Another week is begun. Where will it take me in the Interwebs?
I have thought of a Hasselblad film camera for years (decades?). The thought recently resurfaced. I have two Zeiss lenses for Hasselblad cameras in my inventory (result of a trade). There is a lot about Hasselblad cameras here
But wait! There’s more! I found what I need to know about the Hasselblad system here. It is the history of the system and worth the time to read.
I am still considering a Light Phone to replace my smartphone (iPhone).
The Girl is home from hospital after her nope-rope encounter. It’s good to have her home. Shot with a Fuji X-E4 and the Fujinon 27mm f/2.8 at f/4, with the Acros film simulation.
The vet called yesterday morning about 0745h. The Girl was doing well, her numbers were fine, and she was ready to be released. I was expecting a must-sign-for delivery via FeDeX, so I had to stick around the house. I knew that as soon as I left, the delivery person would show up and I would have to go find the parcel.
So I continued to work while waiting. I heard the truck about 1330h and walked to the front door then stepped out. I signed and took delivery, dropped the carton on the kitchen table, and headed for Gardnerville. It took a half hour to get there and only a few minutes of waiting (after I paid my bill, of course). The Girl was quite happy to see me and ready to head out the door.
I received her recovery directions and pain medication and we left.
I stopped at McDonald’s because I know she like fries and I was a little hungry. She ate part of my hamburger, too.
She settled onto the bed in her normal place. Later she moved to the sofa where I sat watching videos about the Fuji X-E4, their smallest interchangeable lens camera. I have a rented unit because I want to know what all the fuss is about it.
I already have the perfect set of lenses for it, Fujinon’s wonderful compact lens series. It would make an excellent travel camera for those times I want more than a point-and-shoot1. It is inexpensive to rent, so I am doing to testing over the next week and change.
But, the focus is on The Girl. She will need a few days of rest to recover from her close encounter of the Jacob-No-Shoulders’ kind. She will get rest and lots of love. I will also be very careful with her when we are out where there can be snakes. I do not want a repeat action.
1Ha! The Fuji X100V is not just a point-and-shoot camera. It is a very competent fixed lens camera that can do a lot if the focal length is right for the subject.
The liquor store I’ve patronized for years. Captured with Sony A7Sii in raw format using a Konica 40mm f/1.8 at f/8. Slight post-processing with Iridient Developer (contrast, saturation/vibrance, a bit of sharpening, and a resize for the web).
I am currently busier than a one-armed paper hanger with a backlog of work. I am not complaining; it is a blessing to have work and I am deeply grateful for God’s provision.
I am examining my use of the Internet. I bought my first smartphone, an original iPhone, not long after they were released. My intent was to combine two devices — an iPod and a mobile phone. I thought this might be a smart thing to do. Now, I am not so sure.
As time passed, developers realized they had a substantial handheld computer available. Then came social media1. And, as it is said, the game was on.
I have little use for Facebook. I might have been compulsive about it some years ago. But I am not. I will check sometimes twice a day, usually only once in the evening as I settle down. I like to see posts from my friends and family (a limited number of said) and respond to comments on my posts. I do not post a lot. What I do post is links from this weblog and sometimes music from YouTube.
Instagram was wonderful when I first found it. There were lots of content creators, some of them wonderful photographers, and I both enjoyed seeing their art and I learned from it. Then Facebook bought it and the algorithms took over. Now it is a mess of stuff I do not necessarily want to see. But I find myself doomscrolling looking for the dopamine hit when I find something interesting or amusing.
A month or two ago I deleted the app from my iPhone. When I thought I was over my addiction I reinstalled the app. Meh… nope, I am not over my addiction. Worse, the algorithm seems to be biased towards the base and I have no interest in that.
Now, enter a book by Cal Newport, Digital Minimalism. I am not sure where the connection occurred, but I found myself with a sample on my Kindle and started reading it. I am the point where I am considering (for the second time) selling my iPhone and buying a Light Phone 2. I will have more to say about that later.
