You Shall Not Pass (191/365)
Friday, July 10, 2026
Back on the road. Short overnight in RNO.
BOI tomorrow. I haven’t had an overnight in Boise in a long time, looking forward to it.
Hope it was a good day.
2026
Crown of Light (190/365)
Thursday, July 9, 2026
I didn’t wake up to an account being hacked, so I made my zoo trip today. I could only make it an hour and a half in this heat. My Z8 was getting way too hot; it was a clear win for the F3. It just tanked along with no issues. Something to be said for yesterday’s technology.
Got some decent shots and shot a roll in the F3 with Ilford Vintage Tone Color film. Can’t show you those yet… film builds patients. It has been very good for me to shoot more film. It’s really slowing me down, manual focus, setting your aperture and shutter speed, reading the light, all give you time to study your subject. I like it. It brings back good memories, and the older I get, the more I like good memories.
19 more pictures in Stray Pixels and, warning, a little rant about zoos. If you don’t want to read a rant, just ignore the text and look at the pictures.
Click for Stray Pixels
I have to say it. I can’t not say it: I loathe zoos.
If I were in charge, zoos would have very high minimums for space and quality of life—so high that there wouldn’t be many zoos left. You can look into the eyes of these creatures and see the sadness. Yes, I know I’m anthropomorphizing, but I’m pretty sure I’m right. As an avid watcher of nature shows, I can’t be convinced these animals are happy and living full lives. They are not. These incredibly intelligent birds are kept in small cages, alone, while hordes of people gawp at them all day. It’s sad.
I know, I contributed to it today. And I’m not sure what to do about that. Do you support them so they have money to properly care for the animals, or stop going, hoping they go out of business? There is no good answer. We need stronger standards. I haven’t been to this zoo in many, many years. There will be many more before I return. My heart can’t take it.
I met a toucan‑sort‑of bird today that kept bringing me things and dropping them toward me. I would move from one side of his cage to the other, talking to him, and he kept bringing me things, looking at me. You know what I’m going to say, right? Yeah, I think he was trying to pay me for breaking him out. Or just wanted some interaction, something to do. He has no partner, no mate, nothing natural at all. There, I said it.
He was alone, with no space to fly or forage—no space for anything at all but to sit there all day in what turned out to be 115°F / 46°C. The last bird I photographed broke my heart. It just stared at you with soulless eyes. It looked defeated.
Yeah, I know, some zoos do good work and science, help rehabilitate animals, and breed endangered species, and that’s all wonderful. But these small enclosures and cages are unacceptable. And don’t even get me started on factory farms. If you can watch a video about how pigs, chickens, and cows are treated, then contribute to that… it all just makes me sad.
Light the Way (189/365)
Wednesday, July 8, 2026
Well, what a day. I had planned to get up early, take two cameras to the Wildlife Park, and wander around before the heat really ramped up. But I woke up to text messages and emails saying I had used airline miles to buy tickets on Qatar Airways, along with two credit card charges for additional mileage purchases. I logged in to my account and found 185k miles missing. The one damn account I did not have 2FA on. WTF OVER!
So it took all morning to clean that up. By the time I was done, it was quickly climbing toward today’s high of 113°F/45°C, so my photo walk plans went by the wayside.
So you get this mediocre iPhone shot instead. I do like the moody feel, though…
I’m aiming for the Wildlife Park photo walk tomorrow. Planning a digital-and-film camera walk. I was able to get out a short while today with the Nikon F3, trying to get through a 36-exposure roll of Ilford Ilfocolor 400 Vintage Tone. I wanted to start tomorrow with a fresh roll.
Hope your day went better than mine.
Click for Stray Pixels and a Film Journey Update
Well, I’m convinced that developing at home will save money and might just be fun. Might be fun, heck, I know it will be fun! I have such fond memories of working in the dark room, and this will be a tiny step toward that feeling.
I’m waiting on some C-41 chemicals, and I have my black-and-white chemicals to start with. I’ve watched numerous videos to refresh myself and have practiced rolling film onto the spools in the dark bag a number of times, both 35mm and 120. I’m sticking with the AP plastic spools for now. You can see what I’m using, what videos I watched, and other resources here.
I’m going to start with a few rolls of black-and-white film. Get comfortable with that, then dive into the temperature-sensitive C-41 developing.
I’m starting with rolls that don’t have anything precious on them to make sure I know what I’m doing. Any great shots will be brought to the local lab until I get my process down. Too many ways to screw it up.
