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.
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.
Well, this cast iron sausage pan really caught my eye. I like sausage, but do not cook them often. I think this would be great for stove top hot dogs and bratwurst. Hmmmmm…
While working on a project, I came across the R package dplyr. This adds a powerful ability to filter a dataframe.
I still track Fuji Rumors for information about the Fujifilm ecosystem.
For that matter, I sometimes browse Sony Alpha Rumors as well. I got restarted into photography when I bought a Sony NEX-5N more than ten years ago and then wandered into the world of adapting legacy glass.
In my research on the Fuji X100 series cameras, I was directed to a Squarehood, which manufactures (?) and sells square hood for the X100V and similar cameras.
I was also reminded of another vendor of camera accessories, Lensmate, which I remember from back when I was working with the Canon G series of cameras and then the Sony NEX-5N. The 5N remains one of my favorite (and first) mirrorless cameras.
I also discovered Clever Supply, which has some nice leather accessories for camera lovers.
My Fuji X100S, a great little camera. Shot with the Nikon D750 and a Nikkor 50mm f/1.8.
I bought a Fujifilm X100S “point-and-shoot” camera a few years ago. There was a lot of buzz about the X100V (two generations later than mine) at the time, but I did not want to buy new technology if I was not going to use it. I needed some experience with this type of camera.
So I bought a camera a couple of generations older at a lower price. I wanted to get a sense of how it worked and whether it would make images that I like. In part, it had to fit my approach to photography.
I am not a professional photographer. I am a dedicated amateur and make captures that interest me in some way. The subject has to be visually appealing, either because of geometry, or contrast, or even the nature of the subject.
I shot the X100S for a while and then got distracted by other things. One of those was amateur radio. I jumped into that hobby with both feet and my wallet. Hah!
But then work picked up (a lot) and I do not have time to go out in the field and spend several hours setting up a station and playing radio. I need to keep after the project work to meet my deadlines. Now, I know this will not last forever and I will find myself in a period of lighter workload. But, in the meantime, I noted (and have written in this weblog) that I need things in my life that nourish my soul. And so I picked up my cameras again because I can carry a camera when I am out doing something else and spend a few minutes working a subject that I encounter.
So, reenter the Fuji X100S. It is a relatively1 simple camera in the classic rangefinder style. It is reminiscent of the Leica rangefinders that some of the best street photographers used way back before I was a kid. It has a fixed focal length lens that is equivalent to a 35mm focal length (in a full frame camera). The lens is good and fast (f/2). It is sharp enough wide open. The sensor is excellent, even given it is several generations old.
The X100S lacks a couple of things I would really like to have. One is the upgraded sensor. The second is WiFi so I can transfer images directly to my iPhone (for obvious reasons).
However, the X100V is impossible to find. As a result, used cameras sell for several hundred bucks over new price! That is just crazy.
I called the shop where I bought my Fuji X-T5 and asked my salesman about this. His response was “It’s a social media thing. But you don’t want one of those. It will feel plasticky compared to your X-T5.”
He did not know I have an X100S so I have a good idea what the feel is like. It is not at all plasticky. It is a different camera than the X-T5 with a different use case. That is a use case that works me when I do not want to carry a complete kit, but want something better than my iPhone2.
Well, they just lost me as a customer. I do not know why a salesman would say such a thing about a solid piece of equipment.
Fuji Rumors indicates that the announcement of the X100V successor is about a year out. It will probably be nearly two years before we see a new camera. So, I will watch and wait for an X100V to come available at a reasonable price. I decided that I want the upgrade.
Update: I put in a Gixen snipe on a X100V that I won. It has one small ding on the top cap. That does not matter to me; I do not need a perfect camera, particularly one that will be carried in the field. I had to pay more than list for it, but not a king’s ransom, as a friend put it. It is now in my inventory and I am learning to use it.
There will be more about the X100V later. It is quite an evolution from the X100S.
1Simple is a relative term, particularly as applied the the X100 cameras. They can be set to be a point-and-shoot camera by turning all the dials to A and then, well, pointing and shooting. The cameras automation is quite capable. A more knowledgeable photographer will operate the camera by choosing which parts to automate and which to control. That is definitely not simple.
2I know that my iPhone 13 Pro Max has a sophisticated camera. And it does very well for the appropriate use case. But its control over depth of field is limited. And it does not handle like a real camera. I still use it, but there are times I want a real camera.
