🔥 Current year posting percentage: 100%
Days posted this year: 168 / 365
Current streak: 212 days in a row
Longest streak: 212 days
Total photos on site: 648
Total posts on site: 473
Welcome to 365pixels 👋🏻
Home for my 365 photo challenge, where I attempt to take and post a photo every day for the year.
Click on Photos to see all the photos on one page or scroll down. You can find more pictures and some not-very-good blogging at Cliff538.
I hope the pictures bring a smile and inspire you to take more pictures.
Thank you for stopping by.
My morning bird shots will be coming to a close for the Summer. It’s bloody hot in the mornings now, and I’m not happy about it. One of life’s true little pleasures for me is sitting outside in the morning watching the birds with my coffee and camera.
This nice couple gave me a few shots this morning. As you can see, the female is in focus, but the male, not so much. My shallow depth of field bit me. My plane of focus was so narrow that their being offset just a touch was enough to throw the male out of focus. But it’s my shot of the day nonetheless.
Film Journey: Got my first roll of Portra 400 back from the lab today. These would be the first pictures taken with my Grandfathers Rolleiflex in over 40 years, I believe. I didn’t take the time to take good photos because I just wanted to make sure the camera was working, didn’t have light leaks, and that my light metering technique was at least in the ballpark. (Grandpa Leamer, your beautiful Rollei still takes great pictures…)
Still waiting on the Ilford B&W negatives/scans.
Down in Stray Pixels, I’ll put the one shot that is even slightly worth showing. I’m very happy with my exposure and with the sharpness. Love that tight grain. But, boy, did I have to straighten the photos. There is a learning curve dealing with a waist-level viewfinder!
If you’re a film person, you’ll laugh at my observations, but I haven’t shot film since high school and college. It’s funny to me that I’ve been shooting digitally and using film emulation on some shots. Then I get these scans back and stare at them, thinking, “This is the real deal, real Kodak Portra, no simulation needed.”
Photography is a funny thing these days. Digital, film, emulations, filters, recipes, A.I., apps. Even shooting film and scanning negatives to make them digital so you can post them is funny to me. You take negatives, scan them, and then you can still tweak to some degree, colors, brightness, sharpness, etc. Are they film shots still? (That’s rhetorical). You have purists who think most of this is sacrilegious.
I’m not in any camp. I love photography. I don’t care how you do it. In fact, tell me how you do it. Tell me your process. I’m curious about your art and how you make it. It’s yours. Don’t let anybody tell you your art is less than because you don’t follow their rules. We all have our preferences and beliefs. I respect yours, and maybe I’ll even adopt some of yours if they make sense to me. I always try to follow the mantra of “Strong Opinions, Loosely Held.” Be open to change, to new data, to new ideas. It will make you a better person and photographer.
I’m really enjoying my photography journey these days. Digital shooting, Rolleiflex, (BeerPan coming someday (35mm Pano)), printing, film, negatives, scanning, it’s just all really interesting and fun exploring as much as I can. Heck, I’m watching a very in-depth Large Format Photography course right now, and there may be even more variety in the future. I’m just say’n: the 4x5 and 6x17 stuff looks awfully fun.
Anyway, I’m babbling now. Go take some pictures.
Back home and rested. I sat outside this morning with coffee, camera, and my new book. I’ll have a write-up about this amazing book in my June The Good Stuff. Bottom line: I think every outdoor photographer should have this book. It’s the best photography book I’ve found in a really long time. I’m highlighting and making margin notes like crazy.
I was working on bird shots between cups of coffee, and grabbed a fun shot with the Nikon as this guy came overhead.
Grabbed these shots while riding in the back. It’s amazing what you can get through a little plastic window. Timing is everything.
Dorothy said it best, “There’s no place like home.”
Last overnight in CUN, thank goodness. It’s so hot and humid here; I just can’t do it. I’m done until next winter.
A couple of decent shots and a number of unpublishable ones today. Some shots you think will be good just don’t turn out.
