Nikon on 365Pixels

Crown of Light (190/365)

Thu, 09 Jul 2026 15:12:36 -0700

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.

You can look into his soul-less eyes 😞

Suspended in Blue (187/365)

Mon, 06 Jul 2026 18:58:41 -0700

Deli - Beer - Ice (178/365)

Sat, 27 Jun 2026 19:04:50 -0700

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)

Fri, 26 Jun 2026 22:48:20 -0500

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.

Pastel Evening (175/365)

Wed, 24 Jun 2026 19:00:25 -0500

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!

Pro Lab Scan - Portra 400

Pro Lab Scan - Ilford HP5 400

My second try with new knowledge and tweaks to the software and camera settings.

My Digital Camera Scans - Negative Lab Pro Software - Portra 400

My Digital Camera Scans - Negative Lab Pro Software - Ilford HP5 400

Equilibrium (170/365)

Fri, 19 Jun 2026 15:28:51 -0700

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)

Thu, 18 Jun 2026 20:32:24 -0700

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)

Wed, 17 Jun 2026 17:33:23 -0700

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

Rolleiflex. Portra 400.

Same Photo. Processed Black & White in LR

Flight (167/365)

Tue, 16 Jun 2026 14:10:27 -0600

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.

Power to the People (163/365)

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 22:12:11 -0500

I’m into the power lines this week…

Back to work tomorrow. Back to iPhone shots.

Peace (162/365)

Thu, 11 Jun 2026 20:41:52 -0700

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

4x6 Test Print of yesterday's photo on ILFORD Gold Fiber Rag. I like it.

Lines of Power (161/365)

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 23:36:04 -0500

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.

Standing Among Ghosts (160/365)

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 17:18:19 -0700

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!

Quiet (155/365)

Thu, 04 Jun 2026 22:51:11 -0500

Anna's Hummingbird (147/365)

Wed, 27 May 2026 14:06:09 -0700

Back from mountain biking and nursing my old, sore, out-of-shape body, I’m now sitting in the backyard with a cup of coffee, watching this little guy guard his two feeders. A little male Anna’s hummingbird has proudly claimed my backyard tree as his home, and I’m honored. He’s letting me get really close with my camera. I think it’s a fair trade: I provide two always-full feeders and a big shade tree, and I get to take pictures.

I’ve also put up two grass hummingbird nests, just in case he wants a ready-made home to move into. From what I’ve read, Anna’s hummingbirds now live in the Phoenix Valley year-round.

Click for Stray Pixels

Thoughtful (143/365)

Sat, 23 May 2026 16:07:07 -0700

Home from a good three day trip. Caught River outside looking thoughtful.

Daisy (140/365)

Wed, 20 May 2026 11:29:32 -0700

Trying to get a good shot of the dogs is harder than it should be. They really dislike having something pointed at them. I have to be really fast before they turn away.

Here is Daisy, looking a little perturbed that she’s being subjected to all these photographs.

Asahi Pentax Analog Spotmeter V (138/365)

Mon, 18 May 2026 17:58:40 -0700

The very slow but steady march toward my film experiment continues with this absolutely beautiful Pentax Analog Spotmeter. I think it’s simply beautiful, and I love bringing it up to my eye, pulling the trigger, and getting my EV.

I grew up shooting and developing film. Trying to think back on how I metered and what techniques I used has left me with very little information—memories lost to time and buried under too many digital cameras. I can’t even remember the basic steps of developing film in the darkroom.

So, here I am with my grandfather’s Rolleiflex, two Pentax Spotmeters, film in the refrigerator, and the BeerPan 35mm pano camera on the way. Now it’s time to refresh those dark arts of film photography…

You can read how Ansel Adams did it and come away a little frustrated. There are plenty of videos online that will instruct you, but I was looking for something special—something that spoke to me: an instructor whose photography I deeply admired and who was willing to share their technique. I found Nick Carver. I don’t know Nick; I only recently found him on YouTube and have watched several of his videos. I liked his style, loved his photography, and he just so happens to have a course on manual metering for film. I don’t want the quick-and-dirty approach; I want to truly understand the hows and whys of it all, like I used to. Nick has put me on a good path toward understanding how to meter a photograph so it comes out right almost every time. With the cost of film and film developing, I don’t want to waste film learning the hard way.

Along with Nick, and with some very good courses from John Greengo, the lost knowledge is coming back. You know—the 18% gray card, the light meter that shows 0, meaning Middle Gray. The technique of shooting white and black cards at one-stop intervals until you lose detail, searching for your film’s dynamic range. Wonderful examples proving that light meters at zero are based on Middle Gray. The rule that says there is no “proper” or “right” exposure—only the exposure you want for that photograph. There is more to it than I remembered, but probably, back in high school, I wasn’t as interested in the deeper whys and hows. I am now.

The experiment continues with more learning. I haven’t even started figuring out how to get my negatives into the computer—scanning them, taking pictures of them—I have no idea. Then it’s out to the field for my first film shots in 30 years. I’m in no hurry; this is a journey that I’m enjoying every step of.

It’s fun. I love the process. I love learning. I love photography.

Let me leave you with the Filmomat (I got the link from Hiro’s newsletter). I watched the video, marveled at the technology, but started to think, “How much does this thing cost?” Well, check it out. I won’t be buying one 😂.

Tribute To My Friend Richard (131/365)

Mon, 11 May 2026 12:14:46 -0500

My friend Richard died this morning in his sleep.

Today’s pictures are dedicated to him. I took them yesterday—Richard’s last day, at least here on Earth. These pictures are for him. Richard may have commented on one or two of them on Flickr. I will miss that.

I will never forget Richard. I did not know him for very long, but he was such an amazing human being—so kind, so talented. Richard was a husband, father, grandfather, teacher, artist, woodworker, photographer, and so much more—a wonderful photographer with a unique style. He had many art shows featuring his work, and I was lucky enough to see a few of them.

We lived close to each other and consulted on projects from time to time. We texted and communicated on Flickr. Richard loved Flickr and had so many Flickr friends.

You will be greatly missed, my friend. You made me a better human. You gave me so many creative ideas and inspired me.

Wherever you are, my friend, take some pictures and send them to me…

The last comment from Richard on Flickr to me.

Richards last photo on Flickr.

😔

Flight II (121/365)

Fri, 01 May 2026 17:57:12 -0700

Pictures are from yesterday, hopefully you can forgive me!

You know, I persevered yesterday with the “Bone Leveler” and “Tissue Puncturer” after all!

I experimented with some new denoising software and was pretty happy with the results. Most of the time, it was a toss-up between DxO and Topaz Photo, but maybe more often than not, Topaz came out on top. I almost think Topaz comes out on top with their sharpening more than the denoise.

I can’t help but think how much better things would be if I could shoot these with the Nikon. At the very least, they wouldn’t be anywhere this noisy, and I’d have some more shadow recovery. You can see a couple of Nikon Full Frame Hummingbird shots down in Stray Pixels to compare. I didn’t even have to denoise on those shots, and I think they look much better than the OM shots.

You know what this means, don’t you? I need the Nikon Z8. Just Say’n.

Click for Stray Pixels

Nikon Full Frame Shot. No denoise.

Wed, 24 Dec 2025 13:32:01 -0700

Corvus Corax (295/365)

What lovely throat feathers (hackles) you have, kind sir.

Wed, 17 Dec 2025 10:30:15 -0700

Ah, You Gonna Fill This Thing Up? (288/365)

Wed, 19 Nov 2025 16:52:10 -0700

Pondering Life (260/365)