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Peter Midegs - Anthology of Creative Pursuits

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Peter Midegs - Anthology of Creative Pursuits

A journey of my lifetime creative pursuits in music, photography, and even some art. You could say I’ve been a 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒍𝒚 𝒐𝒄𝒄𝒂𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆! Boring?

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲, 𝐈 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐈’𝐝 𝐠𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐫 𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐳𝐲 𝐢𝐟 𝐈 𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐧’𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐲 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞. However, I haven’t always been able to actualise this during the entire 60 something past years, only when I’ve had time (and the energy) in-between working in ‘safe’ salaried jobs and raising a family. Here’s the thing. During most of my careers I worked in management or accounts-related roles. Well yes, c

an be exceptionally dull and routine - same same every day, every week, every year. There was the need to occasionally (or at times regularly) balance this by immersing myself is some artistic creative pursuit. The exception was a 13-year career as a commercial photographer – initially full-time, going to part-time after the tragic events of 9/11 basically shut down the market for commercial photography services for a very long time. I sometimes ponder, where does a person’s artistic creativity originate? Is it innate? Is it a case of it being stimulated by inspiration, or is it something that develops purely as an interest? Everyone possesses creativity, but not everyone has the inclination towards artistic creativity. Why are some people interested in art, while others are not? Back in 2005, during a void period in my personal creative pursuits, I decided to put my hand up for a committee role, membership officer, with the Sydney Blues Society. What I really would have loved to be doing is to be up there on the stage jamming with other ‘active’ members, the musos. Alas, at that time I didn’t feel the confidence, so settled for a role as SBS’s membership officer – yep, another administrator role albeit associated with creative live performance! Anyway, through that association with a bunch of new people in my life, I happened to be having a conversation at a gig one night with a guy called Wayne Dury…he plays the blues music circuits, is a great performer (guitarist, singer), always engages his audience. We talked for a long time. It turned out Wayne and myself are both the same age, both born and raised in Geelong, both left home, left Geelong at an early age (15-16), but that’s where the similarities ended. Wayne went on to pursue his passion as a guitarist/singer/entertainer. I haven’t stayed in touch, but understand he’s still performing. On the other hand, I pursued careers in ‘safe’ paid employment, especially once I turned 20 and family to raise came along. So, in 2005 Wayne and I were both aged 47. Similar to Wayne, I too had an early interest in music, learning the trumpet at school, playing in the school band, then at age 15 buying my first guitar and quickly developing a passion in that area. After my conversation with Wayne that night, I wondered what my life may have been, how much more creatively enriched it might have been, had I also followed my passion in music as a career! It’s a tough industry, but the intrinsic rewards would hands-down beat those obtained from doing the monthly accounting reconciliations and accruals! (…in my opinion)

My break into a full-time creative career, photography, came in 1993 (aged 35), when my existing accounts/quasi-IT career and associated financial circumstances allowed me to study photography for 3 years, with the aim of establishing my own studio and commercial photography business upon graduation in 1995. And that was brilliant for 13 years, notwithstanding certain personal life hurdles that came along during this period, as well as commercial photography also being a tough industry. These days, aged 60 something as I write this, I no longer have the eyesight nor equipment to continue much of an interest in photography. But I still do have guitars, and I still love playing and producing music when I have the time. This FB Page is all about my life journey with music and photography. There are many stories to tell - I’m aiming to curate this page well, including a background story with every post. Perhaps some of these may be inspirational to others.

𝐑𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫, 𝐝𝐨 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐲, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐥𝐬𝐨 𝐜𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐤 '𝐋𝐢𝐤𝐞' 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐅𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰'!

11/03/2026

𝗦𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗦𝗮𝘆

This 3-metre-tall sculpture, a temporary installation outside the Museum of Contemporary Art, is titled ‘Ancient Feelings, 2025’ by London artist Thomas J Price.

About the photography process: Exploration of unorthodox uses of the ‘portrait-mode’ setting on my phone-cam to achieve various localised soft-focus embellishments.

28/02/2026

𝗖𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗱𝘀

Needs more background blur! 😅

𝘈𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘺 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴: Exploration of unorthodox uses of the ‘portrait-mode’ setting on my phone-cam to blur background/foreground or otherwise enhance the intended visual communication.

Guys, it’s also about having some fun with modern-day digital photography (when confined to only a wide-angle lens), utilising the built-in tools and modes that are available.

It’s noted these built-in digital functions are not available on Leica or Hasselblad cameras.

…well then….call it photography-based digital art. 👍

25/02/2026

𝗣𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗽 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗲𝘁 𝗦𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗿𝘆

About the photography process: Exploration of unorthodox uses of the ‘portrait-mode’ setting on my phone-cam.

22/02/2026

𝗗𝗼𝘄𝗻𝘁𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗼𝘄𝗻

Happy Chinese New Year!

About the photography process: Exploration of unorthodox uses of the ‘portrait-mode’ setting on my phone-cam.

