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.
Current year posting percentage 100%
- Days posted this year
- 297 of 365
- Last year’s posting percentage
- 89%
- Current streak
- 341 days
- Longest streak
- 341 days
- 2nd longest streak
- 65 days
- Total photos
- 1,078
- Total posts
- 602
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
Grey Day (271/365)
iPhone shot & processed
It’s sure easier on vacation to get shots you like! Back to the daily grind, and it becomes harder to get good pictures.
Today was overcast and rainy all day, which is pretty nice and pretty unusual for the desert. I just loved it.
I worked on some film-developing flows and techniques and used a small aquarium pump in my tub water to get better temperature control. Made some good progress. I just need to finish off a roll of 120, then I can develop two or three rolls.
Appreciate you stopping by, and I hope you saw some beautiful and friendly smiles today.
👾Click for Stray Pixels👾
A Chain of Events (270/365)
Hope it’s an outstanding day, everyone!
Gotta go…
Leaving on a Jet Airplane (269/365)
Parking at work; got this from the parking garage.
Catalina (268/365)
It’s a working day today.
Ground Time (267/365)
Amost Nothing (266/365)
Almost nothing today.
Daisy in Stripes (265/365)
iPhone shot & processed
River has been getting all the love on the blog; gotta get Daisy in on the action.
Another slow day on the photography front. I seem to be in film develop-and-scan mode now, and I’m finding it hard to get out and shoot. It is still too hot outside; it will be until mid to late October. I have some shooting (picture-making) ideas but need a good kick in the pants to get out there and actually do it.
I have a thyroid surgery coming up soon, which I’m trying hard not to think about much. I’m hoping the recovery will be fairly short, and I’ll feel well enough to get out and take some pictures during recovery. If not, maybe develop some film.
That 120 film is still staring at me. I’ve watched a few videos on spooling it and sacrificed a roll to practice with. Almost ready.
I hope the day was good to you, and as always, thank you for stopping by.
Golden Child (264/365)
Nikon F3 • Ilford Vintage Tone 400
Allow me another film shot today. It wasn’t shot today, but it was developed and processed today (I need to add this to the house rules! LOL). If I keep developing and processing this much, I may get good at it.
I made a photo set of all my PNW Road Trip keepers. I wrote up tips & tricks for developing and processing the last three rolls.
O.K., now onto that 120 film… I’m not going to lie, I’m a little nervous about spooling that up in the dark bag.
The Smallest Forest (263/365)
Nikon F3 • 50mm • ƒ1.4 • Kodak Ektacolor 400 • Developer: Bellini C41
Today was all about getting some film developed, scanned, and processed. I was excited to see what I captured and, to be honest, if nothing looked good, I was going to reevaluate my film shooting… It’s a lot of work, not to mention expensive, and if you don’t love it and get a few shots you really like, you won’t be doing much of it.
I got enough keepers to keep me chugging along and shooting some film - ** big sigh of relief ** - There is a big learning curve getting back into shooting film, mostly relearning the limitations that you don’t have to worry about when shooting digital.
I do love the look of film, and the memories that it brings back for me; those things alone will keep me shooting it.
Down in Stray Pixels, some of my favorites from 3 rolls of 35mm developed today. Hopefully soon, I can get to the 120 that needs developing. I will make a page over on Cliff538.com with the rest of my film shots from the Washington trip; you can now find that here. I also need to decide what I’m doing with my borders. I did not take the time to crop off all the film edges. Part of me likes that, and part of me thinks they need to be properly cropped. I’ll do some of both and see which one wins out.
I posted some tips and tricks I learned from this latest develop & scan. You can see all of my “keepers” from the trip here.
👾Click for Stray Pixels👾
All Nikon F3, shot on Kodak Portra 400, Ektacolor 400, and Ilford Vintage Tone 400.
Note: it’s my understanding that Portra and Ektacolor are the same film, just different Kodak branding
Dirty Dog (262/365)
I was so busy today cleaning everything up and putting stuff away that I forgot about pictures. I took 3 pictures today of River getting his post-vacation bath, and this was the best one. I cropped in heavily to keep the focus on him.
One of those days where I wished I had a better picture.
Cleaning up after a big road trip is so much work that I need another vacation!
Vacation Numbers and Thoughts:
- Photos Shot
- Nikon Z8: 589
- iPhone: 693
- 3 rolls of 35mm on the Nikon F3
- 2 rolls of 120 on the Pentax 67
- Polaroid: 0
I did not do nearly as much film shooting as I thought I would. There just isn’t enough time in the day when photography isn’t the main focus.
I was happy with a lot of the shots, but I’m still thinking about those old road signs I had to pass by. Painful. Again, I gotta work on a photography road trip.
I brought my Polaroid SX-70 and did not take a single photo.
Books read: Five. Very happy about that. I had ample reading time this year and loved moving from one book right into the next. I truly love reading. Physical Books purchased: Eleven. Two magazines all about books and reading. Ten stickers. One Haida Collection stationery set by Clarence Mills and a 6-DVD set by The Great Courses on The Story of Human Language.
Somehow, I completely forgot to journal. Digital or analog. I’m not happy about this, and it shows my habit is not as ingrained as I thought. In fact, I don’t even remember thinking that I should journal. I didn’t bring my paper journal, which won’t happen again, but I could have journaled in Obsidian and never even opened it. Sad. It’s important to me to look back on things with pictures, but having a journal ties it all together when you can read what you did that day, where you went, what you ate, etc.
All in all, a great trip.
Between the Lines (261/365)
iPhone shot & processed
Finally made it home.
Now the cleanup begins.
Just a few photos from the trip that I never posted down in Stray Pixels
👾Click for Stray Pixels👾
There Will Be Signs (260/365)
iPhone shot & processed
Long day driving, lots of wind, but a few great signs. I wish I had more time to capture them properly. I can really see a road trip where the whole mission is photographing old road signs.
May your hope be strong.
“Hope” is the thing with feathers - That perches in the soul - And sings the tune without the words - And never stops - at all - And sweetest — in the Gale — is heard — And sore must be the storm — That could abash the little Bird That kept so many warm — I’ve heard it in the chillest land — And on the strangest Sea — Yet — never — in Extremity, It asked a crumb — of me. ~ Emily Dickinson
👾Click for Stray Pixels👾
Geography of Water (259/365)
iPhone shot & processed
Eight hours of driving today, too much for me. Safely in Elko, NV. Woke up to the remnants of evening rain and dew.
I hope you had a beautiful day.
👾Click for Stray Pixels👾
Road Photography (258/365)
iPhone shot and processed
Can you smell it?
Hello from LaGrande, OR. Good day of traveling; really long day of driving tomorrow. Going to get some rest.
