM-1 taking care of everything else.
• I plan to do a series of blog posts showing off some of my favourite shots with all of the lenses above, interspersed with the continuing Japan travel posts.

Speaking of the Japan travel, we also made the decision that we’re heading back NEXT January (2025). It’s partly to do things from the Jan 2024 trip we had to cancel due to the earthquake, partly to take the new travel photography kit to my favourite place in the world, and partly because Japan is just a lovely, amazing place that we love visiting.

In other news, I also got a new job. It’s only been three weeks so far, but I’m loving it, it’s different enough that I feel refreshed to be tackling new challenges, but not so different that I feel any sort of imposter syndrome. The only challenge so far – they still can’t work out how to pay me. Hmmmm…

That’s probably enough for an update for now – exciting times ahead!