I like the juxtaposition of the river and the flowers.
The last few days The Girl and I walked from the Silver Saddle Ranch gate to the Mexican Dam (and back). This trip is a bit more than four miles, which is good for both of us.
The goal is to get out there not late than 0700h before the sun rises too much. She is sensitive to too much sun (overheats). Plus, the light is better early and there are lots of things that will make photographs.
I carried the Fuji X100V this morning and am still experimenting with the Kodachrome 64 film simulation. I like it and it works for many of the things I want to photograph outdoors.
It was a great hike and a beautiful morning. The capture above is lagniappe. Life is good.
I liked the light, this morning. Capture was Fuji X100V at f/4 with a Tri-X 400 film simulation.
We have walked past this marker a thousand times, I think. But this morning I liked the light, so I paused, while The Girl sniffed about, and made a capture with the Fuji X100V. The capture was at f/4 and I am playing with a Tri-X 400 film simulation.
I shot a lot of Tri-X and developed most of it with D-76, usually the 1:1 dilution. What a great film.
I am really enjoying the Fuji X100V. Life is good.
Captured on walkies at Silver Saddle Ranch with the X100V. Exposure was at f/2.8 using the Kodachrome 64 film emulation.
The Girl and I got out early today. The Flight of the Bumblebees contest started at 1000h local and I wanted to get out in the national forest in plenty of time to survey my operating point and decide how to deploy the station.
So we left the house about 0630h, drove my McD’s for another coffee and a breakfast sandwich, then headed out to Silver Saddle Ranch for walkies.
It was a bit more congested than normal, being the weekend. But we cleared the crowd at the gate soon enough and had a nice walk, if a little shorter than the last couple of days. I think that is OK as I pushed pretty hard Friday and Saturday.
I carried the Fuji X100V with me and a new film simulation — one that is supposed to mimic the color response and contrast of the beloved Kodachrome 64. I sure shot a lot of that back in my film days. What a great film.
I came home with a few decent captures, this being one of them. I like the film recipe. I think it is a keeper.
After walkies, we headed back to the house so I could pack the station, then dropped by Raley’s to buy a sandwich, and then up the hill. It was a good place. I think I will go back again as it is also a designated park, so I can do Parks On The Air there too.
I think this is the first time I saw a desert peach. Image captured with Fuji X-T5 and the Fujinon 18-55mm f/2.8-4 lens.
We were out for walkies about the normal time this morning — a little later than I want but early enough that the heat has not risen. We staged at the entrance to Silver Saddle Ranch, I gathered up my things and started my tracker, and got The Girl out of the rig.
Then we were off.
There was no traffic this morning. So Sera Sue had free rein most of the time. I called her back in now and again, for practice and to check on her. When we neared the choke points where we often encounter other walkers but I cannot see them, I called her in to heel (and also for practice). At the ranch compound there was a horse trailer parked so I put her on leash. That area is often congested anyway, so a leash is a good idea.
Along the way I spotted this desert peach. I saw the fruit on a number of these desert shrubs this year, but this is the first ripe fruit seen. Maybe I should try one.
In any event, it gave me a good image. We also had a good walk. I love walking with The Girl. Really, I just love The Girl.
This is the mailbox at the Silver Saddle Ranch compound. Shot with the Fuji X100S at f/4. Post processing in Iridient Developer.
I was up early this morning, about 0500h. After a couple mugs of coffee and some work, it was time to get The Girl out to walk before the heat rose.
The air felt odd out at the ranch this morning… too warm for the given temperature and the wind was from the south. I was glad we got out relatively early because it felt like the day would warm quickly and be hot even if the forecast temperature was nearly ten degrees less than the day before.
I carried the Fuji X100S this morning. It is such a great little camera. The lens is quite good and the X-Trans sensor is still very good for a camera that is more than five-years old technology.
I made a capture of the parking area ahead sign, but it did not work. I will try again because it is geometrically interesting. I did settle on an image of the ranch mailbox. I do not know if mail is still delivered to the ranch, but there is a mailbox.
The shot was captured at f/4. I did not note the ISO and I pay little attention to shutter speed most of the time. I made some adjustments to the capture with Iridient Developer, mostly contrast but I bumped the saturation a bit and added a little sharpness. I spent about five minutes on post processing.
We had to hurry home because I had a meeting. It was still a good outing. Life is good.
I shot this with the Sony A7S and a Jupiter 8 50mm f/2 lens at f/8.
This morning was my morning to get out the new (to me) Jupiter 8 50mm f/2 lens I recently acquired. I affixed it to the Sony A7S (Mark I) and carried it with me when I got The Girl out for walkies.
I made several shots along the route and there are probably a couple more that are worth looking at a little more. However, after our walk I drove over to the east side of the Carson River and got The Girl out over there for a few minutes. I wanted to see the river.
This capture is alright, I think. It took a little adjustment to bring up the colors a bit. The contrast also needed some adjustment as it was a little flat. But I like the image.
I need to work with the lens more. It seems a little soft wide open, but has interesting bokeh wide open. It sharpens up by f/5.6 although the bokeh is lost.
