Category: Well-being

Sunrise

, , , Daily Prompt, Slice of Life, Well-beingLeave a Comment on Sunrise
"Sunrise" USA. Texas. Austin. 2016.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/6.4, 1/320 sec, ISO400
 “Sunrise” USA. Texas. Austin. 2016.

こんばんは！How are you? Today’s photo is of the sun just rising above the clouds. I took it from my office this morning. I usually arrive early to work which is nice because I can really get a lot done in the hour or two before meetings start. I really am a “morning person”!

( YAWN ) What bores you?

This question (from WordPress’ Daily Prompt) is a tough one to answer for me… I can’t think of anything that really bores me! My kids often will come to me and say, “I’m bored”. This happens towards the end of long weekends or vacations when they get tired of their video games or computers. Luckily school will start soon for them!

I guess I used to get bored sometimes when having a conversation with someone, and the subject matter is just not interesting to me, or if I’ve heard the story before. (I feel a little bad about saying that!) But that was ages ago! If the subject of the conversation is not so interesting, I focus on the way the person is saying what they are saying, their conversational style, or imagine the reasons why they are sharing the information with me. Sometimes I will try to pinpoint the interesting things about that person (there’s always at least one thing!). I believe that you can learn something from anyone or any situation, so I am always trying to find value. If there isn’t something to learn externally, I try to internally observe what I am currently feeling and maybe I can improve myself in some way.

But back to the original question… I honestly cannot remember myself every saying, “I’m bored”. It’s really odd… I have a hard time imagining what boredom feels like. It’s like the part of my brain that activates the boredom emotion is just not there anymore. (insert joke here!)

By the way, I haven’t written anything from a Daily Prompt in a loooong time now, but it’s fun! I guess I might start doing it again every so often. You can go back and read my other Daily Prompts by sorting on the category if you are interested.

Well, Friday is almost here! I hope you have a good one!

I’m going to get some rest. おやすみなさい！

-B Barron Fujimoto

Back Home

, , , , Photo Life, Slice of Life, Traveling, Well-beingLeave a Comment on Back Home

Hi all! How are you today/tonight?

Well, we are back home in Texas now. Today we flew on our normal route from Long Beach to Austin on JetBlue airlines. We really like flying out of Long Beach because it is a small airport and hardly any traffic or lines. Especially compared to the craziness that is LAX! But this morning’s flight was delayed by 2 hours, so we arrived in Austin at 5pm… not really too big of a deal, and waiting at the airport was ok since we had sandwiches that my mom had made for us. Also, I had time to finish The Martian! What a great book! 👍

USA. California. Long Beach. 2015.
USA. California. Long Beach. 2015.

The flight itself was pretty good, and I spent the time reading and also reviewing and deleting photos from my camera. I like to pare down the photos I keep. In the past, I would just keep every single photo, even if they were similar. I might have 8 photos that are almost exactly the same just because it didn’t cost me anything to keep more than one. But now, I really enjoy minimizing down to just the essentials. That means keeping only the best photo of a series. (I might cheat and keep two sometimes!) It’s so liberating to jettison all the extra photos right away after taking them. I feel like the longer you hold onto all those extra files, the longer they stay in your mind and clutter up your thoughts. Just choose one or two and be happy with those!

USA. 2015.
USA. 2015.

So, we made it home, but Austin is cold! Tonight will drop into the 30s again… ❄ Please take care to stay warm!

-B

The blog must go on.

, Slice of Life, Well-being1 Comment on The blog must go on.

Hi all! I’ve been blogging for quite a long time now (over 16 years!) but lately I wanted to start writing 📝 just a little bit every day. So, for the past week and a half you may have noticed a daily post from me. I’m trying to make it part of my daily routine, which has been difficult in the past but I am making a larger effort this time. I have a laptop set up next to the bed, so before I climb under the covers, I’ll sit at the laptop, with my cat Miki 🐱 joining me, and tap out a few words to share what has happened in my day, or a photo or two. It’s really easy and I have no excuse not to.

I’ve enjoyed blogging (even if mine is nothing special) because I find it therapeutic, and making it a daily thing gets me to think about what my priorities are, and if I am giving them enough attention. I won’t write anything profound (I don’t have the talent to put thoughts like that into words) but my mind gets an extra jolt ⚡ of activity… and that is a good thing!

To tell the truth, I have long been inspired by Tao Tsuchiya’s daily blog! She’s one of my favorite actresses and (with the help of Google Translate) I enjoy reading her blog daily. It’s inspiring to see her dedication to journaling for so long!

Over the years, I’ve seen a few of my favorite blogs get retired, and I understand the reasons why the blogger decided to stop or take a break, but for myself, I don’t think I can ever stop doing this in one form or another. I think it’s a lot of fun, and has been a completely positive experience for me ever since I started. I think the most challenging thing for me in blogging is coming up with a title for each post! 😖

Well, it’s actually Sunday morning that I am writing this, but I woke early before anyone else and felt a bit inspired. I’m sure the coffee ☕ helped too.

It looks like today will be warmer weather-wise. ⛅ Hope you have a good one!

