Digital cameras through the years

As I dug through my old photos to precisely date my lost Instagram years, it occurred to me that I hadn’t documented anywhere all the digital cameras I’ve been using since 2005. So here’s that list in a nice timeline for future reference.

Infographic showing a series of digital cameras and smartphones placed along a timeline from 2005 to 2021

I don’t just have a timeline, I actually have a record of the first date on which I took a photo using each of these cameras. So, for completeness’ sake…

  1. Olympus µ-20: 4 Jan 2005

  2. Sony Ericsson K750i: 6 May 2006

  3. Canon IXUS 120 IS: 23 Aug 2008

  4. BlackBerry Bold 9000: 25 Jun 2009

  5. HTC Desire HD: 27 Nov 2011

  6. Apple iPhone 4: 1 Dec 2012

  7. Samsung Galaxy S III: 2 Feb 2013

  8. Samsung Galaxy Note 4: 9 Nov 2014

  9. Google Pixel XL: 2 Nov 2016

  10. Google Pixel 3XL: 18 Dec 2018

  11. Google Pixel 6 Pro: 28 Oct 2021

Fun times, and some really good photos too – the oldest of which you can see on my Flickr photostream, by the way (which I don’t post to anymore).

I look forward to seeing which camera – smartphone-based or otherwise – I get next.

UPDATE: I bought a new camera, a Fujifilm X-S10, in December 2022.

Unlocked Instagram photos 4: Jul 2018 to Dec 2018

July 2018

Melbourne

August 2018

Melbourne

September 2018

Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane

October 2018

Melbourne

November 2018

Melbourne

December 2018

Melbourne

Unlocked Instagram photos 3: Jan 2018 to Jun 2018

January 2018

Melbourne

February 2018

Melbourne

March 2018

Melbourne

April 2018

Melbourne

May 2018

Melbourne

June 2018

Melbourne

Unlocked Instagram photos 2: Jul 2017 to Dec 2017

July 2017

Melbourne, Sorrento

August 2017

Melbourne

September 2017

Melbourne

October 2017

Melbourne, Dubai, Karachi

November 2017

Karachi, Islamabad, Melbourne

December 2017

Melbourne

Unlocked Instagram photos 1: Dec 2016 to Jun 2017

December 2016

Sydney, Melbourne, Freemantle

January 2017

Melbourne

February 2017

Melbourne

March 2017

Melbourne, Avalon

April 2017

Melbourne

May 2017

Melbourne

June 2017

Melbourne, Sorrento

My lost years on Instagram

I’m not a fan of tightly gated internet communities. By ‘tightly gated’ I mean communities (ie social networks) that don’t provide public RSS feeds and also don’t let you view anyone’s content without being logged in yourself.

Instagram is one such gated community.

All my photos used to be publicly accessible

Before 2007 I didn’t publicly share many photos online. Those that I did, I uploaded as albums to this website – like my engagement and wedding photos.

Then in 2007 I joined Flickr and started posting all my photos there. Flickr was an excellent site, and I even had a paid account for several years.

My Flickr photostream from 2007

Instagram launched its Android app in April 2012, so a few months later I started posting photos there as well. During this period I cross-posted all my photos to both Instagram and Flickr.

Flickr stagnated, Instagram innovated

Unfortunately, Yahoo! pretty much stopped investing in Flickr. So, while Instagram was becoming increasingly easier and more fun to use, Flickr stayed where it was.

That’s why from 2017 I stopped cross-posting, and instead posted all my photos to Instagram only.

My Instagram photos from 2017

Facebook locked down Instagram

In the earlier days of Instagram you could still browse someone’s profile and look through all their photos without needing an Instagram account yourself. But, over time, Facebook made Instagram an increasingly tighter gated community.

Recognising this was happening, from the start of 2019 I started cross posting all my photos to this blog. That’s where we are now.

Diagram showing four timelines. Three of these are light grey in colour and are labeled ‘Flickr’ (2 Mar 2007 to 7 May 2017), ‘Instagram’ (8 Nov 2012 to 9 Apr 2019), and ‘Random tangent blog’ (1 Jan 2019 to now). One is orange in colour and is labeled ‘Instagram only’ (2017-2019).

Unlocking two years of ‘lost’ photos

What all this means is that I have almost two years’ worth of photos locked inside Instagram’s walled garden. This is what I’m now here to fix.

Over the next four posts I’ll re-share all my Instagram photos from 2017 and 2018 that are currently only available on that platform.

Here goes…

Moving a car workshop

At first I thought this was someone was getting a classic car delivered to them. Then I realised it’s somebody moving their entire workshop because this truck was followed by at least seven others, all carrying cars in various states of repair.

Photo of a beautifully restored 1960s era classic car in pale yellow on the back of a towing truck that’s driving down a residential street.

Food court, 4pm

I love a good liminal space, and I walked by one my way home from work today.

Overhead photo of a mostly empty corner of a food court. There are empty tables and chairs neatly lined up, with only one person sitting and eating and a couple of others walking by.

Also this café, that’s now closed till breakfast.

Photo of a food court café named Lily Li that’s closed for the day. The lights have been turned off and all the chairs have been placed upside down on the tables.

Delightfully dessert-ey

I’ve had a delightfully dessert-ey few days.

First I made a (gluten and lactose free) three-tier carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. Plus a basic fruit trifle. Both turned out really well :)

Photo of a dining table (with a flowery table cloth) around which people are standing. On the table is a large cake with rustic cream cheese frosting and the numbers 5 and 0 stuck on top of it. Also on the table is a trifle bowl containing fruit trifle that’s topped off with vanilla custard.

Then yesterday I made two pies: one apple and one sweet potato.

I made the gluten free sweet pastry for these from scratch too.

