Saturday, September 5, 2026
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!
Nikon Z8 and iPhone shots
Friday, September 4, 2026
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 ☺️
Thursday, September 3, 2026
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.
Wednesday, September 2, 2026
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.
Tuesday, September 1, 2026
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.
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. ↩︎
Thursday, July 23, 2026
One more from yesterday. Cleared for publication by the Department of Excessive Scrutiny.
Wednesday, July 22, 2026
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.