While the ‘portrait-mode’ setting doesn’t always get it ‘right’ for blurring relating to depth-of-focus on a scene such as this one, I do like the quaint way it can produce images with a distinctive looking three-dimensional quality. It’s largely a hit-and-miss process, as my phone-cam tells me to “move in closer” (1-1.5 meters) to achieve the blurred background/foreground effect. So I have to keep very still, maintain the composed image on the screen, and eventually my phone-cam says “Ready”. Okay…shoot!

15/02/2026

𝗢𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗰 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘀

About the photography process: Exploration of unorthodox uses of the ‘portrait-mode’ setting on my phone-cam.

11/02/2026

𝗠-𝗧'𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗕𝗗 𝗮𝘁 𝟱:𝟯𝟬𝗽𝗺

About the photography process: Exploration of unorthodox uses of the ‘portrait-mode’ setting on my phone-cam.

08/02/2026

𝗣𝗼𝗸𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗶𝗯𝘀, 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁.…𝗻𝗼𝘄!

Scallywag!

About the photography process: Exploration of unorthodox uses of the ‘portrait-mode’ setting on my phone-cam.

05/02/2026

𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗿

About the photography process: Exploration of unorthodox uses of the ‘portrait-mode’ setting on my phone-cam.

In case you’re wondering, I’ve edited this as I had envisaged the final image when I took the photo (dark, in context with the subject matter).

Having said that, it was surprisingly a particularly difficult edit, with the deep blacks and the bright specular highlights. Would be a great assignment for 1st year photography students learning sensitometry/densitometry!

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Section of sculpture by Frank (Guy) Lynch ‘The Satyr’, located at the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney.

03/02/2026

𝗦𝘂𝗯𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗿𝘀

About the photography process: Exploration of unorthodox uses of the ‘portrait-mode’ setting on my phone-cam.

01/02/2026

𝗕𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗡𝗘𝗪𝗦: 𝗗𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱

Metaphoric political statement? Ha! You decide…

About the photography process: Exploration of unorthodox uses of the ‘portrait-mode’ setting on my phone-cam.

For unknown reasons, the other day when I was out and about I suddenly had the inclination to do some new photography…but only in the ‘portrait-mode’ setting. More posts to follow once I get to editing the photos.

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OMG! Will anybody even see this post? It’s been a very long time since I’ve posted anything here on my FB Page….😧

29/08/2025

Ten years ago today - how time flies…..

Recorded in SiSaKet Thailand in August 2015 using only a Martin acoustic guitar (and a little bit of sound-modelling help from the Boss ME-70)

21/08/2025

𝑨𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒎

𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭

I do so enjoy a ‘good, meaty’ photography project, especially when I can apply a specific concept or theme to a series of images.

𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

I have absolutely no idea what inspired me to shoot this series. It just came to me one evening, totally out-of-the-blue. I don’t even recall seeing images such as these any time recently, so there didn’t seem to be any external influences. The odd thing is that over the past year or so, I had often ‘busted my brain’ to try to identify a phone-cam-doable photography project, preferably something a bit unique, but to no avail (until now). So I had to settle for various odds and sods of ‘street’ photography.

‘𝐴𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑚’ was certainly something completely new for me photographically. I remember initially taking some test shots and contemplating on that for quite some time, perhaps to see if such a project would be worthwhile and how I may be able to apply a theme to such a series. I felt it immensely important to have a prime concept, rather than to just present a bunch of seemingly random abstract images.

𝐏𝐡𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐡𝐲?? 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐭?

When I showed the series preview video to some friends (prior to posting it online), their initial response was “𝑊ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑡?”, “𝐼𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑝ℎ𝑜𝑡𝑜𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑝ℎ𝑦?”.

Firstly, I would mention there is absolutely no AI involved in these images, nor any digital editing ‘trickery’ or special effects. In fact, the images are pretty much how they came out of my phone-cam – just tweaked a bit in post-editing, and no cropping involved.

Allow me use this analogy to explain what it is…

In a photographic darkroom (i.e. film photography), there is such a thing as ‘contact printing’. That is when the film is placed in contact with the photosensitive printing paper and exposed to light. Typically, this method is used to create proof sheets from entire rolls of film, from which to select images for enlargement.

My ‘𝐴𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑚’ photo series is similar, but unique, in that it is ‘𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒄𝒕 𝒑𝒉𝒐𝒕𝒐𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒑𝒉𝒚’. All the images in the series were photographed from a distance of 0.0mm. …. 𝑊ℎ𝑎𝑡??!

If you haven’t already identified it, the images in my series are all tiny segments of various icons on my laptop’s desktop (the icons, to open programs or files). The method used to photograph these was to place my phone-cam’s lens directly onto my laptop’s screen, in direct contact, and to compositionally play around with framing. (Basic Photography 101!) How I came to do that? I have no idea. Perhaps it was associated with a photographer’s inherent quest to look at things from a different perspective.

At that distance (0.0mm), my phone-cam was doing some weird and wonderful things with colour bleeding, sometimes adding colour that wasn’t actually there. Its total incapacity to focus at that distance also led to some interesting results. For example, ‘𝑈𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑙𝑒𝑑 08’, the slightly menacing-looking ‘𝑔𝑎𝑟𝑙𝑖𝑐 𝑚𝑜𝑢𝑡ℎ’ image – this is actually a section of the tiny text showing the computer app’s name beneath the icon.

