Random tangent (blog)
Ameel Khan's personal blog. This is a blog about life, technology, photography, typography, the internet, science, feminism, books, film, music, and whatever other random stuff I come across or happen to be interested in today.
Nadia’s book, The Djinn Hunters, is back in stock at Readings in Carlton (stock is running low in their other stores).
You’ll find in the Australian poetry section.
It’s the one with the gorgeous blue cover, from Fauzia Minallah’s Sheema Kermani Inspiration series of paintings.
Since you’re probably always looking for an excuse to visit a bookshop, this is your prompt to go get your copy today! (Or, of course, just order it online.)
Growing up in Lahore in the 1970s and 80s we had both cats and dogs as pets – with dogs in the front yard and cats (all of them adopted strays) in the back yard.
These days Nadia and I are the only siblings with a dog while most everyone else has cats. Nadia and I would love to get a cat as well, it’s just that Nadia is allergic to them.
On our recent trip back home I got the chance to spend some time with some of our family cats and, of course, take lots of photos of them :)
My younger sister’s orange tabby cat. Very friendly. Loves to sleep on the corner table in the living room.
Photo of an orange tabby cat standing at the edge of a balcony, looking down the lens of the photographer's camera.
Photo of an orange tabby cat standing at the edge of a balcony, looking at the photographer behind the camera.
My younger sister’s white cat with blue/yellow odd coloured eyes. Not very friendly, but very happy for you to open the door to let him in and out of the room.
Photo of a white cat eating kibble out a bowl that's lying on a counter.
Photo of a white cat interrupted by the photographer while eating it was eating its kibble out a bowl that's lying on a counter. The cat has one blue and one yellow eye.
Photo of a white cat with blue/yellow odd coloured eyes stretched out on a window seat in the sun.
My older sister’s orange, black, and white calico cat. Very friendly, curious, and quite demanding when she wants pats and scratches.
Close-up photo of an orange, black, and white calico cat looking at something off camera.
Photo of an orange, black, and white calico cat sitting half on a marble floor and half on a little rug.
My older sister’s black cat. Not particularly friendly with non-family members, so not easy to get photos of. But she is a lovely looking cat.
Photo of a black cat sitting on a marble floor, next to a chair.
My aunt’s medium-haired tabby, a friendly adopted stray who hangs around the garden. I didn’t get to spend any time with her/him, but she/he very much wanted to spend time with us while we were visiting.
Photo of a medium-haired tabby cat sitting prettily on the verandah of a house, looking in through a sliding glass door.
I happened to be in Karachi for this year’s Vintage Car Show so I brought along my camera and took a few photos.
These are my two favourites. The rest I’ve included in galleries below, which means you’ll have to click each one to see its full, non-square-cropped version.
Close-up photo of a headlamp of a silver coloured classic car.
Photo of the front-left tyre of a classic Rolls Royce car. In the background of the photos are two preteen children looking at the various cars on display at this car show.
I’m an aviation geek. That means I don’t just take photos of people, I also take photos of the places I go to. Or, well, go through :)
Photo of an airport apron that has a wide-body aircraft parked on it. The aircraft is in the process of being loaded with catering supplies. A roller ramp has been parked to the side of the aircraft. A member of the ground staff is sitting on the corner of this roller ramp, waiting for the luggage containers to arrive so they can be loaded into the aircraft hold.
Wide-angle photo of a wide-body Boeing 777 aircraft parked at the gate of an airport terminal.
Wide-angle photo of large, high-ceiling, shiny, brand new airport terminal building. One one side of the building are windows that go from the ground to the fourth floor. From the angle the photo is taken you can see parts of all four floors, all of which are connected by escalators and elevators.
Photo of a large, heigh-ceiling, mostly empty airport departure gate. This section of the building is at least two storeys high, with a wide, elevated walkway running through the centre. In the departure are are several round-backed single-seater sofas for waiting passengers to sit on.
Wide-angle photo looking up at a large, crescent shaped, white-and-cream coloured light fixture. This light fixture is mounted on a tall pillar along a first-floor walkway in a high-ceiling airport terminal building.
Photo looking up at a large, crescent shaped, white-and-cream coloured light fixture. This light fixture is mounted on a tall pillar along a first-floor walkway in a high-ceiling airport terminal building.
This was the Airbus A320 that flew us from Abu Dhabi to Karachi.
Photo of a narrow-body Airbus A320 aircraft in Etihad Airways livery taxiing to its gate.
