I asked for a pose and I got one. Shot with the Fuji X100V using fill flash at f/8 using Reggie’s Portra 400 film recipe.
Here I am in Ozark, Missouri (near Springfield) to spend a little time with Older Son and DiL. The trip from Durant, OK here yesterday was not bad, despite getting a late start. I did run in to some rain along the way, but not heavy rain. The alternate route I chose was a little slower than the fast route. It was a delay of less than a half hour.
I pulled in just after dark. The sun was still reddening the western sky.
What I did notice was that Google Maps insisted on offering me the “faster way” — the way that involved using toll roads. Furthermore, if I did not notice the offer, it would accept it for me.
This default mode of choosing the faster route for me pissed me off. In addition, I am having difficulty adjusting the Google Maps volume on my iPhone. Methinks that Apple does not want me using Google Maps.
In general, the entire Google Maps thing really pissed me off. I do not need nor want my technology making decisions for me. It should be helping me find my way when I choose a path I want to take. Adjusting the announcement volume should be trivial, even if on foreign hardware.
Now I need a cup of coffee. At least I have a nice capture of Sera to look at.
I drove by this old rig so many times. I finally stopped and grabbed an image of it. Shot with the iPhone 13 Pro Max and post processed in Snapseed.
Just west from Mead, Oklahoma is this old rig. Someone has set it up to look like Tow Mater. After driving past the joke so many times, I had to pause and make a capture.
My youngest sister was born on Boxing Day, the day after Christmas. Today would be her birthday, but she is long gone. She was a talented artist with the afflictions that often come from that kind of mind.
I stopped for food on my way home Monday. Captured with iPhone 13 Pro Max using the standard camera app and no post processing.
The Fox Brewpub has become a favorite restaurant here in Carson City. It is local and the food is better than decent. I have not tried everything on the menu (yet), but have already found a few favorites.
Smurfette, skating across my SuperNote A5x, shot with the Fujifilm X-T5 and Fujinon 60mm f/2.4 macro lens at f/5.6, SOOC.
I am working with a trial version of DxO Photolab 7. It integrates with the NIK tools, which are somewhat legendary in their utility for post processing images.
I was pointed to Negative Lab Pro as a tool for post processing color negatives. Some of the digitizing setups I looked at are crazy!
Melissa O’Shaunessy is a New York street photographer. This interview with her is interesting enough to post.
With the new MacBook Pro, I keep having to reset the column width and window width of the Finder. This provides direction on how to make it sticky.
It is true that I have a bit of lust for a Bronica S2A medium format (6×6) camera. This review is not helping my jonesing for the system. Although the Hasselblad 500C (and 500C/M) are also suitable objects of lust, the price of a kit is pretty high.
This YT video is probably the best introduction to the Hasselblad system that I have seen.
Here is another lovely review of the Hasselblad 500 cameras.
All in all, it was a good week. I worked some, I played some, The Girl and I spent a lot of time together, indoors and outdoors. I talked to my family as well. Life is good.
Smurette shot with the Fujifilm X-T5 and the Fujinon 60mm f/2.4 macro at f/2.8 using the Tri-X film simulation with red filtration.
Over the last few weeks I have been watching quite a few videos on YouTube about photographers and photography. A favorite channel is The Photographic Eye run by Alex Kilbee. His videos are all about learning photography and are top shelf.
In a recent video, Alex teaches against the notion that a photographer has to go somewhere, and particularly go somewhere exotic to find photographic material. He then talks about training the photographer’s eye, which is something that resonates with me.
Long, long ago, Wife and I were looking over some photographs that I made. She remarked to me “You see the world differently.” I admit that I was a little flattered at first. But, on further reflection, there was some truth in what she said.
I have referred to the book before, but Robert Foothorap’s book, 35mm Photography, was a favorite book — is a favorite book. It was written in a light, approachable tone and had plenty of his photographs. It is now old and out of print (sadly), but I consider it part of my education as a photographer. The other part being a more experienced amateur photographer who taught me a lot about the technical aspects of shooting and film. But, I digress.
Foothorap and my mentor taught me to look at things. After I bought my Argus-Cosina 35mm SLR, I carried it along quite a lot with a roll of Plus-X or Tri-X loaded. Although I did not always make the shot, I brought the camera to my eye many times to frame and focus the shot. That taught me to see what the camera saw, a bit of three-dimensional space smashed onto a two-dimensional surface (the film).
I learned that I could do the same without the camera… I was training my eyes to see like a photographer. And that brings the story around to what Wife said — I learned to look at the world a little differently.
Although I have had long periods when I was not actively making photographs, I retained that way of looking at the world around me. I remember any number of times looking at something and thinking, “That’s interesting. It might make a good photograph.” This year I started carrying a camera again, quite often. The Fujifilm X100V is an easy carry and makes good images.
But, that was a story-in-a-story… The outer story is about Kilbee’s admonition to look around and see what there is around you, there are many photographs to make if you take the time and energy to see. (And I paraphrase that, but he said as much.)
And so, I noticed Smurfette skating across the top of my multi-port hub. The Fujifilm X-T5 was handy and so was the Fujinon 60mm f/2.4 macro lens. I had a film simulation set and did not bother to change it. I rested my elbows on my desk and made the capture.
