Photography I Created
- it has the word ‘shack’ in its name
- there are lobster pots hanging for styling
- it’s near the ocean
- it’s located at a wharf
- Chico Rolls aren’t on the menu
- there’s a grumpy fisherman on premises
A few hours on Magnetic Island, Queensland
🧲 Island
Thursday morning // Brisbane
Whatchulookinat
Yo
Alright, real talk, how far from an airport can you be and still call yourself an airport hotel?
As the Gold Coast left lockdown today
I’m studying for a Certificate IV in Real Estate at the moment, and there’s a whole section on how real estate agents can be human.
Must be a new section.
Meme, circa August 2021.
Please check surroundings
Good news, I finally get to leave the quarantine I never went into, but have been texted about every day for 14 days, despite calling the Victorian Dept of Health to let them know I left Victoria an hour after arriving and never even came from a hotspot and they said all good …
Failed to save a spider
James Gandolfini, aka Tony Soprano, was paid $3M by HBO to reject a $5M offer to be the new boss on The Office. We should really be paying people like @darrenhayes to not sell out our high school memories for food mountain.
Everybody, through this lockdown, please think of the birds
You used to call me on my landline, late night when you neeeed my love
She’s my daughter
Tugun
JQ133 to Auckland this morning. I think the sun was rising as well. @jetstarairways
MSM
A year on year decrease in traffic might lead one to say that the media is incentivised to encourage Trump-like politics.
Yes
Forgive me for thinking that the Victorian government doesn’t know what is going on.
I just transited through Melbourne Airport from Tugun (Gold Coast) to Hobart.
Applying for a transit permit: fine. Getting the travel permit: you’ve been in an orange or red zone (no I haven’t) Arriving in Victoria: “let me check with my supervisor, I think we need to escort you” An hour after arriving in Hobart: You need to quarantine.
Get it together guys.
One of my favourite views is from a few thousand feet above earth at sunset
“By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?”
I hope people will recognise us by our children. That knowledge of their kindness, joy, and peace would go before them.
Transiting through Melbourne Airport this afternoon
Widgets on iPadOS 15 are glorious. A year late, but glorious.
Apple Photos thinks Britt and I had couple photos taken in Tenerife to commemorate a day Australia celebrates killing horses because we gamble on them. Algorithms are fun.
Curtis Falls
I’m going to start trying to make wedding photos professionally
I really enjoy making photos.
This photo is one of my favourites, it’s of an unknown hiker taking a breather at Taft Point in Yosemite National Park.
Something I’m struggled with for the longest time is that I identify as a celebrant, that’s what I do, but I really enjoy making photos of, and for, people.
If you’ve been married by me, you’ve probably received a text message after your wedding with a sneaky photo, and an apology to your photographer for cutting their grass.
That’s my modus operandi, I’m already at an epic location for a sweet wedding, and there’s another photographer there directing, creating, expressing, and I steal a shot in the background. Most are pretty cool with it, and some, like my mate James Day, have been encouraging me in it for a while now. But it’s a bit cheap of me to steal other people’s shots, the real thing to do, is to make my own.
So today when I met with a couple about making photos at their wedding I felt so excited at the prospect of a new avenue of creativity for me, and the possibility of creating meaningful and enjoyable work for you.
I don’t have a photography website, or portfolio, or packages, or prices. I’ve been a wedding celebrant for over 12 years now, and I love doing that, but somewhere along the way I’ll figure out how me making photos can be a thing I market, but for now, feel free to check out the really quick portfolio I made with Adobe today so I had something to show the couple today, at www.joshwithers.photos and if you’re willing to take a bet on a celebrant making photos at your wedding, slide on in to those DMs
Sunrise at The Spit #goldcoast #sunrise
Walk like a Goldcoastian
FaceTime - 6.0/iOS15/Monterey - links to join a chat are easy and beautiful, and much more elegant than a Zoom link if it’s just a simple chat. I can see them taking the place of many a meeting.
Screenshot from iPadOS 15 Photos.
Somehow Photos has figured out from location and date metadata these photos are from a ticketed event, a Foo Fighters concert. But the hero image is of Weezer opening the show, and if you tap through to the slideshow the music is Fleetwood Mac.
Vale Alan James Snow
Today, Britt and I attended - remotely via live stream - the memorial service of her grandfather, Alan James Snow.
Alan’s life story is wide ranging and interesting, from his time in the NSW Police through to his large and international legacy in his family.