Photo of a narrow-body Airbus A320 aircraft in Etihad Airways livery slowly approaching a terminal boarding gate.
Photo of a narrow-body Airbus A320 aircraft in Etihad Airways livery parked at a terminal boarding gate. The passenger boarding bridge (aka air bridge) from the terminal is in the process of being extended towards the front-left door of the aircraft and there are several ground operations team members walking around below the aircraft. And ‘Airside Operations Leader’ car is parked in front of the gate at which this aircraft has parked.
Photo taken through large floor-to-ceiling windows of an airport terminal building of a wide-body aircraft in Etihad Airways livery parked at a gate. In the background you can see the airport’s weather radar and control tower.
Photo of a wide-body aircraft parked at an airport gate. It is connected from its left side to the terminal building via a passenger boarding bridge (aka air bridge). On its right side luggage is being loaded onto it. In the background are the other terminal buildings of Abu Dhabi Airport Terminal A.
Photo of an airport apron taken from inside a passenger boarding bridge (aka air bridge). The gate next to this one is empty.
Photo of a narrow-body Airbus A320 aircraft in Fly Jinnah livery parked on the apron at an airport. Several ground staff are walking around the aircraft, getting it ready to start deplaning its passengers and cargo.
Nadia and I took three weeks off to go visit friends and family in Pakistan. Naturally I took several photos as we travelled from one place to the next :)
We had an almost-10pm flight out of Melbourne, so we had dinner at Melbourne Airport right after we checked-in.
Selfie of a man and woman, both wearing black t-shirts, backpacks, and face masks, standing in an airport terminal.
Neither of us minds having seats near the bathroom and neither of us minds sitting right at the back of the plane, so we picked seats in the second-last row of this Boeing 777 since that row has just two seats on the window side :)
Selfie of a man and woman, both wearing black t-shirts and face masks, seated in an aircraft. The two are giving a thumbs-up to the camera.
Abu Dhabi Airport’s brand new Terminal A is quite roomy (having been built for future growth) and is a surprisingly comfortable place to hang out for a ten-hour layover.
Selfie of a man wearing a bright orange jacket standing in the middle of a long terminal corridor, between gates C28 and C29.
Yay Karachi!
Selfie of a man and a woman, both wearing black t-shirts and face masks, standing next to their luggage at the international arrivals gate of an airport.
It took us almost forty hours to get back from Islamabad to Melbourne (via Karachi and Abu Dhabi). This was the start of our first leg.
Selfie of a man and a woman, both wearing black t-shirts and face masks, seated inside an aircraft cabin during boarding.
This was the start of our second leg, waiting in the international departure lounge.
Selfie of a man and a woman, both wearing black t-shirts and face masks, seated in a departure lounge at an airport.
This is towards the end of our twelve hour layover in Abu Dhabi.
Photo of a woman, wearing a black hoodie and face mask, leaning on a restaurant table in an airport. Behind her is a floor-to-ceiling window that looks out onto and airport terminal apron.
We’re making sure to stretch our legs and stand as much as we can before our non-stop, thirteen hour flight to Melbourne.
Selfie of a man and a woman, both wearing black tops and face masks, standing in a departure lounge at an airport.
All aboard and ready to boogie (aka sleep) on this lovely Boeing 787 (yay!).
Selfie of a man and a woman, both wearing black t-shirts and face masks, seated inside an aircraft cabin during boarding.
We hadn’t been back to Pakistan since late 2019, so this trip was very much overdue and it was a great way to start the year.
Time to share a few photos of Maggie I’ve taken over the last few weeks. (You’re welcome.)
Photo of a red/brown dog walking down the residential footpath, with just its head and one if its forelegs visible from around the corner of a fence.
Photo of a red/brown dog asleep on its side in a dog bed that’s lying in a carpeted room.
Photo looking down at a red/brown dog wearing a black and red harness. The dog has its nose to the front door of a house, waiting for it to open so she can run out.
On 1 February 2004, Nadia and I got married at the Serena Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan.
Twenty years later we went back there to take a couple of selfies :)
Selfie of a man and a woman in their forties standing in a nook in a hotel lobby.
Selfie of a man and a woman in their forties standing outside a large hotel.
Later that day we celebrated with food and, importantly, with cake.
Photo of a man and woman in their forties standing in a dining room along one corner of a large, rectangular dining table. In front of them is a caramel cake with “Happy Anniversary Nadia & Ameel” written on it. The woman is holding up the large knife with which she is going to cut the cake.
