I love sunstars. I also love hiking in the national forest. The blue sky and a few puffs of clouds round out the image for me.
The Girl enjoyed the hike as much as I did. Life is good.
Daily Image — 25 September 2023
Category: photography
Daily Image — 24 September 2023
I have been very busy the last week and the upcoming weeks will be no different, I expect. But, today, The Girl and I got out to walk one of my favorite trails near Spooner Summit along US50.
Soon the snow will come and walking there will be more difficult. I might buy a pair of snowshoes and learn to do that. The Girl might have to have snowshoes for doggos, too.
But this morning, the trail was lovely and the couple who got there before me were far enough ahead that it was as if I was along (with The Girl, of course) on the trail.
I carried the Fujifilm X-E4 with the Fujinon 35mm f/1.4 mounted today. That is a marvelous lens that is fast, plenty sharp, and renders out of focus areas nicely. In fact, I think I see a hint of bokeh balls in some of the images.
I often set the lens for f/8 and just run it. However, for some images I will open up the aperture to reduce the depth of field and isolate the subject a bit. But not for this image.
I really like textures. The granite of the Sierra Nevada provides plenty of subject matter. The iage is straight out of camera. #SOOC
The walk was good. I came away with a frame the pleases me. The Girl is tired (so a happy dog).
Life is good.
Daily Image — 23 September 2023
After a week working in the field (and a buttload of travel), I am home for the weekend. This morning (I need another coffee) I am catching up a bit on email and other things.
I decided to put a new-to-me 55mm f/1.8 Super Takumar on my Sony A7Sii and make a couple of images. Of course, The Girl is involved. But Lucas is often a test subject because there are lights in the background.
This Super Takumar is a very good lens. I like its sharpness and background blur. It will be fun to take out on a walk and see what it can do.
Daily Image — 18 September 2023
On my way home from testimony in Sacramento, I stopped in Placerville for a walk around and an early lunch. Placerville is an old gold mining town with a rich history. I really enjoyed the few minutes I spent wandering the streets with my Fuji X100V.
I am reminded that Placerville is not far and The Girl and I could drive over for a day to spend walking around and enjoying the history of the place. I might add this to my list of things to do.
I wandered into a used bookstore. I was reminded of how much I enjoy used bookstores, particularly those that are shoehorned into a cubbyhole like this one is. I wandered through the stacks, not looking for anything in particular. But i was drawn to the orderly-disorderliness of the stacks and thought it might make an interesting black and white image.
So, I made several. I think the Fujifilm X100V is nearly the perfect camera for this sort of shooting. At least, I find that I like the workflow that comes with it.
Back to my rumination… There was a nostalgia and a bit of melancholy that crept into my emotions as I wandered through the little store. Wife and I loved to visit these places. She always came away with an armful of books that were on her list, or by favorite authors. We would pay for her new treasures and off we would go, usually with her nose stuck in one of them not long after we exited the door.
Those were good days and I miss them. In writing this, a bit of the sense of loss returns knowing that those days are now my history. That part of my life is closed and now I am in another part of my life.
This part is good, too. But it is also diminished a bit because Wife no longer shares it with me.
Still, I remain grateful — grateful for that shared life and grateful for the life I have. Many good things are in my life. Life is good.
Daily Image — 17 September 2023
While walking The Girl in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, I noticed that the colors of the bear brush1 are changing. This started a couple of days ago. The lodgepole pines, of course, have not changed.
I can feel the difference in the air as well. Over the last couple of weeks, it is not as warm in the afternoons. Fall is coming.
I look forward to it as it is after the summer heat and we move into the cooler months. I love the weather here in the high desert. it suits me. The heat lasts only a few weeks and the remainder of the year has wonderful weather.
I enjoy being outdoors with The Girl. We have fun. Life is good.
1I am sure this brush has a formal name. I recall calling it bear brush from back when I was a kid. I think it will stick.
Daily Image — 13 September 2023
This (very) vintage lens came to me a couple of weeks ago. It is from an Asahi-Kogaku rangefinder camera, probably made in the 1950s. I had to order a M37/M42 adapter so I could mount the lens. Then I got busy with field work and did not take time to shoot it.