I am not interested in what the Facebook algorithms want me to see, mostly. I am not interested in spending more time than necessary with the Internet. It can be a useful tool, but it is more likely to be a tremendous time sink that provides little value for the time invested.
Reenter Cal Newport’s book. Once again, I deleted the IG app. I deleted the Reuters news app. I deleted several other apps from my iPhone. I no longer keep a browser tab open to my YT subscription feed. I plan to cull my YT subscription feed, when I go back to watching YT again. (However, I would note that I generally do not doomwatch YT videos. Plus, videos that are more than about 15 minutes in length do not get watched either.)
I did not delete my Vero app from my iPhone. I DO NOT doomscroll Vero. My Vero feed is exactly what I want it to be — those photographers that make images I want to see. It is not a problem and I check it only once or twice a day.
I expect to finish Digital Minimalism next week sometime. I began my digital detox this week. I plan to stick to it for a month. There might be other sites and apps that I delete, now that I deleted several that I used too much.
Why am I doing this? I have written here many times before, but I want to be more intentional about my use of the Internet. Music, photography, reading, and writing are far more satisfying than having Instagram pushing titties at me2. So, it will be an interesting experiment to see if I can reset myself and get to the point where I waste much less time on the Internet and spend more time with creative work that will be so much more satisfying.
1Or as I often call it, antisocial media. 2I did say that the IG algorithms seem to be biased towards the base.
I have laughed, many times, over the fact that no matter which way I point the camera (or face for that matter), there is The Girl, looking in the same direction. I think I could write a book entitled The South End of a North-Bound Dog. It would include a lot of dog stories, of course.
Once again, while looking at a piece of scrap metal left behind years ago, I pointed the camera. Before I could make the capture, there was The Girl, with the South End pointed at me.
Nevertheless, life is good.
Edit: On our morning hike, a large coyote crossed the access road behind us. Unlike they usually do, this one stood there, staring at us. Of course, this set off The Girl, who wanted to engage.
Well, that is not going to happen. But this raised her energy level so much that she was hyperactive as we started our walk.
About a mile in, I saw her jumping on a bush. That in itself is not unusual, but she was very agitated and clearly on something. I walked over and heard the buzz when I got about ten feet away. I called her off and she had blood on her nose and tongue.
It was a rattler, definitely. I figured she was bit, although I could not find it. I called the vet and we headed back to the rig.
They found one bite site on the side of her muzzle. She is in hospital while they infuse her with antivenin and monitor her blood and kidneys function. She should be fine in a couple of days. I doubt she will be any wiser.
As I walked away from the rig to walk The Girl, I noticed the specular reflection. I thought “Sunstar!” and made the capture. Fuji X-T5 and Fujinon 33mm f/1.4 at f/16.
Last Sunday, after activating the park, The Girl and I walked to the east for some exercise before calling it a day. I looked over my shoulder and saw this specular reflection on my 4Runner. I immediately thought “Sunstar!” and raised the camera.
She would rather be hunting. But she needed a break because she was overheating. Shot with Fuji X-T5 and the Fujinon 33mm f/1.4 at f/4.While I work through my first morning coffee, I decided to post a capture of my lovely Girl. She will pose for me if I ask. Well, maybe sometimes I have to tell. [Heh]
We have been spending some time every weekend in the national forest at an elevation of about 7,000 feet. It is much cooler there and the pines provide shade and that soothing shooshing sound when the breeze blows through the needles. The lagniappe is that I can play radio a little, hike as much as I want, and enjoy being away from the sounds of Carson City.
I already have enough backlog of photographs to post for weeks. Those are just the captures from the last couple of weekends up there near Spooner Summit. I have many more from our walks at Silver Saddle Ranch.
I am already looking forward to the weekend. I plan on going back to this place. Although, as I think on it, my friend Greg mentioned Hermit Valley out south of us. It is also at elevation and is a new place to explore. I will have a look this week to see if there is a park or a summit to activate. Then I might plan a day trip out there to explore.