That cake, while delicious, wasn’t quite as fancy as the one we cut at our actual reception.
Photo of a man and a woman in South Asian wedding attire surrounded by their families on their wedding day. The couple are in the process of cutting a large, fancy cake that’s been placed on a table in front of them.
Nor did we make a meme out of the cake-cutting, like we did for our tenth anniversary :)
Photo of a man and a woman in South Asian wedding attire surrounded by their families on their wedding day. The couple are in the process of cutting a large, fancy cake that’s been placed on a table in front of them. The couple and several of their family members are laughing at a joke that’s just been told by someone off-camera. Written in Comic Sans font across the photo in a seemingly haphazard fashion are several phrases in broken English that represent a kind of inner monologue. This type of internet meme, known as Doge, was popular in 2013 and 2014. These phrases are “so marriage”, “much decade”, “giggle”. “wow”, “many love”, “very bliss”, “caaaaake”, “10/10 would marry”, and (bizarrely) “once even flow alive why go black jeremy oceans porch garden deep release” (which is the song list from Pearl Jam’s debut album, ‘Ten’, in case you’re wondering).
The last time we were at the Serena Hotel in Islamabad we were dressed, well, a little differently :)
Collage of two photos, on above the other. The first photo, dated 1 Feb 2004, is of a man and a woman seated on stage and dressed in traditional Pakistani wedding outfits. The second photo, dated 1 Feb 2024, is of the same man and woman taking a selfie in a hotel lobby.
Happy 20th wedding anniversary Nadia!
Here’s what I’ve learned after owning a mirrorless, interchangeable-lens camera for just over one year. (I got my camera on Boxing Day 2022 but didn’t start taking any decent photos will it till at least the middle of January 2023.)
This is based on the 438 share-worthy photos I uploaded to Flickr in 2023.
Aside from typical life and event/travel photos, I seem to like taking photos that tell micro stories of people and places. I do this mainly through three types of photos…
These are photos looking up, down, and around at things you stop noticing when you live somewhere for a long time. These are architectural photos, photos of objects, or photos of people going about their lives doing things I find interesting.
Looking up along light tower 5 at Melbourne Cricket Ground. Photo looking straight up along the side of a large, white, stadium light tower on a partly cloudy day.
These are photos that make you wonder what the person/people in the photo are doing, thinking, or talking about.
Tourists checking out Melbourne’s office-building architecture. Photo of a couple standing on the other side of the road from the photographer. They have their arms around each other and are looking up at the top of a building across the street from them. A green-and-white tram is about to cross in front of them.
These are photos that (hopefully) communicate the vibe of the place in which I took the photo or maybe what I was feeling when I took it.
I want to touch the nose again! (Avalon Airshow 2023). Photo of a man at an airshow carrying a little boy in his lap (presumably his son). The man is standing next to the nose of a military transport aircraft. Next to the man is a little girl (presumably his daughter) who wants to be picked up so she can touch the nose of the aircraft again.
When I wasn’t doing my ‘one focal length at a time exercise’, my favourite focal lengths were 27mm, 85mm, and 345mm. These represent both extremes of my two zoom lenses: 27-85mm for my main lens and 80-345mm for my second lens. The 85mm bar in the chart below covers the 80-85mm range where my two lenses overlap, and so that’s why this bar is the longest.
Graphic titled ‘Focal length usage 2023 (full-frame equivalent)’. Below this is a chart titled ‘Normal zoom-lens usage’ that shows a bar chart with bars ranging from 27mm to 300-345mm. The three longest bars in this chart are for 85mm (28% of all photos), 27mm (23%), and 300-345mm (11%).
What have I learned from this?
27mm end: I like taking architectural photos (the wide angle helps you capture more of the building/location) and I often like taking photos that capture the context around my primary subject (eg their location or where they’re headed). Also, in the early days I was still getting used to composing good shots with my new camera, so I would do a looser composition while taking the photo and then crop-in later during editing.
The other ends: I like to zoom in on specific parts of architecture (like the tops of buildings) and I like to simplify my photographs by isolating my subjects within the frame (so it’s easier to focus on the specific object or the person I’m photographing).
Part of the point of the ‘one focal length at a time’ exercise I did over October-December 2023 was to force me to get away from these extremes and try the most popular intermediate focal lengths instead.
