A few evenings ago (it looks late, but it was not) I stopped at Aloha to reprovision my bar. I liked the look, so I made the capture. Fujifilm X100V and fixed 23mm f/2 at f/8 using Reggie’s Portra film simulation, straight from camera.
A few evenings ago I stopped at Aloha to reprovision my bar. I had a camera with me and made a capture. However, I have been busy and too focused to post much here. That is contrary to my intention of posting something here at least once each week.
I am mostly caught up with work and need to devote some attention to my other activities, including photographic work. So here we are, a post on the last day of 2024.
I suppose the title is also appropriate, a well wish at an ending and a beginning.
It was playtime at the Station 51 Park, a favorite place with my favorite people and my favorite dog. Shot with Sony A7R and Vivitar Series 1 70-210mm f/2.8-f4 probably wide open.
Nearly seven-years ago, Older Son and DiL were here for a visit. Of course, we had to get The Girl out for walkies. So, we walked over to the Station 51 Park and did a couple of rounds. And also of course, Ki got wound up and wanted to play.
She loved the grabass game. I played it with her a lot, but I have nowhere near the strength and reach of my son and those big ole mitts of his. He could sweep her around about like I could not and she loved it! It makes me laugh just to think about it.
While they played, DiL drank her coffee and I had a camera, of course. I was carrying the Sony A7R that day along with an old Vivitar Series 1 zoom. I came away happy and with a couple of good captures. These are two of my favorites.
This is a good memory of a good day. I am grateful that for day. Ki was so happy. Life is good.
Ki loved to play grabass and Jake is good at it. It was a good day. Shot with Sony A7R and a Vivitar Series 1 70-210mm f/2.8-4 lens, probably at f/4.
Weather is coming. Winter is here. Shot with Fuji X-E2 and Fujinon 35mm f/2 at f/8 using in-camera Classic Chrome film simulation.
Yesterday was too warm for the time of year. We just passed the Winter Solstice and the temperature has been in the mid to upper 50F’s. The wind was from the south at ground level, but I noticed a couple of wave clouds forming. Weather is coming. I pray for the holiday travelers who will be crossing the Sierra Crest today and tomorrow. There will probably be wind and maybe even enough snow to make travel treacherous for the inattentive.
The Girl and I walked our route at Silver Saddle Ranch. Even with a bum knee, she needs exercise to manage her energy and keep her muscle mass. A couple of times she wanted to zoomie, but I restrained that. She does not need to put that kind of stress on her knee, as much as watching her run would give me joy.
So, she is confined to her harness. It gives me a lot more control than the collar and permits me to assist her getting in and out of the rig.
As we walked, the Sun broke through a gap in the clouds for a few minutes, giving me this image of Mount Scott. I expect it will have more snow over the next couple-three weeks. That will give some variety to my captures, I think. It will be fun.
I decided to keep the little Fujifilm X-E2. It is a tiny camera that has an EVF as well as the LCD screen on the back of the body. The screen does not pivot, but that is OK by me. The camera produces nice images and pairs very well with the little f/2 Fujinon prime lenses, to which the Fujinon 35mm f/2 belongs.
I made a small kit that fits into a Domke F6 bag. I was using that bag for the Sony A7iii, but found it to be a little too small. So I moved the Sony to a Domke F2 bag that can carry some of my vintage glass. I think both kits will work fine.
We headed home after our walk, she limping a bit. I know her knee hurts. I hate this for her and it makes my heart hurt. We will get it fixed soon and then start the recovery phase.
I am grateful for many things, but certainly for The Girl. Life is good.
This old gate out at Silver Saddle Ranch has captured my attention any number of times. I liked the light this particular day. Shot with Fuji X-E2 and a Voigtlander 27mm f/2 at f/8 using the in-camera Classic Chrome film simulation, SOOC.
Christmas approaches quickly. I suppose I am ready, but not in any specific sense.
While walking The Girl out at Silver Saddle Ranch Sunday afternoon, I noticed this old gate again. It has been a subject several times over the last couple of years.
On this outing, I particularly enjoyed the afternoon light falling on this gate. We are in the winter season so the sun angle is much lower than in the summer. I made the capture and The Girl and I moved on toward the last part of our hike.
In the end, it was a good day. It is a good day. I am grateful and life is good.
Here are a couple of tools I use regularly — a flashlight, a fountain pen, a Fujinon 28mm f/2.8 lens (the cap is present, the lens was on the camera), and my Bible. Shot with Fujifilm X-E2, Fujinon 27mm f/2.8 at f/2.8, light post in DXO PhotoLab.
