City Cow (277/365)
Surgery is tomorrow morning, early.
If you see a picture posted tomorrow, you know I lived.
See ya on the other side.
Nikon-Z8
Concrete Camouflage (276/365)
Nikon Z8 & LR
Another fine day: mild temperatures, a good swim at the gym, and cleaning and organizing the garage. Then my favorite thing: working on the new project. Getting close to publishing. Still adding some photos and working on the about page, etc.
Ya, I need another blog like I need a hole in my head, but yet here we are, working on a new blog. It’s a photo blog, but it will be more photo-forward, clean, simple, and have a few nice features to highlight the photography along with photography trips. There won’t be any rules with this one, and I’ll just post my favorite photos and some “Cliff Notes” about anything photography-related.
I’m not sure if I’ll keep posting to 365Pixels after I (hopefully) complete my goal of posting every day for a year. I may, but this other blog may win out. We shall see. I’m not sure I want the pressure of posting every day. But it’s become such a habit that it may not be that hard to continue. The hardest part some days is just remembering to take some photos, any photos, when the day is long and busy.
I’ve been trying not to think about it, but Monday is my thyroid surgery… I’m hoping I’ll feel up to posting a pic after the surgery. We shall see. I don’t pre-post on this blog! There are rules! LOL. I have a suspicious nodule on my thyroid, and they are going to remove half or more of it. Ya, not great. But better than leaving a possible cancer nodule thingy in your body. They are hoping to leave enough in so I won’t have to take medicine every day for the rest of my life to produce whatever the thyroid is supposed to produce. Good times will be had by all. Thank goodness for modern medicine and drugs that knock you out. Can you imagine surgery without anesthesia? Prior to 1846, you just took a swig of whiskey and hoped to pass out. Ugh.
I hope it was a great day in your world today. Thanks for stopping by and taking a look around. Go take some pictures!
Cholla Light (275/365)
Good day today. Had lunch with an old friend; always good to catch up in person. Got a few desert shots today out on a drive and worked on my new web project. Nothing to announce right now; it’s still not ready for the public, and I’m still thinking it through, but it’s always fun to dabble in a fun new project!
Never stop learning!
The Rising (274/365)
Nikon Z8 & LR
This shot is from yesterday, but I just got it processed today. It was time for some black & white.
Lots of work on the blog today. I didn’t have a proper photo viewer you could scroll through all the photos with; now we do. You also couldn’t click a picture on the main page to bring up a photo viewer, so I fixed that. I cleaned up the footer a bit. I also set the default for my photos to post at the largest size, so now they extend out from the post. In my blog settings, this was called photo overflow. I like it this way better. I changed the give kudos button on posts to “Send Some Love” and it now gives a nice shower of confetti.
Lots of little changes all add up to a better experience, and I get to learn more about these Hugo-based blogs.
I hope it was an outstanding day!
Stormlight (273/365)
Nikon Z8 & LR
I’ve been going for drives around sunset the past two nights to get my daily shots. It’s been slim pickings around the house. Yesterday, I took 50+ shots of bees on the flowers with my iPhone, and not a single one was post-worthy. I was going to be so proud pulling off a nice bee on the flower shot with the iPhone. It’s better to go for a drive with the Nikon.
Today was a big day on the film front. Using new-to-me Jobo tanks and reels, I loaded two rolls of 120 and got them developed. The Jobo reels are not user-friendly at all. I practiced with them at least 20 times to figure them out and feel somewhat confident. 120 is unique because you have to remove the paper backing and the tape holding it on; then you can tackle getting the film on the reel. It went better than I thought. I was unwilling to sacrifice a roll of 120 to practice removing the backing paper, so I watched a YouTube video and called that good enough. I used Bellini C-46 chemicals. I couldn’t scan today because apparently I don’t have a 6x7 film mask. It’s on order.
I hope you had a great day wherever you were today. I appreciate you stopping by to take a look.
Road Closed (272/365)
Nikon Z8 & LR
121 (255/365)
Nikon Z8 & LR
Another day of bookstores and walking around. Found an incredible deli that made me the best vegetarian sandwich I think I’ve ever had, along with a mushroom soup that I’m still thinking about.
Lots of signs today. Got pretty creative with the processing, pushing boundaries, and probably embarrassing my future self…
Live large, make pictures, and use lots of vignetting! LOL
15 more signs down in Stray Pixels
I hope you had a good day; hug someone and tell them you love them.
Thank you for stopping by.
👾Click for Stray Pixels👾
No Smokin (253/365)
Nikon Z8 & LR
Good night’s sleep last night and a slower day today gave me time to catch up.
Great coffee and a six-mile hike today; caught up on some shopping and chores.
Down in Stray Pixels are the rest of the photos from yesterday. A couple of versions of “Keeping Watch”; the two people sitting out in front were just perfect. I really like the shot.
👾Click for Stray Pixels👾
Keeping Watch (252/365)
Nikon Z8 & LR
A very long day today; too tired and too late to process more pictures. I’ll post the rest tomorrow.