I hope to get a blog post up soon about my process, what I used, and how it went. I’m guessing within a week or so, I’ll have time to start.
Equipment for this first round of B&W developing
ILFORD:
- Developer: DD-X
- Ilfostop
- Rapid Fixer
- Washaid
- Wetting Agent
Paterson Tanks, AP and Paterson spools/reels, dark bag, scissors, film retriever, hanging clips, Pec Pads, and distilled water.
The Day Begins (188/365)
Tuesday, July 7, 2026
Suspended in Blue (187/365)
Monday, July 6, 2026
World Class Clown Show (186/365)
Sunday, July 5, 2026
Presented without comment.
Dark Skies (185/365)
Saturday, July 4, 2026
Atmosphere (184/365)
Friday, July 3, 2026
The Waiting Room Time Forgot (183/365)
Thursday, July 2, 2026
Went to a new doc today. He had the coolest, laid-back, 1930s-style office I’ve ever seen. And it was peaceful and empty!
It was the best medical office I’ve ever been to. With that said, you don’t want to have to go here; it means you have a nodule on your thyroid. Ya, you can pass on that.
Hope you had good light today!
ILFORD ILFOCOLOR Vintage Tone (182/365)
Wednesday, July 1, 2026
Happy Canada Day 🇨🇦
I probably shouldn’t write anything today.
I’m tired, didn’t get nearly enough sleep, and to top it off, I wasn’t happy with any of today’s photos. None of them.
My only bright spot was getting to futz around in my office all day, and my Ilford vintage tone film came in the mail. I’m excited to see what it produces. I promptly loaded it into the F3 and shot a few frames around the house. Maybe tomorrow, if it’s cool enough, I’ll take it out for a little outing after seeing the doc. I have to see a surgeon about whether he thinks it’s time to remove a thyroid nodule. Good times…
May you have good light!
Click for Stray Pixels
I wasn’t happy with any pictures today. I’m posting just because it’s what I shot today.
Hood Clouds (181/365)
Tuesday, June 30, 2026
Up at 1 A.M., worked for 8 hours, then deadheaded home. Long day, always good to be back home.
May you have good light and interesting subjects!
Hope (180/365)
Monday, June 29, 2026
Some days, I feel like I have a cathedral’s worth of hope; other days, I feel as though all hope is lost.
Hotel Glass (179/365)
Sunday, June 28, 2026
Woke up early, opened the blinds, and thought the reflection was kind of cool.
Was stuck in a box all day and thought a nice walk outside would be nice. I only made it 2.5 miles/4 km in 96°F/35°C temps, with 57% humidity.
May your troubles be less, and your blessings be more, and nothing but happiness come through your door!
Deli - Beer - Ice (178/365)
Saturday, June 27, 2026
I don’t do borders much, but I thought this pic looked good with one. You know, experimenting a little.
Hope it was a good day for everyone, and you took a few pictures.
Cheers.
Wild Palms (177/365)
Friday, June 26, 2026
Nikon Z8 • 500mm • ƒ/13 • 1/500s
Ran out of time today due to errands and honey-dos. Made it out to the backyard before sunset and tried to get some good motion-blur shots of some palm trees, but I wasn’t happy with the results. I got what I got.
Off to work on a four-day trip tomorrow. It’s always hard to leave home…
Figuring out Darktable is in the queue. Reading this site gives me some hope. All I ever hear about Darktable is that it’s deep and complex, with a learning curve like a hockey stick. All that means is you need good instruction. The Darktable.info project looks like it breaks it down into bite-sized chunks. Hopefully, when I get back into town, I can spend some time with it.
You know what I’m missing these days? Photography road trips. I used to take five-to eight-day road trips and do nothing but shoot pictures and weave a story out of them. I used to post those stories on Exposure, but I got tired of their pricing and the lack of an easy way to download my stories intact. So I canceled everything. My goal was to remake those stories on my website, but I just haven’t gotten around to it yet. It’s just so time-consuming. I’m itching for a long road trip just to explore and shoot pictures.
Well, if you couldn’t tell, I’m trying to write more under my pictures. Keeping it mostly in a photography vein. I really like it when I read other photo blogs that have a story/thoughts along with the photos.
