Around here - Life on Film - Volume 1

Back when I was 17 years old I bought my very first SLR camera from Ted's Camera Store in Brisbane city.  It was a Canon AE-1 and it cost me 6 weeks wages which was alot back then.  I had that camera for about 15 years and put many rolls of film through it until it accidently fell off a chair at a cafe at Southbank and I broke the shutter mechanism.  Eventually I bought a digital camera and have had many different ones since I got back into photography when my kids were born.   

As they say everything old is new again and a few years ago I bought a 2nd hand Canon AE-1 film camera from Australian Analog and going back to the old focus method of split-image focusing is certainly an adjustment.   The last roll of film I put through had lots of light leaks so I had to get the camera rebuilt completely with all new seals etc which cost me $395.  As these cameras range anywhere from 40-50 years old you can imagine that the seals just deterioate over time.

This is the first roll I've put through since having it rebuilt and taking photos inside with a fixed ISO of 400 [how sensitive the film is to light the film] is not that great so I feel this camera is better for outdoors where there is more light.  With my digital camera you can adjust the ISO for any image whereas with film all your shots are the same ISO in this case I bought Kodak Portra 400.

The Canon AE-1 Timeline

Over 5 million Canon AE-1 cameras were sold worldwide during it's production run, making it one of the best-selling SLR cameras of it's time.

1976        Original Canon AE-1 introduced.

1978        Canon A-1 introduced, offering more advanced automatic exposure modes.

1981        Canon AE-1 Program released, adding fully programmed automatic exposures.

1984        Original AE-1 production ended.

Today      AE-1 remains popular with film photography enthusiasts and collectors.

My sister took this of Teddy and I so it was the first pic on the roll.

Veggie Gardens.

Book Shelf Scene.

Kitchen scene.

Teddy in the lounge room.

Teddy having a sleep on the couch.

Teddy in the sun chewing on some stick he found.

Teddy in the garden.

Brisbane City with Southbank in the background.

Shorncliffe Pier - lots of people out fishing.

Shorncliffe Pier on a beautiful day.

Around here - Images from the last 6 months & Youtube

There are so many things I used to love doing when I was a hands-on Mum, especially taking photos of our everyday life and then editing them. It was something that brought me so much joy.

At the beginning of this year, I bought myself a little Canon Powershot V1 camera designed for vlogging, which is basically filming little moments of everyday life and putting them together into videos.

My idea was to start a YouTube channel and hopefully connect with a community of like-minded people who, like me, are trying to find their new normal now that the kids have grown up.  I guess it's also about rediscovering my creative side, getting back to the things that used to bring me so much joy and finding a little bit of purpose in this next chapter of my life.

I've created my YouTube channel, although I haven't actually posted anything yet. Back in around 2017, I learnt a bit about video editing and made a few videos of our family outings, which I really enjoyed. I also remember just how much work goes into editing videos — it takes about 10 times longer than editing photos!  Below is my YouTube logo, so stay tuned! I'm not quite sure when I'll have my first video ready to share, but I'm taking baby steps at this stage and hopefully it won't be too long.

Yesterday I spent ages trying to get my laptop set up with DaVinci Resolve, the editing software I used back then. My old version was from 2016, so I had to update the software and make a few other changes to my laptop just to get the latest free version up and running. It ended up being quite a process, but I finally got there!

That being said, I haven't even uploaded any of the photos or videos I've taken over the last six months onto my laptop, which is so unlike me. I used to use Lightroom every single day, and the last time I actually used it was to edit some photos of my nephew's new baby back in April.

So much has changed with Lightroom now, especially with all the AI features, that things I used to be able to do with my eyes shut I now have to stop and think about!

I think video editing will be much the same. I'll have to get back into learning how to film, edit and put everything together so I can finally start posting videos on YouTube. It's a bit daunting when I've been out of it for so long, but I'm hoping once I get started it will all come back to me.

Also, my birthday was about a month ago and we took my annual "Birthday Photo" with the kids, however I haven't even uploaded those photos from my Canon 6D yet either!

My Birthday Tradition started back in 2006 the year Sienna was born. Every year on my birthday, I would take a photo of myself with the kids and birthday cupcakes. Most years I used a tripod because it was just me and the kids, so there was no one else to take the photo.

It's something I've managed to keep going all these years, and we've only missed one year, which was last year in 2025. I was in Italy and James was off travelling around Europe on his solo trip, so we never managed to get my birthday photo that year so I have 19 years of images of this occasion.