On the 1st of November 2013, while Alan was visiting his son in Queensland, I took the opportunity to record a podcast episode with him. I’ve always wanted to record the stories of people around us, but as often happens, time and priorities get in the way. So today, I’m proud to share this hour-long recording today with our family, and anyone else wanting to.
Apple Weather in iOS 15 is still wrong in Australia
Since the moment Steve Jobs introduced us to the iPhone, Australian users have had bad weather data.
The Australian Bureau of Meteorology is the only true source of weather data in Australia, but Apple sources it’s data from Weather.com, even though it owns Dark Sky now. That said, Dark Sky’s data doesn’t seem accurate in Australia either.
But it doesn’t matter how you skin it, Apple Weather has had bad data for a long time, and it continues in iOS 15.
Here’s comparisons from three apps, Apple Weather, Carrot Westher which is sourcing its data from Willyweather which I’m guessing it licensed from the BoM, and the one true BoM app.
Apple Weather developers, if you want to source true weather data, this is a great place to start.
As Brisbane goes into lockdown - 6pm June 29, 2021
Brisbane for the next few days
Every day, since whenever the feature launched, my iPhone has generated a set of Featured Photos from my 27,000 odd photos in the library. Since June 22 it’s stopped.
What have I done to deserve this?!
Do you ever wonder who the Ambulance calls if they’re sick?
Who knew you could report junk spam to Apple. Where does that data go, and how does it play out?
I would literally give Apple more money to stop spam texts and spam phone calls.
Nostalgia – its delicate, but potent. Teddy told me that in Greek nostalgia literally means ‘the pain from an old wound.’
A Mackay sugarcane fire is my ‘pain from an old wound’.
So apparently the tax department website has a queue now. Does the ATO know websites don’t have queues?
TF when Google invites you to sit at the Knights Round Table
I believe my fellow young people would call Luna a “vibe”
Felt fatherly, might delete later
I might not amount to much in this life, so if I die and that’s the case, please put this on my gravestone.
Sony AirPeak S1 … want.
Weezer’s Buddy Holly, from Windows 95 to Apple Music 2021
I first heard this song on in August 1995, discovering it on one of the Windows 95 installation CDs in the ‘Fun Stuff’ folder - left there to demonstrate the video-playing capabilities of Windows 95.
To listen to it in Dolby Atmos spatial audio today is quite a stretch from whatever low-res MPEG codec I heard in 1995.
Looks like someone in ASIO has finally experienced booking a Qantas flight at the last minute.
The 2007 email that spawned Uber, Snapchat, Tiktok, Instagram, and trillions of dollars worth of other companies - via @techemails
What’s the secret to not getting text message spam? This phone number is my wedding celebrant number and I’ve had it for over 15 years, so I’m not in a position to change numbers or turn on Filter Unknown Senders. It’s so annoying.
Revved up like a deuce, another roller in the night
The humble Australian ritual of gender reveal via a burnout.
“The driver burned out on a secluded road on the Gold Coast. As the drone flies upwards, the car continues its burnout until it turns sideways. Then a lot of things go sideways.
Photographing a blood red supermoon, a lunar eclipse, is seemingly outside of my skillset. I made many photos and all were degrees of terrible, these two - one shot on my 25mm and the other on my 70-180mm lens - are the ones I hate the least.
Did you know there’s no wombat emoji? I’m calling the president.
Moses?
Sk8r grrl carving up the skate park
TF when you think someone is going to steal your stick
The kind of rainbow that would make YouTube’s Hungrybear9562 weep with joy, a double rainbow.
Pot of coffee at Highline Palm Beach at the end of the rainbow
Australia’s Department of Defence: Defence announces Space Division
Australia: please let it be ARSE
📷 Friday sunrise on the #GoldCoast
Hanging with useless nipples Withers.
Captioned by her mother who is 20 minutes away.
View out my window right now
Bitey McBiteFace
Hey, bye @heyhey
The worst thing about having an AirTag in your luggage is that instead of guessing that your luggage is about to come out, it removes any doubt that it isn’t.
Burleigh Heads on a Monday morning
I’m dying of dystentery over this announcement.
Sunrises at airports are my theme of 2021
Melbourne weather: cloudy with a chance of Josh.
If you’re curious about AirTag use through a flight whilst on inflight wifi, Find My believes that Qantas dropped my luggage from a great height somewhere over Armidale.
Someone’s been to the salon
Cows on buns
Yarra.
The valley, not the river.
Mel
Name a more important Australian institution than the Great Regional Aussie Pub. Where would these acts play if not for the local?
