End of the Week

I made this capture with the Sony A7iii and a lovely Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 AIS lens. Post processed in PhotoLab7.

Whew… it has been a week. I received a call early in the week for some help with a project. The question was whether (or not) an alternate outfall could be used for a proposed treatment/detention pond. I had limited data to work with.

So, I went to work to understand the existing system and assess whether there was sufficient capacity to accept outflow from the proposed pond. That lead down a rabbit hole of the existing system for which we do not have complete data.

I learned that we will need to do a more complete analysis of the system capacity and how much of it is currently used. So, I wrote up what I learned and forwarded it to my client yesterday.

Part of my current struggle is with The Girl. No, she is not a problem, but on Thanksgiving Day she got into a kerfuffle with a coyote (best I can tell — I never saw the fight or the animal). She was marked up a bit but of greater concern was that she was lame in the port rear leg. The incident caused us to make a trip to the 24/7 animal hospital in Reno for treatment. There it was identified that she likely tore her ACL in that leg.

I took her to her vet here in Carson for a follow up and she was healing nicely. This resulted in an ACL workup this week and the news is that she has a torn ACL. This is a common injury, particularly with athletic canines (she is) and requires surgery to repair.

The cost is not cheap but doable. The recovery will be three months or more. That is a lot of reduced activity time for a high-drive dog. But, we will do it.

This also puts me in the research mode to understand her injury and the various surgical (and recovery) approaches to treat it. That is what I need… another rabbit hole to go down.

I was up early this morning (just after midnight), rolled over, and could not go back to sleep. So I was up for a bit, reviewing YT videos of the surgical approaches and recovery regimens. I heard her shake, then she showed up in my workroom for some attention, which she got. She asked to go out, so out we went.

I noticed the sky was mottled with clouds and backlit by the Moon. So I returned to the house and retrieved the Sony A7iii and affixed a Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 lens to it. I used the combination to make a series of captures of what I saw. The frame above is the one I liked best of the lot. I did a bit of post-processing in PhotoLab and might make another run at it to produce a black and white image.

I will figure out what to do for The Girl. She is not a pet; she is my companion on this walk through life. While I am sorry she got herself into trouble, I remain grateful for her presence in my life, grateful I have the resources to take care of the surgery, and am simply grateful. I remember my buddy and am grateful he was a part of my life. He was good for me. He is missed. And, life is still good.

Beginning a New Week

The access road to Silver Saddle Ranch, not far from the main gate. Shot with Sony A7iii and a Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 probably wide open, but may f/2. Post processing in PhotoLab7.

Sunday is the first day of the week. Perhaps it should be called Sonday or maybe Son-day in honor of the Savior who rose on the third day. I have thought that for a long time and it bubbled up from my memory as I began to write.

Last week was too busy. This week might be the same. This is not a complaint, but an observation and simply part of the consultant’s life. Deadlines occur and I do my best to make them.

But, that kind of busy-ness leaves little time and energy for reflection, photography, or radio. I do set aside a few minutes in the morning to write in my paper journal, plan the day, and pray a little before the day goes out of control.

The holidays and the end of the year are soon upon us. I hope to take some time this year to reflect on and process the year behind and think about the year ahead. That did not happen last year because I was traveling to see my loved ones and dealing with a broken camper. I should not have a broken camper to deal with this year and I pray nothing else happens.

Aside: I heard my neighbors last night about 0230h. It sounded like there were tearing up the house, but probably they were just moving things around. There was nothing to indicate a domestic problem. But then I heard the sound of a woman screaming and it sounded outside. At first I thought it might be a television, but then Sera started barking. That got me up to investigate, but I heard nothing more and could not get a direction.

There were a couple of days last week when I did not even carry a camera. I needed to get The Girl (and myself) out for some exercise. I needed to just get it done. I could not afford the time to dawdle along at my usual pace. So I left my camera at home and thought that if something interesting was presented I could always just use my phone.

But one day I carried the Sony A7iii and a Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 that is in my inventory. I saw the frame above and decided to make a capture. I thought that the sign was the interest, so I placed myself such that I could isolate the sign from the background and then made the capture. I kept the aperture open so as to place the background out of focus.

Then I noticed that the dog-waste dispenser and waste bin were both in the focus plane. I like that.

The image is not portfolio grade, but tells an interesting story. At least, it does for me.

Now I think I need to get on with my day. The Girl will want a walk, even if she is limping a bit. I think she over did it Saturday.

I am grateful. Life is good.

Roses

One of my favorite testbeds, shot with the Fuji X-T1, a Nikkor 50mm f/1.4, and the Metabones Turbo Booster.

One of my favorite testbeds is the hedgerow of rosebushes that bounds the old Carson Lumberyard flume and the vacant lot south from the DPS/DMV building. In the morning there is plenty of sunshine on the bushes and flowers and the Girl loves to play in this area. So she doesn’t mind if I spend a few minutes playing with the flowers.

I think the Fuji glass is very good. I’ve written about that before. In fact, the glass is the reason I abandoned the Sony cameras and moved to the Fuji platform.

However, the experimenter in me lives on. I have a deep affinity for the lenses I used to use on 35mm film cameras. Forty years ago, as a young man, I lusted after Nikon bodies and Nikkor glass. Many professionals carried a couple of F-series bodies and a pouchful of Nikkor lenses. I could not afford one then.

Now every thing is digital, except for a few diehards. I find digital images sterile. They are often technically perfect (or nearly so), but they feel dry to me. At least, many of them do. And those that are heavily processed might be very interesting as art, but there is something missing from an image that is assembled from a variety of parts. I find art in seeing the subject, determining that there is something interesting/moving about it, and then finding a way to capture that image in the camera. It is a different process than much of what I see and is definitely old school.

In playing with these old lenses on a digital body, I can recover some of what I looked for with film. It isn’t perfection; it is a mood conveyed by light, subject, and composition. The capture doesn’t have to be perfect (this one is not). The post-processing is limited to making minor adjustments in exposure, contrast (global and local), and a bit of sharpening. That’s about all I do. (The exception is conversion from color to monochrome.)

The Metabones adapter is interesting. It converts the lens to an equivalent angle of acceptance of a lens 0.62 times the focal length (which makes the angle of acceptance the same as the original on full frame). But it also adds a stop of additional light gathering power and I think it makes a commensurate change to the perceived depth of field.

I’m still working that out in my head. I have an article drafted that contains my analysis of the differences in sensor/film size, lens focal length, lens speed, and depth of field. I need to finish that one day and publish it here.

In any event, the legacy Nikkors are very good lenses. I like them a lot.