Hope you had a great day, and I appreciate you stopping by.
Summer Fading (251/365)
Nikon Z8 & LR
Fall is in the air. I love and miss the seasonal transitions.
Someone needs the encouragement you almost didn’t give.
I hope it was a great day.
👾Click for Stray Pixels👾
Land of Fog & Moss (250/365)
Nikon Z8 & LR
Easy day today. Coffee and breakfast at Locus, excellent coffee, and I can recommend the Quinoa breakfast bowl. 7-mile walk in the cool morning mist, then checked out the Community Food Co-op.
Notice something beautiful today.
I appreciate you stopping by.
👾Click for Stray Pixels👾
Rails along the Salish Sea (248/365)
Nikon Z8 & LR
Outstanding coffee this morning from a local shop. You know it’s good when the line is 30 minutes long. Great hike up to a lake today and halibut tacos. It’s a simple life.
Lots of film shots with the Nikon F3 today.
I hope something good happens to you today!
👾👾 Click for Stray Pixels 👾👾
Nikon Z8 and iPhone shots
Pier into the Ocean (247/365)
Nikon Z8 & LR Processed
Nice 6-mile hike along the waterfront today. Yet again, fish & chips for dinner and Lopez Island ice cream for dessert. Not a bad way to spend the day.
Down in Stray Pixels, you will see three stickers I found today. What a great way to spread positivity and love. I need some.
Someone smiles when they think about you ☺️
👾👾 Click for Stray Pixels 👾👾
Where the Ferns Grow (246/365)
Nikon Z8 & LR
Outstanding day: 7.5M / 12KM hiking, surrounded by Mother Nature and all her creations, Amazing fish & chips in Bellingham, great conversations with some of the locals. It was overcast most of the day, but we ended up with blue skies at the end, all in a wonderful temperature of 68°F/20°C.
More “making pictures” and hiking tomorrow.
Do something creative tomorrow, something that makes your heart smile and thank you very much for stopping by.
👾👾👾 Click for Stray Pixels 👾👾👾
Deception Pass (245/365)
Nikon Z8 & LR
Good day, hiking and shooting. Not ideal because it’s getting the shot right now in this light; we have to keep moving. No waiting for good light or for this cloud to roll by. There is always a price to pay for being on the move, photography-wise.
Finally got the film cameras out and got a few shots on them as well.
I’m at least on this trip, starting to post pictures below that I normally wouldn’t. This blog is almost becoming an online journal of sorts. I want some pictures for my memories, not necessarily because they are good pictures. We will see how this evolves. It’s interesting how this blog has changed since its beginnings. I’m sure it will change some more.
Since writing more on this blog, I’ve started to ignore my personal journal. I sometimes just post a link to the day’s post in my journal. That was never my intent, but it’s what I’m seeing happen. Just more changes I see happening.
Keep the dirty side down, never stop learning, and take more pictures! Thanks for stopping by.
Click for Stray Pixels 👾👾👾
Books (244/365)
Nikon Z8 Shot, LR Processed
Easy 3-hour drive to Fidalgo Island today. Set up camp and went into town for halibut fish & chips, followed by the best ice cream on the planet at Lopez Island Creamery. 1
Nothing too spectacular on the photo front, but finally got the Nikon out.
Click for Stray Pixels 👾👾👾👾
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They’ve had people fly across the country just for this ice cream. I don’t know how they do it, but it’s crazy addictive good stuff. Hands down the best ice cream I’ve ever had. ↩︎
The Gathering (204/365)
One more from yesterday. Cleared for publication by the Department of Excessive Scrutiny.
Desert Trail (203/365)
Two hours before sunset, I loaded up two bags of gear: three cameras, 5 lenses, two tripods, a big jug of water, and a very large towel to wipe sweat off with, and headed up the trail, trying to find a nice high vantage point for sunset. One backpack on your back and the other one worn on your front works pretty well. The hardest part of the evening was keeping sweat off the gear.
Sunset was a bust, just hardly any colors, and very few clouds in the Western skies. My saving grace was this big thunderstorm starting to brew off in the distance, which gave me a nice subject to focus on. It ended up petering out, leaving me with just about nothing, but by that time it was getting too dark, and it was time to head down. I wanted a bit of light because the area is rife with rattlesnakes. The last thing I need is to be out there alone and trying to deal with a rattlesnake bite.
I know there is a weather app out there that is focused on photographers and alerts you to good sunsets, fog, the Milky Way, and things of the sort. I would like to read some reports on how it’s working for people. All sunsets are beautiful, but only some are worth lugging gear up a hill in 100°F/38°C heat.
135 frames with the Z8 and I came away with about 7 that I like. Hopefully some good film shots as well.
The daily shot and the others in Stray Pixels are from the Nikon Z8. I also used the Rollei and the Nikon F3, but of course those will come later. I’m very interested to see how I did with my exposure settings; sunsets can be challenging.
Click for Stray Pixels