Graphic titled ‘Focal length usage 2023 (full-frame equivalent)’. Below this is a chart titled “‘One focal length at a time’ exercise” that shows a bar chart with bars ranging from 27mm to 85mm. The two longest bars in this chart are for 27mm and 40mm (both at 27%). This is followed by 50mm (19%), 85mm (18%), and 35mm (9%).
Aside from all the creative learning I did during my ‘one focal length at a time’ exercise, I learned that 27mm and 40mm are the focal lengths at which I am the most successful (and comfortable shooting). That’s why, when I do buy an everyday-carry prime lens, those are the two I’ll get first (starting with 40mm).
The end of the year is a good time for reflection and learning, and it’s been fun going through all the photos I’ve taken this year. Importantly, I noted how I improved as a photographer over the last twelve months and what I still need to get better at.
In 2024 I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing right now: taking regular photo walks in and around Melbourne and photographing life, events, and travel. I have a lot of experience to gain and still plenty of incremental improvement to do before I start to plateau both creatively and skill-wise.
So here’s to another fun year of photography!
Since moving to Australia in 2006, this is only the second time that Pakistan has played Australia in the Boxing Day Test at the MCG.
Nadia and I attended day three of the last test match, back in 2016.
Photo of the grounds at a massive cricket stadium, taken from an under-cover seat some distance away from the field.
This year I attended day one of the match with a bunch of family friends.
Selfie of four people seated in a row at a cricket match, three of whom are wearing Pakistan cricket team gear.
Here are some of the photos I took while I was there.
Photo of a sign post at the Melbourne Cricket ground showing the walking time and distance (in kilometres) from this post to Jolimont Railway Station, tram routes 48 and 75 along Wellington Parade, Flinders Street Railway Station, tram route 70 along Swan Street, and Richmond Railway Station.
Photo taken through a wire mesh fence of half a dozen train tracks running between where the photographer is standing and several buildings and sports centres on the other side. A blue-and-yellow Metro train is running along one of these tracks. A covered, elevated walkway runs above the tracks.
Photo of an entry gate at Melbourne Cricket Ground, which about two dozen people waiting in short queues to get through security and ticketing. A large digital sign above the gate reads, in all capital letters, “Welcome to the boxing day test”.
Photo of three rows of young women, all wearing an identical uniform of black shoes, black pants, and cream coloured tops, standing in choir formation inside a massive cricket stadium.
Photo of three rows of young women, all wearing an identical uniform of black shoes, black pants, and cream coloured tops, standing in choir formation inside a massive cricket stadium. On the other side of the large ground are the cricket players standing next to their respective country flags.
Photo of a male cricket player, wearing an all-white kit, jumping in the air as part of his warm-up routine.
Photo of a male cricket player, wearing an all-white kit, standing at the crease and ready to face ball that is being bowled to him.
Photo of a young boy in a while t-shirt and a green coloured Pakistan team hat watching a cricket match.
Photo of a male cricket player, wearing an all-white kit, about to release the ball he is bowling.
Photo of four tiers of cricket stands, each with a café, bar, or corporate suites behind them. A large sign on one of these seating tiers reads, ‘Melbourne Cricket Club’.
Photo of a male music DJ standing at his console while he chats to a man dressed in a bright, multi-coloured ‘Squad Pakistan’ shirt with a large dhol slung across his back.
Photo of an outdoor food stall set up in a large garden. A sign above the stall reads, in all capital letters, ‘Karachi street food’. There are several people milling around the food stand, and a line to the food stand extends off-camera.
Photo of an outdoor food stall set up in a large garden with picnic tables placed around it. A sign above the stall reads, in all capital letters, ‘Karachi street food’. A stall in the background has a sign that reads, ‘Sugarcane Juice’. There are several people standing in the garden, and a long line of people queuing at the food stand extends off-camera.
The light towers at Melbourne Cricket Ground are as iconic as the stadium itself, and this month marks 39 years since they were first installed and switched on.
Photo looking up at the top of a large, stadium light tower on a partly cloudy day. The trapezium-shaped array of powerful lights has been placed on a thick, white coloured tower that has the number 1 written on it.
Photo looking up, along the side of a massive sports stadium, at a light tower on a partly cloudy day. The tower has the number 5 written on it.
Photo looking almost straight up along the side of a sports stadium. In the left of the photo is the underside of a seating stand (the Ponsford Stand), in the centre is a tall light tower, on the right (at the very top of the stadium wall) is a set of five flagpoles with various flags on them.