QF
Doing my part for USA and Australian relations by making a photo of a @united B787 kissing a @qantas A330
My first photography commission: Reece Bathroom Life
Pretty proud of this.
For the first time since it was built last year, I’ve witnessed my first and only commissioned photo in person, at the Reece Bathroom Life showroom in St Leonards, Sydney.
One of the staff tell me that someone was asking about it last week because their bathroom has no windows and they wanted it in their bathroom.
No-one thought that I could go from cow photographer to bathroom photographer so quickly.
🚙
Luna approves of the Sydney Qantas Business Lounge
The only bridge climb in Australia better than the Storey Bridge Climb, of the two available
Take me hommmmeeeee, country airline
Syd
That shining glint in the Crown of capitalism
If you’re in Circular Quay this afternoon, the playlist is mine
It was not my final destination
Important noodle information
School’s out at Lismore Primary
Daylesford
What did Ausnet do?!
In sad tech news, my favourite Melbourne store - Mac Addict - has shut down through 2020. I literally booked a hotel across the road so I could check it out today. Heres a 2017 review from EFTM to showcase how beautiful the store was.
Trying out the NKOTB to Melbourne today
Conspiracy theory: Hungry Jacks has never had thick shake machines. The whole idea of a shake from HJs is a ruse. They’re under the control of Big Softdrink.
Oh that burns @decryption
Can the new city of Próspera be the better world we dream of?
Is it possible to build a better world? That’s what is being attempted in Honduras. Is it full of problems? Yes. Does it look promising? Yes!
Dive deep on Astral Codex Ten’s Prospectus
“If I can’t be within driving distance of Daniel Johnson’s Monkey And Sloth Hangout, I don’t want to be a part of your revolution.”
Toddler, living her best life, sitting in a Coles Supermarket trolley, eating tuna sushi. Circa April 2021. iPhone 12 Pro 4.2mm lens, f1.6, 1/50 sec, ISO 200. Photographer: Joshua Withers.
I’m going to be an Icelandic pop star, what are you going to be?
Five years since DJI has handed down an Inspire or Phantom from on high, and three years since a Pro Mavic has been bestowed upon us. What, oh Chinese lords, what will you gift us this week?
The Blue Mountains before the sun rises are a flippin treat
sunday flyday
That was quick, Find My, considering there’s no items to add or find yet
It’s been a while since I’ve taken the 6am Saturday flight to Sydney for a wedding, it feels good. I feel dribs and drabs of normality returning to my life.
What a brave, cunning, and linguistic call for Tourism SA to make.
Gold Coast Mayor calls in Evergreen to cause our own Suez Canal incident on the M1 to stop Brisbane people going “down the coast” for Easter.
#notthebetootaadvocate
I feel like the marketing team at Zarraffas have never had breakfast, they just saw an Instagram Reel about it once
You haven’t lived until you’ve live texted a Covid press conference with all of your wedding clients getting married in the next few days.
Cheers to the freakin weekend
We’re only one or two more “Covid ruined my wedding and now it’s your problem, Withers” away from collecting the whole set.
Good thing I’ve got great contracts that mean nothing in court.
Time to fly, Melbourne
I keep on finding this weird smudge on the top of some of my photos when I get them back from the film lab. Anyone know what’s causing it?
It's not all men, but it's only men.
“It’s not all men, but it’s only men.”
Those are some tough words to read, thank you for sharing Damien Johnson.
It’s not all men, but it is all people who look like me, who identify like I do, it is people who I could be mistaken for, or more importantly, people who I don’t fear but are fearful to other people.
I was thinking about the time that Dale and Barney and I were bashed up by a bunch of guys only meters from the cafe strip in Broadbeach, that was the first and last time I’ve ever been scared for my life, and I’m lead to believe that so many women feel that level of fear a lot more than I ever have.
I believe that a real inhibitor in the conversation about all this
To my brothers who feel threatened by the current movement, my encouragement would be that if you’ve done no wrong, if you’re not abusing your position by suggesting or insinuating sexual motives towards women who you have no right to do so to, then we have nothing to fear.
Stand by our girls and let them know you’re sick of it to, because I sure am. We can’t go back from this, we can’t go around it, or over it, we need to go through it.
Girls, I’m with you, it is ridiculous that you should feel fear to be in public alone, for it to be our default position that you are not safe in the presence of unknown men, and even worse than that, for you not to be safe in the presence of known men.
It’s not all men, but it’s only men.
Most Aussie shop ever
Boooo
I remember reading about wireless networking technology in computer magazines in the 90s.
