What I Use

The following stuff is all things I use to do the things I do and create the things I create.

Computer-shaped objects

As is the nature of working in IT (and still holding onto the glory days of computing being a vintage computing enthusiast), I own more machines than I can keep track of, of varying ages and states of functioning. However, day-to-day I use:

• Mac Mini M4 (24GB/512GB/1Gb Ethernet - wishing I had gone for the 10Gb NIC model).

• Macbook Air M1 (8GB/256GB model).

• A 1999 350MHz Blueberry iMac G3 that sits pride of place at my desk for various retro computing shenanigans - which was previously a 233MHz Rev B. Bondi Blue model which is now currently awaiting repair :(

• A custom-built workstation (for anything that isn’t macOS, unless it is also currently running macOS as it has been known to do):

  • Intel Xeon E5-1660v3 @ 4.3GHz
  • 48GB DDR4-2400 RAM
  • AMD Radeon RX6700XT GPU
  • Built on an AsRock X99-Extreme4 motherboard in a Fractal Define R5 case

Monitors and Peripherals

I always favour wide-gamut displays over anything else. I keep my monitors calibrated to 160cd/m², 6500K, 2.2 Gamma.

• Dell U2723QE as primary (4K 27").

• Dell U2415 as secondary, mounted on a monitor pole directly above the primary (1920x1200, 24", 16:10 is simply a superior aspect ratio).

I was using a Dell U2410 as my primary until quite recently when it finally died after many years of service. I still miss it; that thing was the king of versatility. I’ll likely pick up another one at some point.

At my desk, I use a 1995 IBM Model M keyboard (my second one, as I absolutely did not break the first by spilling a lot of coffee into it), and either an Apple Magic Trackpad 2 or a Logitech MX Master 2S, depending on what I’m doing.

Photography

I primarily use film (mostly 35mm, some 120), so the gear I use most often revolves around that. Some digital equipment does still get used and has its place though!

For scanning I use:

• Nikon Coolscan V ED for 35mm.
• Epson V600 for anything that isn’t 35mm.

I’m desperately holding onto the now ancient Adobe Lightroom 6 (the last standalone version of Lightroom Classic) for all my day-to-day photo processing. All my film scans are processed through NegativeLab Pro.

Camera-wise, I have far more of them than I know what to do with! However you’ll likely see me out and about with:

• Olympus OM10 or OM-2n with a variety of lenses.
• Canon EOS 300 for when I want a bulletproof film SLR.
• Yashica Mat-124G TLR for Medium Format, coupled with some Rolleinar #2 close-up lenses for macro work.
• Canon EOS 600D if I’m crossing the floor temporarily to digital or doing Infrared work.
• Voigtländer Vitomatic II for some rangefinder action.

For printing my work, I use a Canon Pixma Pro-100S inkjet printer. I’m a big fan of Ilford Galerie papers.

I develop all of my black and white film myself; my go-to developer is HC110, usually in the form of Ilfotec HC or Bellini EuroHC.

Music

I have way too much music-related stuff to list it all here, however I do have some special mentions.

My fingerstyle guitar work is almost always written and recorded on either a 2014 Yamaha NCX700 or a 1978 Juan Orozco Model 8. If you’ve listened to any of my work, you’ll have almost certainly heard them used. They’re both incredible instruments; til death do us part.

For electric guitars, I’m a big fan of Irongear pickups, especially the Hot Slag and Blues Engine.

DAW-wise, I was a REAPER user until quite recently, when I made the move to Logic Pro.

Other Day-to-Day Software/Tech

• Vivaldi for web browsing (I grew up using the old Presto-based Opera so this feels right at home).
• Thunderbird for e-mail (yes, I know I’m weird!).
• iTerm2 for a good macOS terminal with ohmyzsh.
• jellyfin-tui for a desktop media player that connects to my Jellyfin server.
• It’s not software but I still carry around a 6.5G 120GB iPod Classic with some Kiwi Ears Cadenza IEMs.
• I use just about every OS going, though macOS is my day-to-day since I want a UNIX that I don’t have to fight too much with. Linux-wise I use almost every major distro out there for something at some point (except for Arch, booo!), though I always come back to Debian, Fedora, or Gentoo. I’m also a huge FreeBSD fan.