Photo looking straight up along the side of a large, white, stadium light tower on a partly cloudy day.
Photo of a stadium light tower taken from inside a sports stadium. A large number 2 is written at the top of the light tower. In front of this tower is the top of the stadium, on which there are flags flying on five flagpoles.
Maggie is enjoying the return of summer. She has arthritis so she needs to be warm, and she she’s always loved soaking up the sun. I think her bones also appreciate the memory-foam dog bed we have for her our living room.
Photo, taken through a window pane, of a red/brown dog in a residential garden. The dog is twisting around in the garden, all four legs up in the air, while she scratches her back on the dirt and grass.
Photo of a red/brown dog fast asleep in a large grey coloured dog bed on the floor of a living room. The dog's face is smushed into a blanket lying on one side of the dog bed.
Photo of a red/brown dog in a large grey coloured dog bed on the floor of a living room. The dog is looking blearily into the camera because she has just been woken by her photo being taken.
Photo of a red/brown dog lying on her side, with her head right in front of an open bathroom door. The photo is taken from inside the bathroom.
When we got Maggie all those years ago, we’d take her for hour-long walks every day and she’d still have an endless supply of energy afterwards.
As she got older, she’d start to get tired after forty-five minutes of walking, so we dropped her walk time down to thirty-ish minutes.
These days she still has the mental enthusiasm for half-hour walks, but if we walk for too long in one go, her body pays for it the next day. So we’re now down to fifteen-ish minute walks every morning; with maybe a five or ten minute walk in the evening if she’s up for it.
Not that she minds. She still loves walking through our neighbourhood and foraging for whatever she can eat. But she’s become a lot more chill as she’s gotten older, with fewer fucks to give about the world. And, as long as she knows where we are, she’s no longer in a mad rush to follow us from room-to-room as we move around the house. Unless it’s nearing her walk time or dinner time, of course, in which case she’ll make her presence know no matter where we are and what we’re up to! But otherwise she’s content with her slower pace of life.
In all of 2023 I think Nadia and I went out to brunch maybe just three or four times. The last time we went, I took a couple of photos :)
Selfie of a man and a woman standing by the side of the road. Both are wearing wide-brimmed hats and both are smiling at the camera. The woman is wearing sunglasses and a blue dress. The man is wearing a black t-shirt with blue lettering on it.
Photo of a woman seated at a café, looking down at a menu that is lying on the table in front of her. The woman is wearing a blue dress and has her sunglasses pushed back onto the top of her head.
Photo of a woman seated at a café, with a menu lying on the table in front of her. The woman is wearing a blue dress and has her sunglasses pushed back onto the top of her head. She is looking up at the photographer because she has just noticed that he had his phone up to take her photo.
Here’s to more bunches in 2024!
This week I concluded my ‘one focal length at a time’ exercise with a repeat of shooting at only 40mm (which is 26mm on my mirrorless, APS-C camera).
I can now confirm that the first pancake prime lens I will get for myself will indeed be a 40mm one. When I’ll actually go out and get this, I don’t know. But at least I know where I’m going to start :)
Here are the photos I took during my last photo walk of 2023.
Black-and-white photo of a set of stairs leading down to a street that is three storeys below where the photographer is standing. This staircase is built into the side of the building, with the lowest flight of steps inside the rectangular columns of the building. A woman carrying one large bag and several smaller ones is walking on the pavement that runs along this street.
Photo looking up from the ground of a very tall, blue-glass covered building. The building has rounded edges and two large curves along its length on either side, making it look somewhat like a fancy water bottle.
Photo of a large, four-storey high, spray-paint mural in several shades of blue. The anime-ish style mural shows an image of a woman with long hair, large eyes, and full lips manipulating energy fields. She has formed a swirl of light in her left hand and there are bits of rock and swirls of more solid looking energy rotating around her face.
Photo of a large, four-storey high, spray-paint mural in several shades of yellow and pink. The hyper-realistic mural shows an older man and woman, both with white hair and wrinkled, slightly droopy faces. The man has is arm around the woman's shoulder. Both figures are looking straight across the street and, in this case, directly at where the photographer is standing.