I need another coffee and a nap. My back hurts this morning, I think from the immunizations I received on Friday. It is not a significant pain; just the kind that is irritating enough to disturb rest and make its presence known.
I am in the process of selling things from my inventory to reduce my material load. I purchased a number of cameras over the last couple of years. They were all shot and all were bought on the recommendation of content creators I follow and trust. But, I can tell which are getting use by the dust accumulating on the top plates of those that are not seeing (pun intended) much use.
I intend to shoot the images for two bodies today, the Fujifilm X-E4 and the Olympus OM-D E-M10. They will then be offered on fleaBay so that they can find new homes and receive the love I am not giving them. The cash will go into savings to pay for Sera’s upcoming knee surgery.
She got into a kerfuffle with a coyote while we were hiking Thanksgiving afternoon. When she returned to me she was gassed, marked up, and lame in the port side aft leg. A trip to the Reno emergency vet clinic got her wounds cleaned and a preliminary diagnosis of a torn ACL. This was confirmed by her regular vet a few days later.
She is scheduled for knee surgery in January. In the meantime, she is on restricted duty and is walking on-leash only. She does not like the constraint, but she does not need to express her athleticism and cause more damage to the knee.
We are accommodating her injury.
This morning I am dealing with my discomfort, the interrupted sleep of several nights, and another dark, cold, gray day. We are accustomed to the Sun and I am definitely missing it. The cold does not bother me so long as the Sun is shining.
I spent some time this morning reading in my Bible, reading year-ago journal entries, writing a bit, and praying. These are all good things and are on my non-negotiable daily list. I am not always successful in my disciplines, but I am consistent. Sera’s walks are also on that list.
We will get a hike in today, God willing.
Now I think I need another mug of coffee. It is not going to make itself. The Girl is also asking to be fed. That will also not do itself. So, I better get after it.
Candles always remind me of Wife. No details were recorded or remembered. It is just a capture of my Christmas candle.
Dan Schimpf Software produces an excellent journaling/writing tool called MacJournal. When I was keeping an electronic journal, that was the preferred tool.
I am considering a knee brace for Sera. Animal Ortho Care makes custom braces.
My buddy got me started looking at watches because he knows I like mechanical things. The Caliber Corner has lots of data about watch movements.
Project Farm is one of my favorite YouTube content creators. He/they also maintain a website as well. He uses good practices to measure the performance of various tools and other useful items. They are not laboratory-grade tests, but they are based on good practice.
This Penco Drafting Pencil looks like a good addition to my EDC. I am not currently carrying a pencil and they can be handy.
I made this capture with the Sony A7iii and a lovely Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 AIS lens. Post processed in PhotoLab7.
Whew… it has been a week. I received a call early in the week for some help with a project. The question was whether (or not) an alternate outfall could be used for a proposed treatment/detention pond. I had limited data to work with.
So, I went to work to understand the existing system and assess whether there was sufficient capacity to accept outflow from the proposed pond. That lead down a rabbit hole of the existing system for which we do not have complete data.
I learned that we will need to do a more complete analysis of the system capacity and how much of it is currently used. So, I wrote up what I learned and forwarded it to my client yesterday.
Part of my current struggle is with The Girl. No, she is not a problem, but on Thanksgiving Day she got into a kerfuffle with a coyote (best I can tell — I never saw the fight or the animal). She was marked up a bit but of greater concern was that she was lame in the port rear leg. The incident caused us to make a trip to the 24/7 animal hospital in Reno for treatment. There it was identified that she likely tore her ACL in that leg.
I took her to her vet here in Carson for a follow up and she was healing nicely. This resulted in an ACL workup this week and the news is that she has a torn ACL. This is a common injury, particularly with athletic canines (she is) and requires surgery to repair.
The cost is not cheap but doable. The recovery will be three months or more. That is a lot of reduced activity time for a high-drive dog. But, we will do it.
This also puts me in the research mode to understand her injury and the various surgical (and recovery) approaches to treat it. That is what I need… another rabbit hole to go down.
I was up early this morning (just after midnight), rolled over, and could not go back to sleep. So I was up for a bit, reviewing YT videos of the surgical approaches and recovery regimens. I heard her shake, then she showed up in my workroom for some attention, which she got. She asked to go out, so out we went.
I noticed the sky was mottled with clouds and backlit by the Moon. So I returned to the house and retrieved the Sony A7iii and affixed a Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 lens to it. I used the combination to make a series of captures of what I saw. The frame above is the one I liked best of the lot. I did a bit of post-processing in PhotoLab and might make another run at it to produce a black and white image.