Film Journey: I’ve been thinking a lot about photography class back in high school and our darkroom work. Made me research today what folks are doing for film developing at home these days. That was a rabbit hole! Found some good stuff, and boy, it hasn’t changed much. There are some nice kits out there, and for B&W film in particular, it’s pretty straightforward stuff. I’m blowing off the kits and may just get a super simple piecemeal setup and try a roll or two at home, what the heck. You can get everything you need for about $120 if you shop around. If you get good results, it wouldn’t take long to recoup your investment with the cost of developing. If you’re going to jump back into film, why not jump in with both feet? More on this foray later.
Bread Day (176/365)
Thursday, June 25, 2026
Bread-making day today. We have a small local bakery close to us that we really want to keep in business, so we purchase most of our bread and croissants from them, but we still make some bread at home. It’s fun and something that my wife and I can do together. I say together, but she does most of the work. My main job is Sourdough Maintainer. I’ve made and maintained a sourdough starter since I was in my early 20s. Not sure why, I just always thought it was cool. I keep a small batch healthy and happy to use in bread and pancakes. If you want a resource for sourdough, here is a good one.
Worked most of the day in the office on learning more about photo scanning, posting about having a Life Manifesto on Cliff538.com, and I wanted to make a dedicated page for my foray back into film before I got too deep into the weeds and started to forget things. Just a page to list out my posts and the resources I have found worthy in this journey for anyone interested in exploring film or film scanning. Plus, it’s for me to look back and reference things. You can see it here.
I also really enjoyed Jasper’s: Kent 1, Kent 2, and Kent 3? series. Great photos from a part of the world I haven’t spent that much time in. And this great YouTube video about the very last Polaroid factory in the Netherlands. I had no idea how complex it is. Great behind-the-scenes look. It will help you understand why film is so expensive. Haven’t looked at Polaroid recently? Check out their cameras, film and printers. The factory now employs about 150 people; in its heyday, it was 1200+. The film is still supported in cameras that are 50 years old, kudos to Polaroid for always supporting their legacy cameras. Blue pasta goop, pudding, roller pressure, aging, spread factors, it’s incredibly complex to maintain legacy cameras with the new film. You get to see the old 8x10 peel-apart machinery, which they only run from time to time, hence the perpetual shortage. They love 8x10 and say they have no plans to stop producing it. The machines are old and finicky and in desperate need of an overhaul.
For a cool Polaroid website, check out Dan’s Polaroids.
Long Live Film 🎞️
Pastel Evening (175/365)
Wednesday, June 24, 2026
Nikon Z8 • 24mm • ƒ/4.0 • 1/400s • ISO 800
It’s raining here. It’s 104°F/40°C and raining. Real nice.
Yesterday it was 113°F / 45°C, and it was miserable. From the news, it sounds like we’re not alone. The heat has settled in everywhere, and summer has arrived like a blowtorch.
This is a shot from yesterday that I just got around to editing in Lightroom.
Thanks for stopping by.
Click for Stray Pixels and a Film Journey Update
Film Journey: Another update to home digital camera film scanning. I read the user manual for Negative Lab Pro and its scanning recommendations, and I tried a second batch of scans. I think they turned out much better. I’ll show a couple of shots from yesterday’s post, plus a few more, that show the difference between the lab scans and my scans. It surprised me and made me realize that the lab isn’t always the best.
I will say that color scans are the hardest. B&W is pretty darn easy; there is no white balance to deal with, and you’re basically just adjusting brightness, contrast, black clip, and white clip, unless you use toning.
I’m most surprised at the sunset pictures. The lab scans came out really dark, and I thought I had just screwed up my metering, which metering for that shot is tough with the bright sky and dark street, but I wasn’t even going to process those shots, and I’m glad I did. When I scanned them and used Negative Lab Pro with just standard settings, they were not that dark at all. It just shows me that whoever scans your pictures, they, or the software, is making a judgment call on your negative. I think I’d rather be making those decisions.
I’m rather enjoying the process and creative outlet. Looking forward to getting some good pictures to work with now.
Of note, I’ve been using Negative Lab Pro for negative conversions, but I just found another way from CineStill Film. They have LR, PS, and ACR presets that do the conversion. I downloaded them, but haven’t had a chance to play with them yet. You can watch a YouTube video on how to use them here.
The first seven shots are professional lab scans from my local lab. The next seven are my scans. Ignore the quality of the shots, I just wanted to shoot a couple of rolls of film to test the Rolleiflex and my metering. You can compare them yourself. I’m working on getting that cool image reveal slider on my blog, but it’s a bit more complex than I thought. It would be nice to have the slider and see the lab scan vs my scan in the same shot. Hopefully soon.
