Winter light in Almaty
The first snow on the mountains changes everything about the afternoon light. Around four o'clock the whole valley turns the colour of weak tea, and the shadows of the poplars stretch across the road like piano…
Notes
Travel, film photography and small home projects. Mostly from Almaty, sometimes from further away.
New: Southeast Asia, base by base. Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos and Singapore: twenty slow routes from every base, with practical tips, stories and photos.
New: Kazakhstan in 20 routes. From Big Almaty Lake to the chalk cliffs of Mangystau, with practical tips, history and ready-made itineraries.
Rebuilding the home media server
For years the family photo archive lived on three external drives and one very old laptop. This summer I finally moved everything to a small Linux box with two mirrored…
Notes from a slow week in Bali
It rained almost every afternoon, which turned out to be the best thing about the trip. With nothing to rush to, I read three books, walked to the morning market every day and learned the names of exactly four kinds of…
A darkroom on a budget
You don't need a dedicated room to develop film at home. You need a light-tight tank, a changing bag, three bottles, a thermometer you trust and a kitchen you are allowed to make slightly…
A day trip to Charyn Canyon
Three hours of steppe each way, and worth every kilometre. The Valley of Castles is exactly as dramatic as the postcards, but what I'll remember is the silence at the bottom of the canyon, broken only by the river and…
Three boring rules for backups
Every few months someone I know loses photos to a dead phone or a stolen laptop. My advice is always the same three boring…