With SmugMug’s recent purchase of Flickr, there’s been a lot of renewed interest in former users to come back and try it again. Which is funny to me since there are plenty of us who have been actively using it non-stop. This tweet by Om Malik, in particular, got me thinking about it a bit.
I never fully understood why people were so harsh on Flickr. I mean, sure, they never made the jump to mobile like other companies did and innovation has been slow, but their web service has been consistently good. To my knowledge, Flickr has never gone backward or screwed their users… it’s just continued to exist, and those who were happy with it stayed with it.
I’m pleased that more people are coming back, for the sole reason that this surge in popularity will ensure that Flickr exists into the distant future. I don’t really care about returning photographers being excited about a “new” photo community. The photographers who stayed active on Flickr are most likely already satisfied with the groups they’ve been a part of since years of community have been building organically.
Like anyone, I’d welcome some shiny new features or slicker design, but honestly, I’m just happy that Flickr is a simple, straightforward, and hassle-free way to share and discuss photos. As it always has been.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/55 sec, ISO3200 “On the Wrist” Cedar Park, 2019
こんばんは。How’s it going?
Today’s photo is of my newest watch, a Seiko SNDA27 Chronograph. If you read my previous post about the Casio MTP4500D-AV watch, you know that it wasn’t quite the right watch for me. However, this Seiko SNDA is a model that I’ve been looking at and fits my requirements nicely. In fact, it’s close to the perfect chronograph for me.
The model that I purchased has a dark green face, with orange seconds hands. The watch also came in the SNDA57 version with black face and red dials, which I think is cooler, but since my other two Seikos have black faces, I think the green face is a good complement to my other watches. Plus the orange hands are really sweet! In all honesty, I searched for the black version for a while, but since it was discontinued a few years ago, it’s difficult to find except at extremely inflated prices. It was originally sold for about US $100, but now it is commonly available on eBay for maybe $400 or more. That’s crazy!
Anyway, the green model is more commonly available for about US $125, and I actually found it new for US $116 at Walmart.com (from a reseller on their site). Interestingly, I got the last watch from that seller, and I now see that the same watch is selling from another seller at Walmart.com for US $190. What a crazy market!
The Seiko SNDA27 comes with a green nylon band, which is not bad if you like the color, but I immediately switched it out for a black silicone band (in the photos).
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/120 sec, ISO6400 “Three Seikos” Cedar Park, 2019
Next, I tried a black zulu strap on it and it looks even better. The lugs of the watch stick out kind of far, so the 43 mm diameter SNDA27 wears larger than my 43 mm SKX007, which has shorter lugs. The zulu strap sticks out a bit more than the super-flexible, wrist-hugging silicone strap, so it actually makes the 43 mm watch wear/look better on my 6 3/4 inch wrist. Also, the zulu strap has matte brushed metal buckles which match the matte steel case of the watch perfectly.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/100 sec, ISO640 “Seiko SNDA27” Cedar Park, 2019
My complaints about the Casio’s difficult-to-read watch face do not apply to the Seiko, which has a smart and simple design. There’s nothing unnecessary on the watch face. It’s so easy to read, and even has a more precise time measurement of 1/20th of a second compared to the Casio’s 1-second measurement. In the photo below, I can quickly see the chronograph reading of 4 minutes, 41.1 seconds. What a difference between the Seiko and the Casio! The contrast between the hands and the face on the Seiko makes it easy to tell normal time at a glance, and the lume is typical Seiko – bright and long-lasting.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/100 sec, ISO800 “Seiko SNDA27” Cedar Park, 2019
I really love my Seiko SKX007 dive watch and Seiko SNK809 field watch, and my new Seiko SNDA27 chronograph fits in nicely as my third Seiko. Now if I can only find someone to buy my Casio chronograph… Is anyone interested? 😀
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/8, 1/100 sec, ISO250 “Blue Hour” Cedar Park, 2019
I went outside to bring the garbage can back to the house when I saw that the sky was looking pretty awesome. I grabbed my camera and took a few snaps to stitch together in Photoshop. I think it turned out pretty good! It’s amazing how good the stitching technology is these days. I remember having to manually align layers in Photoshop and do quite a bit of blending manually. Now it’s almost entirely automated. Very cool!
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/8, 1/120 sec, ISO200 “Last Light” Cedar Park, 2019