The learning continues!
My second try with new knowledge and tweaks to the software and camera settings.
Texture (174/365)
Tuesday, June 23, 2026
Sad day for taking photos, but a good day on the film scanning front!
More down in Stray Pixels about the film journey.
Click for Stray Pixels
Film Journey:
Today was mostly an office day to see if I could do my own scans of my negatives and get them close to the professional lab results.
I’m going to post the professional lab scans, then my camera scans. My goal is to be able to scan my own negatives and at least come close to lab-quality. I know labs vary widely, and I only have one lab to compare to right now, but I don’t think mine are that bad, especially for my first attempt. There is a pretty steep learning curve, and I’m sure I’ll get better as I learn more and practice. Please ignore the photo content; these were test shots to make sure my grandfather’s Rollei was still working, and my light metering technique was working. I was just shooting random stuff around the house. Oh, and ignore the dust! My word, the dust on my black-and-white negatives was horrible. I’m going to have to be way more careful in the future.
I’m also going to have to decide where I’m going to document my film journey. Here in Stray Pixels, or I should probably just make a proper page over on Cliff538.com. I will give this some thought.
The last photo is a Vlads Test Target. It’s a simple concept that works really well for testing sharpness, especially in the photo corners. Setting up your camera and film scanner so that everything is straight and parallel is really important. Then figure out which aperture setting on your lens gives you the best focus, especially in the corners. I was using f/8 on my lens, and there is some softness in the corners. This warrants some testing with other apertures.
I used my Nikon Z8 with an MC 105/2.8 lens and a Valoi 360 system. Processed with LightRoom Classic and Negative Lab Pro.
All shots taken with a Rolleiflex. The color film was Kodak Portra 400, and the B&W was Ilford HP5 400.
Coffee + Peace = Good Start To The Day (173/365)
Monday, June 22, 2026
Four A.M. sharp is van time. I was out by the curb early with a cup of coffee, sitting in the dawn’s first light, all alone, listening as the birds slowly woke and began announcing the day. A peaceful little pocket of quiet before the hectic day ahead: airports, crowds, and full aluminum tubes streaking through the air at 500 miles per hour.
Click for Stray Pixels
Danger (172/365)
Sunday, June 21, 2026
Four legs today. Only an hour late by the end of the day. Not too bad for Summer flying.
Pro Tip: If you are traveling by air, take the first few flights out in the morning. Morning flights always leave on time. These planes fly all day long, and by early afternoon, they are running hours late due to mechanicals, weather, and a hundred other reasons. Do yourself a favor, and fly out early. I know it’s hard to get up early, but it’s better than getting to the airport only to be 3+ hours delayed or canceled.
Architectural Curves (171/365)
Saturday, June 20, 2026
What a day. Full airplanes, lots of thunderstorms, delays, holding, waiting, plane changes, and more! Glad to be done. 10 hours' rest, and let’s go do it again. Let’s get people where they want to go!
Weak photo today, but it’s the only one from today.
Hope it was a great day, thank you for stopping by.
Equilibrium (170/365)
Friday, June 19, 2026
Not much time for photographs today. My mountain shot was, let’s just say, uninspiring. So, time to get creative and deepen the blacks and brighten the whites to create a mountain yin-yang opposing-forces idea.
Off to work tomorrow, let’s see what creativity that brings.
Cheers.
Sunset Road (169/365)
Thursday, June 18, 2026
I should have gotten lower; it would have made for a better shot. The pavement was so bloody hot, I didn’t want to lie down on it.
Hope it was a good day, thanks for stopping by.
What A Cute Couple (168/365)
Wednesday, June 17, 2026
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.
Click for Stray Pixels
Flight (167/365)
Tuesday, June 16, 2026
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.
Queue (166/365)
Monday, June 15, 2026
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.”
Click for Stray Pixels
Look Up (165/365)
Sunday, June 14, 2026
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.
Stray Pixels
Tail View (164/365)
Saturday, June 13, 2026
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.
Click for Stray Pixels
photo
Power to the People (163/365)
Friday, June 12, 2026
I’m into the power lines this week…
Back to work tomorrow. Back to iPhone shots.
Peace (162/365)
Thursday, June 11, 2026
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.
Click for Stray Pixels