I will figure out what to do for The Girl. She is not a pet; she is my companion on this walk through life. While I am sorry she got herself into trouble, I remain grateful for her presence in my life, grateful I have the resources to take care of the surgery, and am simply grateful. I remember my buddy and am grateful he was a part of my life. He was good for me. He is missed. And, life is still good.
I shot this through my front screen door using a Nikon D800E and a Voigtlander 90mm f/2.8 Skopar at f/8.
I woke a few minutes ago1, rolled over, and decided I wanted water. So I got up, emptied my bladder, and got some water. I then sat down at my worktable and noticed my open journal. At the bottom of the page I had written “Vaya con Diôs, mi hermano. I love you forever.” I then remembered that my best buddy in high school died Sunday night. A cancer got him.
I did not get south to Corpus Christi on my last trip east. I made it as far south as Lubbock for a few days before heading west and home. Work called me home. I thought I would get back east and make the leg south this year, but then the workload increased enough that I could not leave.
Then he posted he was sick. A week or two later he posted he could no longer deal with social media. That was the last I heard from him. My text message went unanswered. My intuition told me things were bad. They were.
I can only hope he passed peacefully without too much pain. He had enough pain in his life. I prayed for him once I learned of his illness. I prayed for healing and I prayed for his peace. The healing was selfish and the peace was all I knew to offer.
I met him over 50-years ago. My dad moved us to Missouri to follow his dream of working a farm. That was either brave or foolish of him, to leave a life in surburbia and a job as skilled labor (heavy equipment operator) working as an independent contractor to pursue a life in rural Missouri working a farm.
That took me from the California school system (high school) to a rural high school in a town of 2,500 souls. It made me the odd man out and most of the townie boys were either hostile to the new guy or indifferent. A few were more open minded and friendly and my buddy was one of them.
We spent a lot of time together in high school. After high school we went our separate ways… he to the service and me towards engineering. I did not hear from him for many years until I found him on Facebook. That reopened the connection and we stayed in touch.
I attended our 50-year high school reunion primarily because he said he would. I had a project in Corpus Christi, so I made it a point to stop by and see him for a few hours before I had to leave. We kept up via FB after that.
Now there is a void left behind. The loss is not as savage as some in my experience, but there is loss nonetheless. I use aphorisms, generally with some light humor about them, and one is that the thing about living is that you never get out of it alive. One of the lessons for me is to live it, to make sure that I do some of the things I love every day… be sure to tell my loved ones that I love them, often… be kind to those around me… pray, thanking God for all good things… interacting with The Girl, playing, walking, snuggling… the list continues, so induct.
It has been colder here, not that biting cold of deep winter, but below freezing in the morning and only a bit warmer during the day. But the Sun is shining and walking The Girl gives us a chance to absorb its generous heat in the cool air. The image above reminds me that just a few months ago it was a lot warmer and the Sun rose early. I miss it a little bit as we approach the Winter Solstice.
The Girl is lame in the port aft leg. I think she damaged her ACL and will need surgery. Her vet will do his workup on her today and then I will know the options for her treatment.
So i have to be careful with her so she does not damage it more. She will probably have surgery to repair it and then go through the healing process. So, we are in for a bit of work. But that is OK. I do not mind working with her at all. She is worth it.
And despite the loss of my friend, I remain grateful. I had time with him. He was my friend and brother from another mother. And life is still good.
The Mexican Ditch and Trail, shot with the Sony A7iii and the Vivitar Series 1 90mm f/2.5 macro, at f/8. Post processing with PhotoLab to clean up the image.
It is the first day of the week, Sunday 24 November 2024 and I am beginning this week’s (ha!) list of remainders.
MrLeica is a YT content creator and blogger who treats Leica cameras and glass, among other things.
After a couple of decades of being afraid to eat ham and bean soupr (DiL… “Oooh, that’s bad, Dad!”), I fond this recipe. I am going to try the the trick of using canned navy beans and washing them before making my soup to see if I can avoid a disaster (so to speak).
As part of their holiday sales event, Simpleshot (makers/purveyors of slingshots) did something I really do not care for — they shared my contact information with other small business in the outdoors market. I forgive them; it is easy enough to unsubscribe. One of the new vendors is Wazoo Gear. It made me chuckle when I free-associated “out the wazoo!”. Their offerings look OK to me. Simpleshot is recommended too.
Apple Music and its predecessor, iTunes, continues to lose the album art for my music collection. I have thought for a while now that I might want to disengage from the music connection to Apple. This list of music players might be an option.
Here is another set of iTunes alternatives. I think there might be a full entry on my love/hate relationship with iTunes and Apple Music.