Nice weather, full airplanes, and on time, no drama, and no mechanical issues—all make for a good day.
Nice day at work. Good weather and easy flying. Overnighting in SJC, and it’s crazy busy here. I guess there is a World Cup game(s) going on right now.
Hope everyone had a good day.
photo
I’m into the power lines this week…
Back to work tomorrow. Back to iPhone shots.
Short drive tonight on some errands, and when I drove past this, I knew I had to capture it. I turned around, parked, and hiked to a good spot to take in this peaceful scene. A good reason to always have your camera with you.
Nikon Z8 • 125mm • 1/125s • f/2.8 • ISO 5000
Film Journey: I shot a roll of Portra 400 tonight on some sunset shots with the Rollei. I don’t have a cable release for it, so I ordered one on eBay tonight. I had it on a tripod, but who knows how shaky I am when pressing and releasing the shutter with my finger in Bulb Mode. No instant results—just have to wait and find out. Another roll of exposed film in the refrigerator. When I get back from my next work trip, I’m going to try a local lab for developing and scanning. I think I’m set up to scan my own negatives now, but I want some lab scans to compare mine to.
This Rollei that I’m using has a lot of meaning for me. It was my grandfather’s; he was an avid photographer and very active in his local photography club up in the Pacific Northwest. I loved spending time with him in his office, looking at slides on the light table. I want to keep his camera shooting film for many years. It’s been a long, slow journey back into film for me, but progress is happening.
The next roll to experiment with is Kodak Ektar 100. It’s supposed to have very fine grain and vibrant colors. Excited to see it.
Out for another sunset tonight — I could get into this habit. The oranges and blues have been beautiful. I did a quick 4x6 test print of this shot on Ilford Gold Fibre Rag, and it looks really good.
I finally shot a roll of Ilford HP5+ through the Rolleiflex tonight. I loaded a roll of Kodak Portra 400 for tomorrow. We shall see…
Hopefully, a worthy Rollei frame or two to share in Stray Pixels in the coming weeks.
Finally back home, it’s amazing what a good night’s sleep can do for you.
I was able to get out today and shoot. Pretty happy with this shot, not technically, but more about the metaphor or meaning. I’m still torn with the title. Originally, I had “The Slow March of Death”, then “Waiting Their Turn”, but “Standing Among Ghosts” gave me goosebumps, so I went with that.
If you have a good title, please let me know!
Ah, road life. Not always fun or pleasant. Another rough night’s sleep. The resort limits how cold you can make the room, and it’s just too hot for me. I like to sleep cold. But mediocre coffee and a good breakfast shake off the lack of sleep this morning.
Out walking this morning, I was wondering why some bushes are filled with purple flowers while another right next to them is bare. You can see down in Stray Pixels, why.
Well, the plane is already over an hour late; it might be a long day, life on the road.
Cheers.
Back in Cancun. Hot and humid, and the resort is dead. Nobody is here. It’s so nice and quiet. Walking back to my room, I came across this male Baltimore Oriole. Blurry shots, but he was moving fast, and all I had was my iPhone. Such vivid colors.
Hope it was a good day!
Pretty sad day on the photo front. Had a terrible night’s sleep, got up at 2:30 in the morning, and had a long day. My only shots were early this morning, thank goodness I took those. Time for sleep.
Shot and processed on the iPhone.
Get-R-Done! Knocking the daily photo out early this morning.
Around 6 pm, I was going to post my photo of the Kodak printer review and thought, “You can do better than this. Come on, work for it a little bit.” So off I went in the car, looking for a nice sunset shot. I took about 90 photos and came away with just a few keepers. I posted that shot around 9 pm, which is very late for me. But all that put me in the “carry my camera everywhere” mode, and this morning, when I got up at 5 am, I grabbed my coffee and a camera and sat outside, just watching the sun come up and the birds moving through the soft colors of first light.