Photo of a boarded-up window with the top of a mostly torn off music posted still stuck to it. Several different people have scribbled things on the wooden board in red and black marker. These include text in all-capital letters that reads “anarchy rules”. Below this is a Christian cross with the words ‘remorse’ and ‘pain’ written on it, with text close to this that reads “one rule is pain, the other rule is remorse”. Next to that is a crown with a number ‘666’ written below it and text that reads “eighth and last link to walk this earth”. Two pieces of text in black marker have been crossed off. The first, written below the cross, reads, “The fucking cross you fucking Christians were suppose(d) to bear!!”. The second reads, “We are the Anti Christ and we don’t fuck your children. So can anyone explain Christianity to us? So fuck them, just not with my dick!!”. Written below these crossed-off bits of text is the phrase “Jesus loves you” and a heart symbol. This is repeated on the other side as well. Also written there is “Choose love”, with a heart symbol instead of the word ‘love’. The final bit of text along the top, seemingly in response to this back-and-forth, reads “Have a nice day and do it your way”.
Photo looking through the open doorway of a glass-fronted convenience store. Arranged on one entire wall along the side of the store are hundreds of candy packets and bars.
A simple, text-only advertisement painted along the windowless side of an eight storey building. The large, all-white lettering reads, “Create your life’s work”. Below this is the WeWork logo and the text “established 2010”.
This was the first time I’d walked down Lonsdale Street in the CBD to take photos. By restricting myself to shoot at only 40mm I was immediately frustrated by not being able to take good architecture photos, and I take a lot of those types of photos. I guess what I’m saying is that the second prime lens I’ll get will likely be the 27mm pancake prime :) Hopefully I’ll be able to get both in 2024. I guess we’ll see!
I wasn’t able to go on a photo walk this week, so here are some photos I took on my way to various places in the city.
Photo of a middle age man asleep on a deck chair in a large, outdoor, brick-and-marble, public square. There are people sitting in other deck chairs placed around the square as well.
Black-and-white photo looking down a steep, slightly curved flight of steps that lead to a shop front. Through the open doorway of this glass-fronted hat shop you can see a salesperson adjusting a hat while standing at the payment counter.
Black-and-white photo of a man sitting on a bus a few seats in front of the photographer. The man is reading a large, two-page informational brochure which, on the left hand page, has the title “Key benefits of the design”.
Photo of a classic Melbourne tram, with its distinct green-and-yellow livery, waiting at a stop light. A sign painted on the front reads, “City Circle Tram, Melbourne” and shows the number 35 as the tram’s route number. The tram is on a pair of tracks that run parallel to a curving roadway.
I also didn’t get the chance to shoot at a focal length of only 40mm this week. I’ll try to do that next week.
This is my second week of shooting at only 85mm (which is 55mm on my mirrorless, APS-C camera). It was super hot (approaching 32 degrees) when I went out to take these photos, which is why I took a handful.
Photo of a middle-aged, dark-skinned man with silver-grey hair styled into a short, soft mohawk with buzz-cut sides. The man is sitting on a long bench next to a tall hedge in an urban park. He is leaning forward, elbows rested on thighs, as he reads a newspaper that he is holding in his hands. On the ground next to him is a large, professional hiking backpack that is full with his gear.
Photo of the round, domed tower at the corner of a dilapidated, four storey, 111 year old building. The pale yellow paint on this building is cracked and peeling. Long-since faded paint on the side the building reads, “Sir Charles Hotham Hotel”.
Photo of four sweep rowers (in which each person holds only one oar with both hands) and their coxswain rowing along an urban river. Riding on a motorboat alongside them with a megaphone in their hand is (presumably) their trainer.
Photo of the top of the Crown Towers building seen through a large ceramic ring that is part of some artwork on the ground floor outside. The artwork in question is ‘The Guardians’ (2000) by local artist Simon Rigg.
Close-up photo of the corner of an office building, with two of the floors in frame. On one floor there are tables and chairs set along the windows. On the other floor is an empty, darkened corner office with a large Dyson air purifier visible through the window.
This was the last formal step in my two-and-a-half-month long ‘one focal length at a time’ exercise. Woohoo!
Next week I’ll repeat shooting at only 40mm. If I’m still happy with that focal length, then the first pancake prime lens I get will be a 40mm one. This’ll be great for street, travel, and everyday photography. Especially since it’ll make my camera kit small enough to carry around with me pretty much everywhere I go.
And then I sit and wait till I get a get a good deal on a new (or used) Fujifilm XF 27mm F2.8 R WR lens. Or I just get the TTArtisan AF 27mm F2.8 third-party lens for my Fujifilm camera. I guess we’ll see how things go.
You’re probably amused by how excited I am about finally being able to use Chaparral on this website (the typeface, not the California shrubland ecoregion the typeface is named after).