Alex Kilbee made a good suggestion. He also suggested an exercise to make 36 images of a subject. In the old days, that would be a 36-exposure roll of 35mm film. It is now just 36 actuations of the shutter of my digital camera. (No, I am not going to shoot film for this exercise.) This sounds like a good exercise to do a few times every week. It will have the side benefit of getting me out of my head and away from my work for an hour.
It was sure windy the afternoon I shot this. Weather was rolling over to Carson Range and put clouds over Mt. McLellan. Shot with the Fujifilm X-E2 and Fujinon 28mm f/2.8 at f/8 and post processed in DxO Photolab 7 and NIK Silver Efex Pro.
After a long meeting and a little decompression (and some lunch), I got The Girl out for walkies at Silver Saddle Ranch. It is good we left when we did, because about halfway into our walk, I noticed clouds showing over Prison Hill. Further north, I could tell it was raining in Washoe Valley. The wind was up, gusting hard from the south/southwest.
The incoming weather added some impetus to making progress. I snagged three captures and then the battery in the Fujifilm X-E2 died. I should have known to bring a backup battery. Nonetheless, it felt like rain was coming and so we moved right along.
Even so, The Girl and I played a little. She picked up a huge stick that made me laugh out loud. It was just like all those memes in which a dog picks up a six-foot long stick.
At least she did not run into anything.
And, sure enough, it started raining when we were about five minutes out from the rig. It was good to get in and be dry.
In the end, it was a good outing. I came home with a keeper. We had fun. We got exercise. Life is good.
Gate in the ranch compound, Silver Saddle Ranch. Shot with the Fuji X-E2 and the Fujinon 27mm f/2.8 at f/4. Post processed in DxO Photolab 7 and NIK Silver Efex 6.
I was not really in the mood to do much when we left the house yesterday afternoon. I left the Pentax 645NII kit, the Fujifilm kits, and the pack at home. I was hungry, so we drove by Arby’s for a sandwich (shared). Then we headed for Silver Saddle Ranch to get in a walk.
It was a beautiful fall day in Carson City. The sun was shining with maybe a little high clouds. It was strong enough to make mid-40ºF feel nice with a light cover. There was not a lot of traffic at the gate at 1330h. All of this raised my spirits, especially getting out of the house with The Girl.
What I did bring (besides The Girl), was the little Fujifilm X-E2 with the 27mm f/2.8 pancake lens mounted. This is the smallest digital camera I own1,2. I have it on a wrist strap, so I can let it dangle when I am busy with The Girl or want both hands free.
I made a few captures as we walked along. I made sure she checked in with me frequently. There were only a couple other walkers that I saw and none crossed paths with us. That made for a really nice walk.
The Girl got frisky a couple of times along the way and we paused to play. Those interactions always raise my spirits, and the did this day.
I grew more cautious as we approached the segment of the trail that has more traffic, but we saw no one. We paused at the ranch compound to look for possible photographs. I noticed this old gate and the light was just about right to bring out the texture in the wood. There was a power pole peeking out above the cross bar, but a judicious adjustment to my point of view hid it from the frame.
I made the capture. I am glad I decided to carry the camera along.
We ended the hike with some more play. She brought a stick and we wrestled over it for a few minutes as we walked.
The drive home was uneventful. The Girl crashed on her bed under my work table. It was a good day. Life is good!
1Well, that is not *exactly* true — I have a Panasonic ZS-40. I used it as a field camera for the Wilson Creek project. Its EVF and image quality make it such that I do not want to use it. Neither are very good. For a slightly larger package, I have better options that are much more enjoyable (and easy) to use.
2Edit: Well, that changed this year (2025). I added an Olympus Tough TG-7 to my inventory specifically for field work. It has a short zoom range (sufficient), is water and dust proof (or at least resistant), is impact-resistant (normal drop), and has a bright enough screen to compose the shot in sunlight. The ZS-40 is now redundant. In addition, the X-E2 is now sold. Updated 06 December 2025.
A favorite place to pause for some water. Shot with Fuji X100V 23mm f/2 at f/8 with the Reggir’s Portra film simulation.
I begin writing my remainders after the previous instance posts on Saturday evening. So each remainder is a sort of bread crumb track of my path through the Internet each week.
In migrating to a new Winder$ laptop, I looked at a lot of files. I came across the source for my literate programming FAQ and, in fact, a lot more that I did not expect. This includes a very nice website on Literate Programming, which I intend to revisit.
I am experimenting with RStudio because I use R on both of my computers. The experiment is whether it is worth the effort to use a second tool to work with the first, or should I just use the command shell that is included in R. The jury is still out on this one.
I also am looking at a \TeX installation on the Winder$ notebook. It looks like TeX Live is the better option. It is also the basis for my \TeX system on the MBP.
I ran into a wrinkle with the Winder$ laptop LaTeX install. I keep all of my custom standard macros on my Dropbox in a /texmf directory. It took me an hour to figure out how to set TEXMFHOME environmental variable to point to that directory under Winder$. This helped.
I have a Pentax 645 NII in my inventory. I got it out this week and it needs a little TLC. The leatherette is peeling a bit at some of the corners. A little Pliobond will fix that.
In a holiday saving offer from Clever Supply Co. I received a referral to another small business/maker who operates Ugmonk. I bought two of the monitor stands because I need an external monitor for my two laptop computers and I want them up on stands at eye level. This will also permit me to use the laptops’ monitors as well. I am expecting good things, especially because these units are premium price. I am done with cheap s#%(.