OM-1 Mark II • 400mm • 1/3200s • f/4.5 • ISO 2000
Sidenote: I need to somehow make a foam insert that fits in the passenger seat, fills the footwell, and gives me a nice, level, soft surface to put cameras and lenses on. I often drive around looking for shots, and putting a camera bag on the passenger seat just is not stable or ideal. Last night, a harder-than-expected stop made a camera roll off the seat and hit the floor. I was not happy…
Has anyone made anything like this? Have you ever seen anything like this? I’m thinking of a big, soft foam insert that fills the space, with slots you could cut to hold your gear securely while still having quick access to it. Last night I missed good shots because it took too long to futz with gear.
Another crazy busy day. Up at 4 am, to drop my better half off at the airport to go see the grandkids. So that leaves me with dog-walking duty. Out into the heat for a 4 miler. The dogs looked at me funny because “Mom” always does 7+ with them. Hey, I got things to do.
Then chores and office work. I love the term “Office Work” because for me, that usually means hobby stuff! Today I completed my current printing class and did some more hard proofing. I love holding prints in my hand. If you haven’t printed any of your photography in a while, please do so. It feels good. It looks good. There is NO comparison to looking at a print on screen vs holding a print on good paper. I have a zine from Florian - I love looking at this thing. It’s beautiful to hold photography in your hand. Trust me.
So, that meant no photography time today, so you get one of the dogs and me by this very pretty flowering bushy thing…
I’m off on a trip soon, but I’m very excited to get home. I’ve carved out 2 or 3 days of just shooting pictures time. I don’t know where I’m going yet or what I’m doing, but I’ll be out there for sunrise and sunset for sure. Even in these nasty 42 °C / 107 °F temperatures. Tickle me excited.
If you’re reading this, you actually stopped by my blog. Thank you. I appreciate you. I hope it was an amazing day.
Never Stop Learning!
P.S. Three photo blogs that I look at every week, or whenever they post: (and I think you should also) Florian.photo & Jasper.Tandy.is & Daniel Pietzsch’s Photo Journal Dan also has a very cool Polaroid page.
Emotional day.
We went over to Richard’s house to meet with his wife and son. We had a good talk, told some stories, and shared good memories. They were very gracious to let us pick out a few of Richard’s photos to keep in his memory. I will proudly have these on my office wall. I miss our Flickr chats, seeing Richard out on his morning walk, and talking about woodworking…
Miss you, friend.
Down in Stray Pixels, a few shots from yesterday turned out pretty well for iPhone shots. Craig, Richard’s son, wanted a picture of mine printed that he and his dad had commented on before he passed, as a memory. I’m working on some color correction and testing some new photo papers to get a worthy print for him.
It was nice to fiddle around with photography and printing today while I thought about Richard.
Well, here it is, the end of May already. I can’t believe it.
Cancún is hot and humid, and I almost can’t stand it. I’m definitely a cool-weather guy, and I just sweat and suffer in this humidity. I think it’s time to stop bidding for these trips until winter comes around again.
I got my shots done early this morning and wanted to get this post up before my day got started. It’s a late show today, with just one leg back to Phoenix, which I’m pretty pleased with.
The amount of seaweed on the beach is the worst I’ve seen it. Parts of the beach are almost unwalkable, and the smell can be pretty bad. Despite that, I had some really good conversations with the workers this trip. Everyone is so nice. When you start asking people where they grew up, what their parents did, or what their favorite childhood memories are, you can end up having some really beautiful conversations.
This is technically a no-tipping resort since everything is included, but I still tip everyone. They work hard, and I know it’s appreciated.
Lots of stray pixels this time around. I tried to experiment a little and be creative with some of them. Every photo was shot and processed on the iPhone.
First time in Richmond. Not enough time to explore the city, hopefully next time. Good day out in the skies, only 40 minutes late by the end of the day. Lots of thunderstorms and turbulence today, glad to be done. Ended up in Cancun, time for a good rest.