Close up photo of an apple pie cooling on a rack. Behind the apple pie, and slightly out of focus, is a sweet potato pie.

The apple pie even featured an unintentional alien face :)

Close up photo of an apple pie that has three slits cut into it so steam can vent during baking. The slits are arranged in a way that looks like two angled eyes and a vertical mouth.

And since I had some leftover pastry, I made a few mini apples pies for good measure!

Photo of four mini open apple pies cooling on a rack on a kitchen counter.

Those turned out pretty well too.

Close up photo of a mini open apple pie with crispy, caramelised apples and a nicely browned crust. This pie is lying on a cooling rack, along with a couple of adjacent mini pies.

So yay for some successful weekend baking!

At rest

Paws at rest…

Close up photo of a red/brown dog asleep inside a fuzzy orange dog bed. The dog’s paws are in the foreground of the photo, while its head is in the background and is slightly out of focus.

Chin at rest…

Photo of a red/brown dog sleeping on a grey dog bed. The dog’s chin is resting on the side wall of the bed.

Putting it all together: chin on paws at rest :)

Photo of a red/brown dog asleep on the floor. The dog’s chin is resting on its two front paws.

Quiet snoring

It’s nice to have a dog that responds well to antihistamines. Instead of congested snoring while you’re trying to work you get adorable, quiet snoring :)

Photo of a red/brown dog curled up and asleep in a fuzzy orange bed. The dog’s face is nuzzled into the wall of the bed, and it has its paws tucked up in front of it.

Tall crane is tall

Turns out if you need to pour cement into a block at the back of a good sized residential property then this is the crane you need.

Photo of two trucks parked back-to-back on a residential street. One truck is a cement mixer and the other truck has a tall crane on it. The two are connected via a large pipe.

It might be loud, but it certainly does the job.

Photo of a truck parked on a residential street. The truck has a tall crane built into it. The crane has a long pipe running through it. The pipe is pouring concrete into the very back of an empty plot of land.

It is a little disconcerting to have a four story tall crane teaching into the sky just a couple of houses away from yours though!

Photo of a residential street with cars parked on it. Also on the street is a truck with a four story tall crane that is reaching out to the back of one of the properties on this street.

Lifting party 2022 at Barbell Babes Brigade

Another year, another fantastic Barbell Babes Brigade lifting party for Nadia – with one equal and two new personal bests!

Photo of a woman in a large indoor power lifting gym. The woman is wearing black exercise gear, wrist straps, and a lifting belt and is smiling at the camera. She is leaning on a barbell with heavy weights on it that’s been placed on a lifting rack.

This year’s results:

  • Squat: 90kg

  • Bench press: 50kg

  • Deadlift: 107.5kg (up from 65kg just two years ago!)

Photo of a woman smiling broadly at the camera. The woman is wearing a sleeveless black exercise top and is standing in a large power lifting gym.

#JustStrong

Photo of the back of a woman’s head. The woman is standing in a large power lifting gym. She is wearing a sleeveless black exercise top and her hair has been arranged into a bun that’s being held together with paint brushes.

Peanut butter bread

Turns out peanut butter bread is super easy to make and is quite delicious.

The recipe I followed made a relatively mild loaf, so next time I’ll make a richer, more cake-like version.

Photo of a home-baked loaf of rich brown bread cooling on top of a wire rack on a kitchen countertop.

FYI: I followed the 1932 recipe in this video (which is from the US Great Depression) and I’ll try Dylan’s own peanut butter bread recipe for the next loaf.

Spotting Nadia while she lifts heavy weights

Nadia Tweeted this:

Which I quote-tweeted and said:

Don’t tell Nadia, but spotting her is one of my favourite things to do. Not only do I get to watch her lift ridiculously heavy weights (and increasingly heavy ones at that) I also get the opportunity to hang out with her when she's having the most fun (+ take cool photos of her)!

Photo of a strong-looking woman in a black sleeveless shirt and hair held up in a bun with paint brushes. The woman is wearing wrist straps and a thick leather belt for lifting heavy weights. She is standing in a room in front of a weight rack that has a loaded barbell on it.

Herring Island picnic

Hello from Herring Island in the Yarra River in Melbourne!

Selfie of a man wearing a t-shirt, sunglasses, and a straw hat. The man is standing in an lightly wooded area that’s on an island in the middle of an urban river.

The island is a short punt ride from Richmond.

Photo of a small punt making its way across an urban river to ferry people to the other side.

It has gazebos, public barbecues, several picnic areas, toilets, and even a pottery store.

Photo of a gazebo and some park benches in a large open field surrounded by a wooded area.

Plus there’s artwork to check out. Including this one – ‘Steerage’ by Jill Peck – that you can sit in :)

Selfie of a man wearing a t-shirt, sunglasses, and a straw hat. The man is sitting inside a large piece of artwork that’s shaped like a wide boat. This “boat” is made from pieces of granite, so it looks like grey cobblestones.

It’s a lovely place for a walk and a picnic. 8/10 would recommend.

Photo of a woman in a red and black patterned dress and a straw hat walking across an open field that’s surrounded by tall trees.

Hot day

I know it’s going to be a Hot Day today, but it’s quite nice out there right now. Even if it is a smidge windy and a tad humid.

Selfie of a man wearing sunglasses and a wide brimmed hat with the sun behind the man’s head.

That said, the temperature did rise by almost three degrees in just the half hour that Maggie and I were out walking. So it’s not going to be pleasant for too much longer!

Selfie of a man walking a red/brown dog on a red leash. The man is wearing a t-shirt, sunglasses, a wide brimmed straw hat and is looking up at the camera. The dog is just behind the man, sniffing around in the grass on a nature strip at the side of a road.