Here we go with another week. It looks a little thin this week.
I found myself looking for an easy way to subset a dataset in R1. I found dplyr to be a useful asset.
Hardcore Hammers has some killer (pardon the pun) camp hatchets/hand axes. I think this one might come home to live with me.
Moment has a lot of interesting things for photographers.
I spent some time listening to Gillian Welch the last week. She is an interesting artist.
I have had a lot of camera bags over the years. Most of them were junk. Tamrac makes a few nice bags. But I have a fondness for waxed canvas bags. My EDC is a waxed canvas Nutsac that will carry my Microsoft Go 2 and support. I have taken to Domke camera bags in their ruggedwear line. Domke bags are highly recommended.
1R is a statistical analysis software that I use for a lot of my work.
The last few outings, I noticed this old cottonwood was not looking good. It was on it’s last leg. Shot with Fuji X100V using Kodachrome 64 film simulation and f/8.
This old cottonwood was my subject a few times over the last week or so. Some of those captures were published here or other places. I commented a couple of times on Facebook about this tree, and posted an image or two.
Yesterday (Friday) morning The Girl and I walked early because I had a bunch of meetings. We did pause here or there for an image or to sniff or to pee or to just be. When we passed through the ranch compound I noticed a brush pile near the old cottonwood. As we approached, I saw tractor tracks.
I knew what that meant.
Sure enough, when we got closer, I saw the brushpile was the remnants of the green part of the old cottonwood. I noticed it was turning yellow and that meant nearing its end. I suppose it was in the irrigation ditch (the Mexican ditch) and the rancher cleaned it up.
That is the nature of things. We get old. We get broken. We die. Then someone comes along and cleans us up and returns us to the earth from which we came.
This broken old cottonwood hung on while it could. But it had to go. It was going anyway.
What a difference a day makes. Now that old cottonwood is cut up and ready for the fireplace or disposal. It was in the irrigation ditch, so the rancher cleaned it up. X100V Kodachrome 64 film simulation, f/8.
Sera loves grass and being outdoors. When I see her rolling in the grass like this, it always makes me smile.
Yesterday was a field day. I had a site walk with my prime contractor and the clients for a project that is about to begin construction. Yes, another of my projects will be built this fall. My role was the hydrologist and engineer for all of the hydrology, hydraulics, and this culvert design. The design was complicated by the client’s requirements.
The project was bid and was a lot more expensive than anticipated. But construction bids are high this year. So a compromise was reached, a change in the culvert material was made, but now there is a question about removing the existing concrete overflow (culvert is a combined box and low-water crossing) because of cost.
My assessment is that removing the concrete overflow will be less expensive than dealing with it in place. It is at about the invert elevation of the new culverts such that it will intersect the barrels. I do not think it can be left. But the construction stakes will be in place within a couple or three weeks. Then we will see. I might be wrong.
We then walked downstream to look at places where the channel fill could end if the budget runs short. There are several places where the project can end, function, and wait for another round of funding to finish the restoration.
The meadow is lovely this year with all the water over the winter. Vegetation is dense and healthy. Several times Doggo paused to romp and roll in the grass. I managed a capture of one of her dances.
It was a gorgeous day. She makes me laugh. I love he so much and she knows it. Life is good.
I have been watching this growing haystack the last few weeks. They sure can’t stack hay bales. X100V, Tri-X film simulation, f/8.
We walked past this shed/open barn many times the last few weeks. I watched the hay stack grow as more bales were added.
I was reminded of helping Dad (father-in-law) with the hay as a young man. Having grown up in the city, I knew nothing. But he taught me what I needed to know and I did my best to stack bales on the trailer and wagons. He did most of the work in the barn because of my allergies.
I do not know if the stack is that way because they machine stack it. But the bales are sure not tied together and would readily fall over.
They just can’t stack hay bales.
Nonetheless, I came away with an image and a story. We had a good walk. Life is good.