Well, I decided to reprovision my stock, so I took The Girl and we drove down to Aloha Liquor. She waited while I did a little shopping. Then I made this capture of the store front.
The lens is certainly sharp at f/8. The colors are not quite as nice as the Hexanon 40mm f/1.8 produces. But they are good.
I made a second capture in black and white, below, of my Lucas plushie. This one was shot wide open (f/2.4). It is also quite sharp and there is a hint of swirly bokeh in the background. It looks like this lens will also produce some soap bubble bokeh balls as well. I need to play with it some more.
One more thing — this lens is heavy. There is a lot of metal in the lens.
Daily Image — 11 September 2023
There are other reasons to remember this date. I suspect it was the for my grandparents’ generation and 07 December. I have not forgotten and will not forget.
On a lighter note, I was on my way home from Sacramento a couple of weeks ago. I stopped in Placerville, California for a bite of lunch, although it was a bit early. So I walked the streets a bit to see what I could see.
This rack of clothes caught my eye. So I made the capture.
Then I wandered back to Mel’s Diner for a shake and a BLTA.
Life is good!
Daily Image — 10 September 2023
The Girl and I are hiking up near Spooner Summit a lot lately. It is cool up there. The lodgepole pines give a lot of shade and I love the sound of the wind in them. The risk of snakes is less than it is in the sageland. There are lots of things to photograph and the offering changes often with the change in light.
The area was burned a few years ago. Many of the trees are undamaged. But there are plenty of downed trees that can be interesting (both for The Girl and for me). There are also lots and exposed rocks that provide interesting textures.
It will take me a while to exhaust the area of photographic subjects.
On this particular day, The Girl and I hiked our regular trail from the staging area. She sniffed about looking for critters while I explored visually. I found this downed tree and like the texture and play of light across the surface. I made the capture. Post-processing was light with a little change in contrast and a little boost to the color.
When we returned to the staging area, I setup a radio station and activated the park. The site is also a designated Parks on the Air site (actually it is a double — two parks). It was a good day. I am grateful. Life is good.
Daily Image — 09 September 2023
While The Girl and I were walking here in town a few days ago, she hunted ground squirrels while I looked at the roses growing along the old flume. I saw this bag of office supplies that were dumped in the grass. It made me wonder why there were left behind… Was someone interrupted? Were they stolen from the nearby Office Depot? Why were they just dropped?
I will never know.
Daily Image — 02 September 2023
Over the last month or so, with the exception of two outings, my images were captured with normalish lenses. The two exceptions were some captures with the Nikkor 85mm f/2 and the Zuiko 85mm f/2. On a full-frame camera, like the Sony A7Sii (which I carry a lot), 85mm is a short telephoto focal length. It is most commonly used for portraits.
I start to see the telephoto effect (compression of distance, shallow depth of field) at a focal length of about 105mm. Yesterday I carried a Hanimex 135mm f/2.8 in the bag. The Carl Zeiss Jena 50mm f/2.8 Tessar was on the camera (Sony A7Sii) during most of our walk. Near the end of walkies, I decided to mount the Hanimex and see what that gave me.
The Hanimex was reviewed and recommended by Nigel (Zenography channel). It is not an expensive lens. They are quite common (East German Cold War era). But, they are also quite sharp, good quality, and have good contrast. I picked one up off fleaBay a few weeks ago for not much money.
Nigel is right — the lens is quite sharp, even wide open. It has good image quality. And I quite like the telephoto look of this shot of River Road from the Silver Saddle Ranch gate staging area.
The Girl and I had a good walk. The weather is cool, very much fall-like. We have had some rain and I am hopeful that keeps the wildfires away. My thought for today is that maybe we will drive up to our current favorite portable operation site this morning. We can walk some and I might set up a station and see if the bands are better (yesterday they were poor). I think I will take makings for coffee or tea.
Whatever we do, it will be good. I am grateful The Girl is strong and healthy. I do not mind that she is a bossy-bitch. Life is good.