Photo taken in December 2006 from Eureka Tower in Melbourne. The smoke arrived from the bush fires and hung around for 5 weeks.
But Why?
2026 seems a strange time to start a blog. They’re not very fashionable now. Most of the blogs that I’ve looked at recently are almost unreadable. Driven by click-bait headlines and scrolling through more ads than you can stand. That’s the last thing I want to do here. On this post I’m going to write about some of the thinking behind the site and also some of the technical problems I’ve had. I don’t expect it to be very interesting, but it will be good for me. As I develop the site I can look back and see if I’ve stuck to my original thoughts. I can also read about some of the technical challenges I’ve had and use those learnings for the next one.
I was driving from San Jose to Lake Arenal in Costa Rica when I got the idea. It was a 5 hour drive with pee stops and a smoothie in a soda on a mountain in a cloud forest. I went the slow way, north from San Ramon.
I wanted to create a site that was all about perspectives. I was fascinated with how people could have differing perspectives, even though they were standing in exactly the same place. I had recently met an anti-vaxxer in Manzanillo, a Canadian separatist in Atenas and a Trumper in San Isidro. While driving I would think about the encounters I’d had. And then I stopped at a Mirador and took a photo. I took 5 more photos with 5 different lenses and when I got to the AirBnB that night I had 5 different perspectives of the same place, taken from the same look-out.
That night I was sitting on a little deck overlooking the lake and the volcano and I realized the similarities between photography and life and people, as far as perspectives go. I became more interested in how people reached their perspective than what they were actually talking about. The separatist oil worker from Fort McMurray. The anti-immigrant couple from Leicester. I didn’t want to listen to their opinions, but I was fascinated with how they reached them. Had I been in Canada or the UK I might have thought, arsehole, and then moved on quickly. But these were nice people. They were interested in the same things as me. They were there for the same reasons. They just had opinions that were very different from mine.
The next day I found a Mirador on the south side of Lake Arenal. It was cloudy and a bit rainy, but it had a nice view of the lake and volcano. That’s when the idea hit me. I’d make a website called Mi Mirador, which translates to my viewpoint or my lookout. I wanted to write about how people get different perspectives and I wanted to show photos with different perspectives. I was really interested in how perspective ldistorts the truth. It’s not surprising. I had been using perspective in photography to tell outright lies about properties for 15 years. And before that I used to think that my job was to make supermarkets better for customers. Another lie.
I kept thinking about Mi Mirador over the next couple of months in Costa Rica and continued to write down ideas once back in Toronto.
The view of the Arenal Volcano with Lake Arenal in the foreground.
Bursting with Creative Energy
I’m not sure what caused it. It might have been driving around an exotic, tropical country on my own. It might have been that I didn’t have to work, or worry about not working. I had all of my camera equipment with me, but after surgery followed by surgery, I didn’t have much strength to lug it around. One of my objectives for the trip was to regain my love of photography after thousands of boring condo shoots. My camera had been a tool of work. I wanted it to be a tool of creativity again. I wanted to love taking pictures again. I had been thinking about it and planning it for 2 years.
It was frustrating. In the evenings I would write long messages to friends and family and Diane. They seemed to get longer and longer each passing day. If I couldn’t go out and take photos of wildlife, I could at least empty all of my thoughts onto WhatsApp.
I was reminded of a boss back at Tesco in the 90s. During one review he mentioned that I was great at doing things that hadn’t been done before, but always seemed bored by the daily routine. He suggested that I needed a more creative job and I should go off and join the Marketing Dept.
This is how I feel now that I’ve given up work. I’m either creating something, or I’m feeling down. Not depressed or anything, just a bit down and slower. It just took a life-changing trip to Costa Rica for me to fully realize and appreciate it. If I want to keep sane and be happy, I need to make, create, photograph, write, design, garden, cook and grow. If I can’t some or all of those things, I’ll be bored, boring, lethargic, lazy and stoned.
Had an idea for a blog.Had too much creative energy.Needed another creative outlet.Mix with photos of cute dogs from my past.
— Photo of Troi in 2003. Troi was named after the empath in Star Trek who came from Winchmore Hill.
Mi Mirador won’t be enough. That site will be all about perspectives and where they come from. I kept thinking of other things I wanted to write about. I want to share tons of photos. There’s lot’s of stuff I want to write that won’t fit into my plans for Mi Mirador.
I’ve decided that I need 3 websites.
Mi Mirador will be peoples perspectives, my perspective and photos from great viewpoints.
Toronto-Pix will be a celebration of all things Toronto. I have more than a million photos to choose from.
Mendl.ca will be everything that doesn’t fit in the first 2.
What I’m working on at the moment is getting the 1st and 3rd up and running. Toronto-Pix can wait until 2027. By the end of May 2026 I’m hoping to 6-10 photo-galleries and the same number of blog posts on each site.
This is Josh. One of the greatest dogs to have ever lived.
Photo of Josh in 2003. Josh was named after my then favourite curry, a Rogon Josh.
Now let's be clear about something.
I’m a poorly uneducated, pretentious buffoon who frequently fools himself into thinking that his opinion is more interesting than it is. I’m also the most overrated photographer that I know. It would be reasonable to ask why I’m spending so much time creating 3 sites, when there is little chance of anyone visiting.
My lack of photography and writing skills have been a hindrance in the past when I’ve tried to build websites. That’s because each of those sites were trying to sell something. Toronto-Pix tried to sell real estate photography. Mendl.ca tried to sell a professional photographer. Beach-Pix tried to sell prints and Club-Pix tried to sell social media photos. My new sites are just for fun. They’re for my mental wellbeing. There will be no sales, no pitches, no ads and no need to make any revenue. I’m hoping that the lack of fiscal ambitions releases the creative juices.
This is Banjo. He was the best photographic assistant that anyone could have.
2011 - 2025
