Early Present

Hello! How’s it going? It’s Friday so I am sure it’s going well! Today I worked from home because I had a couple of things I needed to take care of at the house. It was nice to be able to stay at home because the weather has turned pretty chilly! I think this morning it was in the mid-30s. But I was nice and warm in the house. :)

One of my Christmas gifts I received early is something that I’ve wanted for a long time now – a Fujifilm Instax Printer! It’s so fun and cool! I’ve always wished I had an Instax camera, but when the Instax printer was announced a couple of years ago, I knew I had to have one. And finally, it happened!

"Instax Print" USA. Texas. Cedar Park. 2015.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.2, 1/125 sec, ISO1250
“Instax Print” USA. Texas. Cedar Park. 2015.

What I love about it is that it fits in nicely to a simpler lifestyle. This little printer doesn’t require any cables or ink. It runs on two batteries and you just pop in a pack of film, then you print wirelessly from a smartphone or from a Fujifilm camera. The prints that it creates are really cool and distinct. I prefer it to the ZINK printer I have, and I’ll write more about that later. But for now, I am just going to enjoy the Instax! I love it! ❤

"Instax Printer" USA. Texas. Cedar Park. 2015.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.2, 1/50 sec, ISO6400
“Instax Printer” USA. Texas. Cedar Park. 2015.

おやすみなさい!

-B

New Camera!

"Fujifilm X-T10" USA. Texas. Cedar Park. 2015.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4.5, 1/15 sec, ISO6400
“Fujifilm X-T10” USA. Texas. Cedar Park. 2015.

There’s a new camera in the family – the Fujifilm X-T10. Mariko really likes the photos that she has made with my X100T and wanted to get her own. I recommended she go with an interchangeable lens camera, but one that used the same amazing Fujifilm JPEG rendering engine. The X-T10 is a great choice for here. The combination of sensor, film simulations, lens selection, and retro style makes it a nice upgrade from her Sony NEX-6. She mentioned that she never really loved the Sony, and I can understand that. There’s something about the Fujifilm cameras that is hard to describe, but you definitely feel a stronger connection with them.

So, we’re looking to sell her old camera and lenses, and I am also thinking about selling all of my DSLR gear as well. I have only used it a handful of times since I bought my Fujifilm, and those times were simply to take a photo of my X100T!

Old and New Windmills

USA. Texas. Adrian. 2015.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/8, 1/125 sec, ISO1600
USA. Texas. Adrian. 2015.

On our roadtrips through Texas, we see more and more windfarms. I think they look amazing! The scale of these machines is incredible. When we drove through Adrian, at the midpoint of Route 66, we saw this old windmill in the midst of the giant wind turbines.

The long-lost iPod touch

"iPod Touch". USA. Texas. Cedar Park. 2015.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/60 sec, ISO1000
“iPod Touch”. USA. Texas. Cedar Park. 2015.

For a few months I’ve been looking for my wife’s long-lost iPod Touch. It’s funny, but she forgot she even had one! Which is in itself sad since it was a birthday gift from me! Anyways, the reason I wanted to find it was because I wanted to test the image quality of an Instagram upload from an iOS device as compared to my Android phone.

Well, the other night the iPod finally was found! So I quickly got to resetting it and installing some apps. After finding a way to install an old version of Instagram on the iPod touch, I did my test. Unfortunately the outdated version of Instagram only uploads the image as 640 x 640 pixels in size instead of the current 1080 x 1080. So I guess my test for image quality will not be conclusive…

Oh well, at least I have a new (to me) music player!

Inside the piano 🎹

"Kawai Piano" USA. Texas. Cedar Park. 2015.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/12 sec, ISO3200
“Kawai Piano” USA. Texas. Cedar Park. 2015.

Last month we got a beautiful piano! It sounds amazing. Bay has been practicing more these days for a contest he entered, and the house is filled with music every day. The Kawai is a huge upgrade from the electronic piano he used to play on. We love it!

I think it is pretty cool to have music as a part of the family. When we were little, my brother and I took organ lessons and our family had really amazing Yamaha D85 organ. (My parents still have it, but it’s broken) I’m really happy we got that exposure to the world of music. These days I enjoy playing my bass guitar and learning chords on my electric guitar. Koa has started band this year and is practicing percussion. Every evening there is music coming from all corners of our house! It’s so fun!

Nightlife on Sixth

USA. Texas. Austin. 2015
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/5.6, 1/12 sec, ISO6400
USA. Texas. Austin. 2015

The other night Bay and I attended Engadget Live in downtown Austin. After that, we decided to walk across town to get some ramen. It was a Friday night so there were a lot of lights and activity on Sixth street. But it wasn’t really as crazy as it usually is. Still, it was fun walking downtown with my son!