Welcome to my personal corner on the web! I'm Samuel Lison, and I am from Australia.

My journey into photography and hiking began late in life, around mid-2024. I never thought I would be interested in hiking, not even photography. I've never taken courses on photography, nor have I really been taught about nature. But something drew my attention as I noticed over the years that I would enjoy taking quick snaps using my mobile phone, taking advantage of the macro photo technology on mobile phones, especially of beautiful fungi.

Over the years, I noticed I had quite a collection in my photo gallery of close-up photos of the fungi world, and I developed an interest in video editing and basic graphic design for one of my side indie-game projects I've been working on for more than 6 years, called SL Colonies.

I asked my younger brother, who was great at photographing cars, if I could borrow his old Nikon D7000 and started snapping away and practicing. Little did I know that I would absolutely love this new-found hobby, and I would go on long day walks in local state and national forests looking for the beauty of fungi to snap and edit photos of for myself.

Of course, mushrooms tend not to grow in summer periods, so I found myself transitioning into hiking, not focused just on the photos. With that came an interest and a culmination of both hiking and photography, which I intend to keep doing over a long period of my life.

Why I Made This Site

So, I started sharing photos and videos of my hikes on social media. But I also found that social media and the internet were not what they used to be. It's all about data gathering, fingerprinting, and selling your data to advertising agencies. So a side hobby of mine became setting up my own servers to regain control and ownership of my own data.

This website has become my main identity. I use a lot of various social media platforms, and it is hard to post one thing and copy it over to all these different silos and try to see responses and questions to your work without spending all day on social media. This HUB, my website, allows me to make one post and cross-post to a bunch of other providers and also tracks responses in one location, allowing for a community HUB for interaction and sharing.

So, not only will you find my photos here as I edit them, but I will also share my full hiking videos and sounds that I have gone out and recorded in nature.

My Hobbies

Beyond photography and hiking, my hobbies revolve around technology, particularly in my home office. I love editing my videos and photos and enjoy tinkering with websites and services. I'm always exploring technology at home, whether it's setting up websites, managing my NAS, upgrading my network, or optimizing my personal office space.

Reading has been a big part of my life, with interests in consciousness, DMT, psychedelics, witchcraft, esoteric practices, and meditation. However, now I focus on one book, Falun Dafa, which I read over and over as part of my daily cultivation practice.

I love hiking within an hour from home but am planning longer trips with my family around Victoria and Australia. I'm not particularly interested in overseas travel, as I believe there's so much to experience in my local area and country. I enjoy finding trails, especially loops that offer a few hours of serene bush walking, away from the tourist crowds. On these walks, I look for fascinating details like fungi or flowers to photograph. Recently, I've started recording my full hikes to provide traceability and origin for my photos, sharing the exact moment when and where they were taken.

My focus on privacy has grown, leading me to de-Google my phone, use GrapheneOS for enhanced security, and keep app usage to a minimum. I communicate through secure messaging apps like Matrix/Element and run my own servers for encrypted messaging, social media platforms like Mastodon and Pixelfed, and host my website with Micro.blog for IndieWeb practices. On my PC, I avoid proprietary software, opting for Linux (specifically POP!_OS for its ease of learning) and FOSS (Free and Open Source Software). I use containers in VMs for any non-open-source applications, ensuring I can easily wipe and reinstall if needed. For web browsing, I use containers to minimize fingerprinting, and I route all my browsing through TOR via a WHONIX VM for casual browsing. I maintain a VPN connection for all activities on both my phone and PC, and I use encrypted PGP email and ProtonMail. My approach to technology isn't about anonymity but about controlling my data and information, providing algorithms only with the information I choose to share, considering how much these businesses profit from our data.

I hope this site inspires you to explore, capture, and share your own adventures or simply to appreciate the beauty of the world through my lens. Feel free to connect with me on social media, email or encrypted messaging for any inquiries, or to share your thoughts!