I get it. Most people aren’t typeface nerds.
So I thought I’d explain how, ever since I stopped using ‘web safe’ typefaces when I moved to the Squarespace platform in 2013, I’ve been wanting to use Chaparral for this website’s body text.
But then I realised that, instead of telling you, I could show you.
Here are all the site-header images I’ve created for insanityworks.org since I migrated it to Squarespace. Even the first header image I created was an attempt to use the closest alternative to Chaparral available at the time.
Graphic titled ‘Journey to using Chaparral on my website’. The graphic shows five site-header images that have the phrase “Insanity Works” in white text overlaid on a photo. Each of these images uses a different typeface, and most of the images have a call-out pointing to them. The first image (from 2013) uses the Coustard typeface and its call-out reads, “1. Coustard was one of the early alternatives to Chaparral that I tried (note the similarities)”. The second image (from 2014) uses Oswald and its call-out reads, “2. Switched to using Oswald (the headings typeface) instead”. The third image (from 2019) uses Merriweather Sans, but has no call-out and the typeface name as the word ‘Test’ written next to it. The fourth image (from 2019) is in Merriweather and its call-out reads, “3. Tested the sans option, but then settled on the original (serif) Merriweather”. The fifth and final image (from 2023) is in Chaparral and its call-out reads, “4. Finally able to use Chaparral!”.
Basically, this whole decade has been a journey to Chaparral. And after ten years of wanting to do something, I am finally able to do it. That is why I am so excited to be where we are now :)
The last twenty-four hours have been very exciting for me. At least in terms of typography.
That’s because, years and years after falling in love with the Chaparral typeface, I finally get to use it on my website! That and Myriad, which is the typeface I’m now using for the headings and navigation.
Before today I was using the excellent Merriweather for this website’s body text and Oswald for the headings and navigation.
Both those typefaces are free and open-source, and both are available through Google Fonts – which is the font collection you could pick from when building a site on Squarespace (the platform this website is running on).
Graphic showing two blocks of text side-by-side. The block on the left has the heading ‘Old’ and uses the Merriweather (body text) and Oswald (heading) typefaces. The block on the right has the heading ‘New’ and uses the Chaparral (body text) and Myriad Condensed (heading) typefaces.
I’d always thought about updating the typefaces on this site, but (a) I love Merriweather and (b) I didn’t want to go through the hassle of trying to see if there was anything better than Merriweather on Google Fonts.
Then last night I discovered that Squarespace now offers the full suite of Adobe Fonts to choose a typeface from, and so here we are :)
The decision about which typeface to use for headings and navigation was pretty easy too. I had a bunch of good options to choose from, like Proxima Nova, League Gothic, Brandon Grotesque, and Alternative Gothic (which both Oswald and League Gothic are reworkings of, by the way).
I ended up going with Myriad because (a) it’s a gorgeous typeface (basically a copy of Frutiger) and (b) both Myriad and Chaparral were created by Carol Twombly (in 1992 and 2000, respectively) when she was a type designer at Adobe. As you can see from the graphic above and, indeed from this website, the two pair really well.
This change in typeface is noteworthy because the only reason I started using Merriweather in the first place was because it is the closest free, high-quality alternative to Chaparral that was available on Google Fonts all those years ago. But now I get to use the typeface I wanted to use all along!
I am particularly pleased that, with just this small change, the vibe of this site has gone from “modern and sturdy, but also warm and readable” to “subtly classy, but also friendly, lively, and readable”.
Yay!
When we adopted Maggie in 2016 we were told she was probably two-and-a-half to three years old. And since we needed to nominate a date of birth for her registration, we ended up picking 5 December 2013.
So, at least according to that guesstimate, our now-not-so-little Maggie is ten years old today. Happy birthday!
Here she is making the most of her middle-agedness:
Photo of a red/brown dog fast asleep on her side in a round, fuzzy, orange dog bed. One back paw and one front paw is sticking out over the edge, and the dog’s head is also resting on the edge. The bed is lying in the corner of a carpeted room.
Red heelers like Maggie tend to have a 12-15 year lifespan, though healthy, well cared for, non-working heelers can easily live for 18-20 years. So we have many, many years with her yet.
That said, here’s a side-by-side comparison of how much greyer her muzzle has gotten over the years. ❤️
Nadia and I have gotten greyer over the last decade too, of course, so we’re all a happily middle aged family now :)
We’re on the final stage of my ‘one focal length at a time’ exercise. That means this fortnight I am shooting only at 85mm (which is 55mm on my mirrorless, APS-C camera).