When they said wireless I didn’t think they’d mean on a 7mm thick glass & metal slab, 160g handheld touchscreen computer, travelling at 800km/h, 11km in the air.
🏄♀️ Bells Beach
🐨 For once, the sign didn’t lie
Something not quite right?
Not many people know this, but Gotye’s Somebody That I Used To Know was actually written about Melbourne and I through 2020.
let’s fly jetstar tonight
After our year of “travelling” we’ve got our keys back. We’re going home!
Luna is a really coming around to this big sister vibe
First films
🌞
Let me introduce you to Goldie Grace Withers
No-one’s betting on a 2% chance of winning anything. If there’s a 2% chance of anything happening, that basically means the thing isn’t happening. Our doctor said there would be a 2% chance of us ever falling pregnant, and an even lower chance of us having two children.
But by God’s grace we’ve won that lottery twice now, so I’d love to introduce you to our little girl born yesterday, 4kg and healthy as you could ever hope for, please say hello to Goldie Grace Withers.
Thank you so much to our friend Bec Zacher for these amazing photos.
🌙
Funny looking Old Gum Tree there m8
Luna, we’re taking a photo for mummy, just hold on for a second
I’m at the markets talking to a friend and Luna walks off, treks across the whole market, to go to the stall she knows has watermelon. She gets a basket, puts a watermelon in it, and a carrot, and goes to the cashier.
I think she’s ready to leave home.
Saturday morning, February 27, 2021. Baby still going through customs.
Sounds like a Pearl Jam song
Palm Beach Boardriders
The Gold Coast property market right now …
Use Vegemite.
You know you’re reading an article not for you when the first interview question is answered by beginning with “we millionaires”.
Minutes before this screenshot I was on the front page of Hacker News, which is all a nerd honestly wants in his life.
I can die happy, affirmed by the nerd community now.
I’m titling this sad piece “July 2020, an infrequent flyer”
The Facebook news ban hammer fell on our training business a day after I posted an article on surviving a Facebook ban lol … you’re great Facebook, thanks m8
Dear DJI,
I’d like a new Mavic model please.
In late 2016, five years ago, you set my heart on fire. I’d been watching the Phantoms ghosting through the sky making aerial photography for three years. Your Inspire line had inspired me for over two. But the Mavic, the sweet little foldable package with a great camera, won me over, be still my beating heart.
That first relationship with the Mavic Pro was like the first time I drank whisky neat. I knew everything before then was wrong, and only this was right. I saw the Platinum and the Air taxi onto the UAV runways of our hearts and knew something bigger was coming.
And in late 2018 that Mavic 2 boarding call sounded. I fell in love all over again. With the choice between a Zoom model or a Pro model with that fat ‘Blad camera, I knew the Mavic 2 Pro was for me, and boy did we see the world. That Mavic 2 Pro and I, we travelled far and wide. Through America, New Zealand, Bali, Iceland, and all over my home that they call Downunder, we made photos and videos and had so much fun.
In Iceland in late 2019 my little Two Pro got a little bit confused - I think we were too close to the Arctic polar cap - and despite my best piloting, the compass wanted more, and she flew into the distance, and I’m guessing the side of a mountain about 25 minutes flight time away. Luckily for me, the DJI Go app data saved my bacon and a warranty-replaced Mavic 2 was in the mail.
In late 2020 the drone and my relationship had blossomed to the point where I felt like we could expand our boundaries and try new positions. On this one sunset afternoon one of us got a little too close to a wave, and then amidst the confusion, we got a little too close to a rock pool, and the rocks, and the pool, and things didn’t end well.
Alas, now I am drone-less.
I even received spousal approval for a new purchase as a birthday present last year.
But I look at the DJI product lineup and can’t help but feel like it’s missing a Mavic 3. In the intervening years new Airs and Minis have been released, so your passion for small has not waned. Yet the Mavic line of spectacular cameras, rocking some sweet sweet Hasselblad glass on a small and foldable aircraft, has gone wanting.
Please put a new drone into my hands, DJI.
Please don’t make me buy whatever Sony is selling.
“Why Josh was never invited back onto Studio 10”
A screenshot, circa late February 2021.
Note: First recorded use of the term PoN, an acronym for People of News.
What a beautiful time to be alive in Australia
Luna vs. Shark
Hanging out on ABC radio this morning
I’m (apparently) the celebrant you call when you want to find out if you have to have sex with your new spouse on the wedding night …
The most fascinating element of big tech is when a newcomer has such a good idea that it’s deemed stealable by the incumbents.