This is an iPhone selfie of me with the Osprey Stratos daypack in front of the Silver Saddle Ranch alfalfa haystack.
Yep, that is me in a rare selfie shot with my iPhone 13 Pro Max. On my back is the Osprey Stratos 24-liter daypack. It has been carried many times in the field, both on my daily hikes and when working.
There is much to like about this pack. It is well constructed. It is suspended off my back. Although that does not eliminate a sweaty back on warm days, it does permit significant air flow over my back and the suspensions system prevents chafing, which has been a problem with some packs I have worn.
It carries a 2-liter Camelbak easily in a pouch inside the rucksack. There is space for a couple of water bottles on the sides as well. Each will hold a one-liter Nalgene bottle.
But, it is not my perfect pack. The ruck has a bit of an odd shape and does not permit carry of much beyond the Camelbak. There is some room in the flat pocket on the front the pack and a small pouch on top for a few items.
It is plagued by my common issue with most civilian packs — there is no place to hang stuff on the outside of the pack. Military packs all have webbing and that provides space to hang some of the things I want to carry in the field, but do not want inside the pack. I want a place to hang Sera’s lead (other than the sternum strap). I want a place to hang a small pair of binoculars. I want to hang a camera sometimes, when I do not want it in hand.
So, as much as there is to like about the Stratos, it is not the solution I want.
Enter the Eberlestock FAC pack. It has webbing, is a little larger (with room for a radio inside), and has a good waistbelt. It does not have the suspension of the Osprey, but has a lot of padding on the pack and straps.
I just need to take time to outfit it and work out where I want to put things. Maybe I can get to it this weekend. Then I can carry it in the field a few times and test it.
In any event, I am still looking for the perfect pack.
Alfalfa bales. Fujifilm X100S, f/4, processed to black and white in Iridient Developer.
On walkies this morning, I pulled myself out of my head many times. There is so much work at the moment that I keep being drawn back in to thinking instead of being. One of the reasons I love walking The Girl and carrying a camera is that both help me get out of my head and into my space.
The Girl does so because she requires attention to keep her from being so distracted she gets into trouble or roams too far out. I do not mind her hunt for critters in the sagelands… provided I keep sight of her and she does not get involved with Jacob-no-shoulders.
The camera helps me by directing my attention to things that might make an interesting photograph. This requires a different kind of attention that The Girl. It is also something that nourishes my soul. Actually, so does minding The Girl, but in different ways.
The work here is to stay out of my head. I have a tendency, some might say a proclivity, to overthink problems I am working on. It is particularly true when I have multiple projects active and there are problems that need solutions.
But, I do not want to spend all of my energy working. There are other things in life that are important too and The Girl is up near the top of that list.
This morning, in particular, I had a great struggle pushing the engineering problems out of my head and bringing my attention to my surroundings while out on our walk. Although I got out late (for this time of year) and the sun was quite warm, it was still a beautiful morning to walk and The Girl is so entertaining to watch.
The result was a partial success. I found myself lost in thought several times (too many) and consciously brought my attention back to the here and now1. It was difficult and each time I noticed I was looking at my feet (or the trail directly in front of my feet) and was oblivious to my surroundings I had to look up, shake my head (to clear the cobwebs), and pay attention.
We paused at the ranch compound and I noticed the ranch hands are moving alfalfa bales from the field to the hay bin. So we stepped into the yard, which made The Girl quite happy for new hunting grounds, and I paused at the haystack. There I found some possibles that I liked and made a few captures.
In the end, I chose this one. The image was made with the Fuji X100S at f/4. I did a little more post-processing on this one in Iridient Developer, converting it to black and white and making a small adjustment to the contrast.
The first in a long line of railroad tie posts. Captured with the Fuji X100S using the in-camera black and white conversion.
The Girl and I got out for walkies a little later than I like, now that the weather is truly summer. But there was an overcast, so we did not suffer the direct sun.
But that also meant that the light was not as nice. So I had a little trouble finding something that I liked.
Maybe I settled for this capture of a long gone fenceline. There is only a line of (more or less) vertical railroad ties that remain. The subject is the first (or the last) in that line.
This poor cottonwood is hanging on, but it sure has seen better days. Capture with Fuji X100S, 23mm/2 at f/8.
On walkies out at Silver Saddle Ranch this morning, The Girl and I paused for me to make an image. I have been looking at this old cottonwood tree for a while now. This morning I thought that a black and white image with some red filtration might make an interesting capture.
So, while The Girl sniffed around looking for a lizard, I made a few captures with the Fuji X100S. After getting home and reviewing the lot from today’s outing, I like this one the best.
Post processing was simple. I used Iridient Developer to make a small adjustment to the contrast of the image and then exported it. That was all I did. The black and white conversion was done in-camera.
I bought the Fujifilm X100S a couple of years ago as an experiment. I wanted to know if I would like carrying this kind of camera in lieu of a more substantial kit. In many respects, this is a continuation of the street photographer’s kit started long ago by some excellent 35mm film photographers. The preferred camera of the time was a Leica rangefinder with a 35mm lens and black and white film.
The Fuji X100 series of cameras continues this tradition in a digital format. For the right subject (and mindset), this is an excellent approach and quite simple.