I like shooting at 85mm because part of what I enjoy doing is capturing specific aspects of the world around me, and this focal length lets me zoom in to isolate the thing I want to highlight.
In this particular photo walk I focused on both people and a building details. The advantage of this focal length, of course, is that you can take photos of people from further away without ‘bruising the scene’ (ie without them noticing you and stopping doing whatever interesting thing they were doing that made you want to take their photo in the first place). Is taking photos like this somewhat voyeuristic? Yes, it is. But as long as you’re not being a creep or an asshole about it, I think it’s okay. I, for example, only take photos of people doing things that I wouldn’t mind being photographed doing myself. Most of the time this is just standing around in a public place.
Here are the photos I took.
Photo of a man wearing a yellow high visibility vest and an orange turban sitting the the drivers seat of a large, white panel (delivery) van. The van is stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic and so the man is using a fork to eat something out of a glass storage bowl on his lap.
Photo looking up to the top of a very tall, blue-glass covered building. Because the sky is grey and overcast, however, the windows are looking blue-grey instead. The building has rounded edges and two large curves along its length, making it look like a fancy water bottle.
Photo of a man with pale blonde hair and a long, white beard sitting on a concrete bench outside on the footpath outside a large building. The man, who is wearing dark clothes and shoes, is holding a cigarette up in his right hand. In the background a woman is walking down the footpath.
Photo of two people in safety work wear (blue pants with reflective stripes, orange high visibility top with reflective stripes, white hard hats, and safety glasses) standing on top of a retracted scissor lift that’s been built on to the back a large truck. The truck is white and is covered in a Yarra Trams decal. The truck has just crossed an intersection and is proceeding along a tram track running down the centre of a road.
Photo of a young woman wearing blue denim jeans, a grey denim jacket, and a grey denim cap sitting on a long wooden bench outside a large building. She has a metal water bottle lying next to her. She is wearing wireless earbuds and is looking down at her phone.
Photo of a man wearing blue pants, yellow hoodie, and grey cloth cap who is sitting on a long wooden bench outside a large building. The man has a duffel back by his side and is leaning forward, head down and elbows on his thighs, looking very tired.
Photo of four people waiting at the pedestrian crossing at an urban intersection. The two men are dressed in dark pants and untucked casual, button-up shirts. One woman is in a long, checkered dress in shades of brown. The other woman stands out because she is in a shorter, frilly, flower-patterned, blue dress.
Photo of a woman wearing the Melbourne uniform: black boots, black pants, black shirt, and black puffer jacket. The woman is looking down at her phone while waiting outside the steps leading up to an office building.
Photo of a young man wearing sneakers, blue jeans, and a cream coloured t-shirt sitting on a large, black-painted concrete block outside a building complex. The man is hunched over as he looks at the smartphone he is holding in his hand.
A woman and a man are walking down a footpath in a city centre with their arms on each others’ backs. They are wearing matching rings on their right ring fingers. In the background of the photo is a flower shop on the wide sidewalk.
Photo of a couple standing on the other side of the road from the photographer. They have their arms around each other and are looking up at the top of a building across the street from them. A green-and-white tram is about to cross in front of them.
Photo of a round stained glass window with an interior seven-petal shape carved out of brownstone. The front façade and spire of this ornate, gothic-revival style, brownstone building is being seen through a gap in the trees across the street.
Photo of the front façade and spire of an ornate, gothic-revival style, brownstone building that is being seen through a gap in the trees across the street. The year 1890 is carved into a shield at the top of the central spire.
Photo of a man and a woman standing in the crowd in front of the steps of a train station. The man has is hand raised as if he has just taken a selfie of the two of them.
Next week I’ll continue shooting at 85mm, and after that I’ll probably repeat a couple of earlier focal lengths.
Since I’m doing all this to potentially buy myself a compact prime lens in this year’s Boxing Day sales, I think I’ll spend the last two weeks before Christmas back at 27mm and 40mm. Those are the two focal lengths at which Fujifilm sells compact primes.
Happily, I really enjoyed shooting at those focal lengths. So if I am going to buy one of those lenses this year – assuming the sale price is good enough or I can get them second-hand – then I should repeat those two to see which one I should go for first.
This is personal website of Nadia Niaz and Ameel Zia Khan. Here we document our lives in Melbourne, Australia.
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
