I arrived back from Melbourne on Saturday morning at 7am. I dropped my bag off at home, had a quick shower and headed out to meet my friend for breakfast. As I was munching on my bircher muesli, she asked if I fancied going on a day trip and proceeded to say that Brighton was £10 return on the train. Woah woah woah, I thought. I felt good but not THAT good and I knew that jet lag would catch up on me soon enough. So we settled on Greenwich. We had an amazing day but as soon as the darkness set in, sure enough, I was on my way to sleepy town. I was asleep by 8pm and awake on Sunday morning at 5am. Gotta love jet lag.

Eureka Tower – taken with 32mm f/1.2

It’s not too annoying though as it has given me time to root through all of my pictures from Australia. Speaking of pictures, this post is the review the Nikon 1 J3. I borrowed this beauty of a camera from Nikon for my trips to Venice and Australia and I couldn’t have been more glad I did. I have a Canon 500D, which I bought a few months ago. I do love it but it’s very big, heavy and not the easiest piece of equipment to carry around all day. And I knew I was going to be doing a lot of walking.

Australian busker – taken with 32mm f/1.2

The first thing I love about the Nikon 1 J3 is that it’s small enough to carry around your neck without getting in your way. The second thing I love is that it offers interchangeable lenses. Great ones too. They were a bit different to my Canon lenses and it took a little while to get used to them but once I did, I was away. My friends laughed at me in Venice as I snapped away at everything and held them up – but they were oh so glad when I posted their pictures when we arrived back in London. It was a good job that I was exploring Melbourne on my own for a few days on my trip because I could stop where I wanted when I wanted and snap away to my hearts content.

Remembrance shrine cadets – taken with 32mm f/1.2

I thought I would share a few of my favourite pictures from my trips. Most of them were taken with the 32mm f/1.2 lens as I just fell in love with it because of the incredible blur it gives to photos with its large maximum aperture of f/1.2.

Gondolas at Rialto Bridge, Venice – taken with 32mm f/1.2

What else do I love about the Nikon 1 J3? Well, the automatic mode is great but there are also amazing smart modes, which I used quite a lot. The camera also gives you the option to edit images and I used the cropping tool on a couple of occasions.

Gondola driver talking from the bridge – taken with 32mm f/1.2

I’m not a professional photographer. In fact, I’m far from it. I have learned a few things over the last couple of years by trial and error. But cameras like the Nikon 1 J3 have made it much easier for the novice to take excellent photographs.

Venetian doorway – taken with 32mm f/1.2

The camera will soon be making its way back to Nikon and I’m sad. My Canon is sitting on my desk in my room and I know it’s going to be hard to get used to it again. Christmas is coming so maybe Santa will be kind to me.

See more photos from Venice and Melbourne on my Flickr.