Twitter launches Spaces, a Clubhouse copy.
Butterfly on inside of the windscreen. Circa February, 2021.
Babymoon @ The Calile
Tuesday sunrise because sleep is overrated // Jolly’s Loookout, Mount Nebo
6:29am and the staff member at the hotel lobby bar & cafe says to the barista, “you know what I like” and smiles.
Yet the barista did not know what she likes.
Thankfully I said, “long black with cream, please” and then smiled.
Hey, be real with me, do you guys ever wear your daughter’s dresses?
February 2021 would have to be the most visually pleasing month I’ve ever seen.
Sunrise
Jumping into Sunday like …
May, the EK
Peggy
Fried chicken
Not a 5G tower, bro, but cool birth story
🌈
🌙 Our two year old adult
That face when mum has moved your stash
You know newsletters are a thing when Facebook feels so threatened by them that it needs to develop it’s own newsletter product. Via the Techmeme via the NYT
"To disrupt legacies of exclusivity, institutionalized racism, and complicity. To build a culture of inclusion and accountability."
This article by @mayags floated into my timeline today, challenging American storytelling gatekeepers to consider their gatekeeping position. It’s timely as Australia wrestles with its racist past.
Sunsets // a new way of measuring each day until it’s gone
Install Hush on your Mac and iPhone/iPad to get rid of all those annoying banners, pop ups, distractions asking you to approve or accept cookies. Hallelujah.
How cheap money and algorithms shaped the last decade and the opposite will shape the next
This is a powerful read for people trying to mentally tie a bow on the 2010s. Ranjan wraps it up saying that the cheap money thanks to near zero interest rate policies we’ve had since the GFC, and social media algorithms, are what shaped the last ten years of our lives.
“I’m incredibly excited about the coming decade because I am genuinely hopeful the two core trends I outlined will be reversed.
Algorithmically-optimized lying has prominently entered the conversation to the point our ex-President was kicked off. There’s simply no way money can remain this cheap for a prolonged period of time. What that unwind looks like is an entirely separate post, but there will once again be discipline imposed on the allocation of capital. Financial and technological regulation is far more imaginable than just a few years ago. Change is coming.”
10 seconds of pure iPhone exposure
With all the science, research, wisdom, and love in the world well never stop people dying. But we can stop people living.
Luna, presented without caption
The DJI Mini 2 couldn’t deliver the still images I was hoping for. Who would of ever thought that a drone lighter than an orange wouldn’t deliver great photos ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Thank god for the Apple return policy!
Have any M1 Mac owners recently tried to install an iPhone app .ipa file (circumventing the developer not making the iOS app available in the Mac App Store)? It worked for some apps when I first upgraded, but the iOS App Installer is erroring out now.
We brought a Peugeot to a V8 fight …
Little bit morbid there, Apple Photos
Day one of Baby Drone making photos and we’re back into lockdown because of fear of getting wet.
Watching this wombat sleep today reminded me that the wombat is my spirit animal
👩🚀 I always wanted you to go into space, mannnn (photo not by Babylon Zoo, only the caption)
We can dance if we want to. We can leave your friends behind. Cause your friends don’t dance, and if they don’t dance, well, they’re no friends of mine.
If you’ve been following for a while you might have sensed a tension between the joy I find in being online and the disappointment I find in news feed algorithims.
So I’ve been curating my own media diet for a while now and thought you might like a peek inside.
Luna. Takes no bull.
Money shot
Turns out the TARDIS gets it’s time travelling power from books. Important lesson for us all to learn, ya know?
Tasmanian Devil time
Emu
Wombats
Galah
Luna vs Kangaroo
🐧
How to spot a good fish and chip shop.
Bonus points for the shack being a seafood type of shack, for example this one is called ‘The Lobster Shack’
All I want for all of you is to enjoy life as much as Luna enjoys ice cream
So it sounds like MONA is celebrating being open again, this is the view from Dodges Ferry.
Nothing to see here, just an Independence Day-alien-ship-style laser beam going into Hobart …
Dodges Ferry.
With a fake sunset.
This is the first photo I’ve ever published with a synthetic element like a sky. But I’ve been colour-grading and removing things in the edit for years, and somehow this feels worse.
Who knows?
Spending Christmas in the Switzerland of Australia’s south
Shop inside a regional Tasmanian town’s local shopping centre. The professional life coach on staff on Christmas Eve is wearing knock-off AirPods.