It's such a simple little tradition, but looking back at all those photos and seeing how the kids have grown and changed over the years makes these memories so special to me.  This is a post from my Birthday back in 2023 with the photos since 2006.

Anyway, back to my little vlogging camera and the photos I've taken over the past six months. I thought I'd share a few of them here. They're all straight out of the camera, completely unedited, but it's nice to finally share them and document these little moments rather than just leaving them sitting on my camera.

Home Grown Roma Tomatoes

 

Around Here - October 2026

It's mid October already and only 11 weeks left of 2026 and as of today that's only 80 days.  I will be coming up to my 2nd Christmas at my town house and it seems like I only moved in yesterday.

I finally got around to ordering curtains from Spotlight which will take 6-8 weeks until they are ready and I think it's been 4 weeks now so they will be in before Christmas.  The curtains are for the living/dining/kitchen area which currently have roller blinds and these will be behind the curtains. I have 3 windows on one side and a large set of sliding doors which goes out to the back courtyard.  Speaking of out the back, look how much my plants have grown in one year making it nice and green and cosy. 

                                                                This was August 2025

This is Sept 2026

Here's some more photos of what's been going on lately.

Eumundi Markets for my Birthday and I bought a new hat off this lady's stall.

At Eumundi Markets.

Can't beat having some lovely dutch pancakes also known as proffertjes.

Chickpea Coconut Curry, haven't made it for ages so it was very enjoyable.

Homemade Sourdough Bread using my new Dutch Oven from Kitchen Warehouse.

If you aren't into Sourdough but want to make bread try this recipe for No Knead Bread.

Ricky [my bird below] and my sister's bird are staying here for a couple of weeks while she is on holidays.  As my back outdoor area is small I don't have room for Ricky and his large cage so both Ricky & Charlie [my sisters Cockatiel"] live at her place but when they are away they both come here.

Teddy enjoying a cuddle.

Thought I would post a link to the Chocolate Coconut Slice blog post from 2014.  The recipe is the from The Organized House Wife.

I like to post the recipes on my blog as so often I link to a blog and then they may shut the blog down and I loose the recipe so for my own benfit here is the recipe.

CHOCOLATE COCONUT SLICE

• 150gms butter - melted & cooled
• 1 cup of brown sugar
• 1 egg lightly beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup plain flour
• 1/3 cup self raising flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup desiccated coconut

ICING

• 1 and 1/2 cups icing sugar mixture
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 20gms butter finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons boiling water

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 160c [fan-forced]
2. Grease and line with baking paper a 20x30cm lamington pan.
3. Place butter, sugar, egg and vanilla in a bowl, stir until combined.
4. Sift flour and cocoa into the bowl.
5. Add 1/2 cup of coconut.
6. Stir until mixture has combines.
7. Spread mixture evenly onto pan.
8. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until just firm.

ICING

1. Sift icing sugar and cocoa into bowl.
2. Add butter and boiling water, stir together.
3. Spread warm slice with icing.
4. Sprinke remaining coconut over slice.
5. Leave to cool.
6. Put in fridge to firm up before slicing.

Around Here - Botanic By Night NightGlow

My friends Birthday was this week so I gifted her a ticket to the "Botanic By Night Nightglow" which was held at the Mt Coot-tha Botanical Gardens.  It's a 16 Night Season from 6.30pm to 10.00pm from 25th September, 2026 to 10th October, 2026.

It was such a beautiful event with small red lights along the pathway and soft music playing along the 837 metre stretch.  I booked us for the 8.30pm session as I figured it would be less busy at this time.  We arrived half an hour early as I wasn't sure about the parking so we entered at 8.00 pm and it was no problem to go in early.  These events have times so to spread the crowds out over the evening but very flexible.  We were there for an hour to take it all in and we loved it.  I've been to the City Botanical Gardens Lighting events but this was very different and I loved it even more.  The animals were huge and apparently made out of "Lantern" material and one of the staff told us they they came shipped fully built so you would need some big shipping containers.

The photos don't do these animals justice as the lighting was beautiful and the photos look a little dull but can highly recommend if you are local to go as it's a beautiful event.

DINGO

GREEN TREE FROG

EMU

    

BUSHTAIL POSSUM

KOALA

IBIS [AKA BIN CHICKEN AS WE CALL IT HERE]

    

ECHIDNA

KANGAROO