Having photographed various tiny segments of almost all the available icons on my laptop (over a couple of sessions, totaling about three hours), I ended up with hundreds of images to wade through, to cull them back to the ones I found compositionally most interesting or pleasing.

𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐀𝐫𝐭 𝐏𝐡𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐡𝐲

On the basis that I could envisage a series of these as large mounted and framed prints in an exhibition space, or a gallery, I’m quite okay with referring to this series as ‘fine art photography’. In my opinion, the images would look fabulous printed large and hanging on a wall. The scale of such prints would also add to the intrigue of the images (vs. looking at them on a phone’s small display screen via social media).

Alas, to produce that would require a re-shoot with much better (and significantly more expensive) camera gear than my phone-cam, which only shoots Jpegs at maximum resolution of 48MP, and 8-bit depth (limited to only 256 colours/shades), whereas 16-bit depth (65,536 colours/shades) would provide for much smoother colour and tonal density graduations on exhibition prints. Though, I 𝑤𝑎𝑠 quite impressed how smooth the colour and tonal density graduations were on the Jpeg images straight out of my phone-cam – much better than I had expected or hoped for. Perhaps this was assisted by the ‘out-of-focus’ nature of the images. But, to be sure, to be sure, I did apply a little smoothing in post-editing to areas I considered needed some help.

𝟒𝐤 𝐕𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐨

The Series Preview video is also able to be viewed in 4k high resolution on my YouTube channel – here is the link https://youtu.be/U2YAlj8aVbY?si=YUeTPbNEMaPxyGlU In settings, change ‘Quality’ to ‘2160p60 4k’.

So that’s it for this project. Cheers for now!

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About: Peter Midegs Anthology of Creative Pursuits

Really, I think I’d go stir crazy if I didn’t have an artistic creative element in my life. However, I haven’t always been able to actualise this during the entire 60 something past years, only when I’ve had time (and the energy) in-between working in ‘safe’ salaried jobs and raising a family. You could say I’ve been a consistently occasional creative!

Here’s the thing. During most of my careers I worked in management or accounts-related roles. Boring? Well yes, can be exceptionally dull and routine - same same every day, every week, every year. There was the need to occasionally (or at times regularly) balance this by immersing myself is some artistic creative pursuit. The exception was a 13-year career as a commercial photographer – initially full-time, going to part-time after the tragic events of 9/11 basically shut down the market for commercial photography services for a very long time.

I sometimes ponder, where does a person’s artistic creativity originate? Is it innate? Is it a case of it being stimulated by inspiration, or is it something that develops purely as an interest? Everyone possesses creativity, but not everyone has the inclination towards artistic creativity. Why are some people interested in art, while others are not?

Back in 2005, during a void period in my personal creative pursuits, I decided to put my hand up for a committee role, membership officer, with the Sydney Blues Society. What I really would have loved to be doing is to be up there on the stage jamming with other ‘active’ members, the musos. Alas, at that time I didn’t feel the confidence, so settled for a role as SBS’s membership officer – yep, another administrator role albeit associated with creative live performance!

Anyway, through that association with a bunch of new people in my life, I happened to be having a conversation at a gig one night with a guy called Wayne Dury…he plays the blues music circuits, is a great performer (guitarist, singer), always engages his audience.

We talked for a long time. It turned out Wayne and myself are both the same age, both born and raised in Geelong, both left home, left Geelong at an early age (15-16), but that’s where the similarities ended. Wayne went on to pursue his passion as a guitarist/singer/entertainer. I haven’t stayed in touch, but understand he’s still performing. On the other hand, I pursued careers in ‘safe’ paid employment, especially once I turned 20 and family to raise came along.

So, in 2005 Wayne and I were both aged 47. Similar to Wayne, I too had an early interest in music, learning the trumpet at school, playing in the school band, then at age 15 buying my first guitar and quickly developing a passion in that area. After my conversation with Wayne that night, I wondered what my life may have been, how much more creatively enriched it might have been, had I also followed my passion in music as a career! It’s a tough industry, but the intrinsic rewards would hands-down beat those obtained from doing the monthly accounting reconciliations and accruals! (…in my opinion)

My break into a full-time creative career, photography, came in 1993 (aged 35), when my existing accounts/quasi-IT career and associated financial circumstances allowed me to study photography for 3 years, with the aim of establishing my own studio and commercial photography business upon graduation in 1995. And that was brilliant for 13 years, notwithstanding certain personal life hurdles that came along during this period, as well as commercial photography also being a tough industry.

These days, aged 60 something as I write this, I no longer have the eyesight nor equipment to continue much of an interest in photography. But I still do have guitars, and I still love playing and producing music when I have the time.

This FB Page is all about my life journey with music and photography. There are many stories to tell - I’m aiming to curate this page well, including a background story with every post. Perhaps some of these may be inspirational to others.

Remember, do something creative today, and to also click 'Like' and Follow'!