Somewhere on the way back to Missouri from Pennsylvania, DiL wanted to stop and walk and old cemetery. She found several and then picked one. It was good to be out of the rig for awhile and the places always provide some interesting images. I came away with a few.
It was a good stop. Life is good.
While in Philly for the wedding, I walked The Girl around the block a few times. The row houses are a fascinating architectural thing that I do not routinely see. Therefore, I needed an image for the memory. So, I made one.
While I do not want to live there, the visit was worth the effort. Life is good.
We have hiked past this pipe and perched stone countless times. Sometimes, when the light is right, I stop and make an image.
This is one of those images.
On a Sunday morning a few days ago, I took The Girl up to Washoe Lake for our daily outing. I did not want to go to our usual spots, it being the weekend.
When we arrived, there was an ultralight aircraft preparing to launch. There were a few other folks also enjoying the bright morning. But there were not too many.
I found a place to park the rig away from everyone else and got The Girl out. We walked about the western shoreline of the lake, her running from spot to spot, sniffing and marking. She dashed back to me a few times, threatening to shoulder my legs as dogs often do in play. We laughed and played a little grabass, enjoying the outdoors together.
I made a few images, the one above of Slide Mountain with a wide angle lens and an in-camera film simulation.
Then we finished our outing and loaded back into the rig. I had things that needed doing.
It was a good day. I think every day is a good day. Life is good.
For the last week or so, The Girl and I hiked the Silver Saddle Ranch open space. While not completely out of snake season, it is safe enough with her on-lead. Her lead work needs work anyway. (She is doing much better on-lead.)
Some of the rabbitbrush has waned, but my allergies are still in full force. That is making some things a bit difficult because my eyes are subject to the allergies and watery eyes make for poorer vision.
I am working through my first mug as I write this and will want another shortly. It is much cooler here in western Nevada this morning — in the low 30ºs F. That will make The Girl frisky when we hike today. I worked all morning yesterday, so it was afternoon before we hiked. Today I think I would like to get out a bit earlier, although there is still work to do.
I had supper with my buddy Jimmy yesterday evening. It was a good visit and the food at Betsy’s Big Kitchen is decent. All in all, it was a good day.
I am grateful. Life is good.
A few days ago The Girl and I used a cool morning to hike Silver Saddle Ranch. With less Sun and cooler temperatures, I figured the risk of a nope rope encounter might be reduced. In any event, I kept her on-leash for our hike, with a brief exception for her to play in the water a bit.
It was a good hike and gave the opportunity for a few images, of which a couple were actually decent enough to share. The Fujifilm X-T5 is turning out to be a great camera. As much as I liked my X-T1, the most recent body is substantially improved. I mean this not just in pixel count (which is crazy high at 40MP), but in refinement of the shooting experience.
It was a good day. Life is good.
We are still hiking up near Spooner Summit, on an old fire road cut by the Forest Service whenever the last fire happened on the site. (It must be several years ago, based on what I see.) We walk past this old stump nearly every day.
That will end soon enough as Fall moves into Winter. Once I am convinced the Nope Ropes have gone dormant for the season, The Girl and I will transition to hiking Silver Saddle Ranch a good part of the time. The snows will making hiking the old fire road much more difficult and the trail access is often block by a snow bank from the plows.
I have been thinking that I would like to hike Dead Truck Canyon this Winter, maybe several times. The climb will do me good and The Girl will enjoy new places to explore. I think the likelihood of a coyote encounter will be reduced (but not eliminated) because of bulk of prey is in the valley and not on the hills. At least, those are my current thoughts.
There is definitely less cover as we climb, so I should be better able to scout ahead.
An additional benefit is that the elevation provides some nice views of the surrounding valleys. Plus the Carson Range will be in plain view as well.
I am thinking that Fall/Winter hiking will be good this season. I am grateful and life is good.
One of my favorite lenses is the Voigtlander 27mm f/2 Ultron. It is a manual focus lens manufactured by Cosina. It also has a chip and contacts to transmit EXIF data about the lens settings to the camera to be recorded in the EXIF image data portion of the digital image.
This lens came to mind a couple of days ago when I was watching a video from a favorite content creator, Chris Orange. He was effluvious about a new TTArtisan manual focus lens in the 27mm focal length that he was using on his X-T5 instead of buying a Fujifilm X100vi.
The X100vi is not a terribly expensive camera — not cheap, but not as expensive as some brands. I have had a few people dismiss my X100v (and now my X100vi) as just an expensive point and shoot. But, it is not that simple. It is a capable camera using the same sensor and IBIS as the X-T5 and offering complete controls if that is what one wants. The fit and finish are top shelf and reminiscent of an older fixed lens rangefinder. The Fujinon 23mm f/2 is very good. It is a good focal length for the camera.
The X100vi (and the X100v before it) is my go-to camera if I do not want to think about what lenses to carry, do not want a large(er) or heavy bag, and do not want to fiddle with which lens to mount. And so, when I want to simply have a camera that is far more capable than a phone camera, this is the one I pick up to carry. It goes into a small Domke bag that was a collaboration between Domke and Fujifilm. There is room for extra batteries and extra SD cards. There is also room for a water bottle.
But, I digress. I have not tested (and probably will not) the TTArtisan 27mm f/2. I have the focal length covered with the Fujinon 27mm f/2.8 and the Voigtlander 27mm f/2. I bought the former before I picked up a used copy of the latter. Although I have not done serious testing of either, the Voigtlander tends to get the nod when I want a simple carry (or that focal length) for my X-T5.
I carried it last Friday on walkies. I need to grab frame and include it. The frame below was captured with the Fuji X-T5 and Voigtlander 27mm f/2 (at f/8) with post processing in PhotoLab 7. The lens is plenty sharp and I like the rendering. I should carry the Fujinon 27mm f/2.8 along with the Voigtlander and make a few captures of the same setting. I might decide to sell the Fujinon.
Life is good!
I made this capture a year and change ago. We were hiking, probably up near Spooner summit. I came across this bit of granite and decided that the play of light and shadow was interesting. So, I made the capture.
I know that I was playing with some of the film simulations one can readily program into Fuji cameras. I think that the color capture was not what I was looking for.
So, a black and white film simulation it is.
It was a good day. Today is a good day. Life is good.
The New Year arrived last night. I heard fireworks at midnight, briefly. They did not really disturb either of us, but I am struggling to stay asleep the last fortnight or so. So I rose and went to my workroom. I picked up my new bullet journal, not quite a tabula rasa, but pretty close. I started working up the format for this year. Part of that is migrating tasks from last year to the new journal.
I finally gave up and returned to bed for a few minutes before rising at 0530h and making a coffee. Yeah, a handful of hours of sleep New Year’s Eve. It is what it is.
I fed The Girl later and decided to go get breakfast. So it was a trip to The Red Hut for a waffle sandwich, from which I brought home a strip of bacon for my love.
Given it was pretty cool this morning, I puttered around the house this morning and then got us out for a hike at Silver Saddle Ranch. There were a few other walkers, but not so many as there would have been had the weather been better. It was gray, blustery, and cool. The fair-weather hikers stayed home, probably nursing a hangover.
All in all it was a quiet beginning to the new year. I came away from Red Hut with a decent capture. The Girl and I napped a bit, hiked a bit, and interacted a bit more.
I have a lot of tasks for 2025. I better get after it.
I remain grateful. Life is good.