またね！

-B

Sunday’s Walk Around the Neighborhood

, , , Photo Life, Slice of Life, Well-being1 Comment on Sunday’s Walk Around the Neighborhood

I haven’t gone for a run for about a month now. There’s nothing wrong with me physically; I haven’t had the motivation or desire. Sunday, though, I found some motivation and had time, but instead of running I decided to just walk. And also I left my phone at home and took my camera. I’ve run this same route around the neighborhood many times so everything is familiar to me and I wondered if I would find anything of interest to photograph. My initial thought was that I wouldn’t take any pictures but surprisingly, I did see a few things that I wanted to preserve to pixels. Here are three of the photos I made:

USA. Texas. Cedar Park. 2015
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/8, 1/160 sec, ISO200
 USA. Texas. Cedar Park. 2015

There’s a neighborhood pond and fountain that some people fish at but because of the drought, it has been pretty low. Still, there was enough water to support all the plant life there.

USA. Texas. Cedar Park. 2015
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/8, 1/60 sec, ISO250
 USA. Texas. Cedar Park. 2015

The most interesting part of this route is a path that runs through a wooded area. The late-afternoon light filtering through the leaves was pretty nice.

USA. Texas. Cedar Park. 2015
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/8, 1/60 sec, ISO640
 USA. Texas. Cedar Park. 2015

My first walk while taking the camera was a positive experience. I guess it was kind of an experiment too… would I be able to convert this exercise-focused running route into a photo-walk route? The answer is yes! It’s exciting because it kind of opens up more possibilities for photo-walks. And I also benefit with a bit of exercise, fresh air, and sunshine!

Traveling Lighter

, , , Traveling, Well-beingLeave a Comment on Traveling Lighter

Within the past year’s worth of traveling I have started traveling lighter, paring down the amount of stuff I take, and it has really improved the travel experience! Rewind to last year’s trip to Japan – I took my North Face backpack. It’s large enough that I had no trouble fitting in the proverbial kitchen sink. My thinking at the time is that I wanted a backpack that I could take anywhere. And that could fit my DSLR camera, lenses, and other electronics. My backpack would be a constant companion which I would take everywhere. Here’s a list of stuff I took in the backpack:

  • Tablet
  • Keyboard
  • Mouse
  • Kindle
  • Sony A77 DSLR
  • 16-50mm lens
  • 10-20mm lens
  • 100-200mm lens
  • 35mm lens
  • Spare battery
  • Cellphone
  • 2 Chargers
  • Extra cellphone battery
  • Assorted cables and card readers
  • Notebook
  • Pens and pencils
  • 2DS and 3 games
  • Earbuds and MP3 player
  • Water bottle
  • Small bag with medicine, bandaids, lipbalm, gum, etc.

The backpack was large, but handled all that gear with ease. The main problem was that it was HEAVY. Also, my camera gear was stuffed into the main compartment which meant that is wasn’t easy to take out and use. Plus, walking around in the summer heat in the city just wasn’t so practical. I still thought I wanted to bring all my stuff with me, but what a hassle it was!

I remember a previous trip to Japan. That trip I decided to just take a waterproof point-and-shoot camera. That was actually a super-fun vacation! And the small camera was a big part of it. Sure, the picture quality wasn’t close to my DSLR, but I enjoyed my trip quite a bit more. I didn’t have to worry about the weight or how to carry all my gear. I just put the camera in my pocket and was all set! Thinking back to that trip, I wonder why I didn’t connect my enjoyment of that trip and the small camera.

In April, I went on a business trip to Stockholm, Sweden. Because I thought this might be my one chance to go there, I should take my DSLR kit and big backpack again. I thought that I didn’t want to miss a great shot. I also took a small Fujifilm X-F1 compact camera as a backup. As you can probably see, camera gear is an important part of my travel kit…

This was a trip where I learned a lot about what kind of traveling I wanted to do in the future. Once again, the backpack was heavy and I rarely used the big camera rig. It was just too much of a hassle to keep at-the-ready. My compact camera was my camera of choice for most of the trip. In fact, the DSLR stayed in the hotel safe! And I have to say, I was happy with the results I got from the Fujifilm X-F1. The photos were more than “good enough”. And I didn’t have to worry about where to put my backpack when we went out for dinners. I left it at the hotel.

My next trip was a solo trip to California to visit my folks and see a concert. I was catching on to this “travel light” concept by this time! I decided to leave the backpack at home and just bring my small Patagonia bag and my Fujifilm X-F1. Also, I took my Kindle, Tablet, keyboard, various cables, card readers and chargers. Traveling lighter was definitely something I was starting to enjoy! And the photos turned out great! Hey, I don’t need the DSLR and all the lenses to enjoy photography!

On my last trip, I went to Stockholm again on business. This time I pared down even more. I left my tablet/keyboard at home. My camera was now my Fujifilm X100T. I also didn’t take a water bottle… why do I need that when there is water available wherever I went? I only needed one small USB cable and plug. My only personal computing device was my cellphone. (I did take a work laptop, but that was used exclusively for business) Here’s what was in my bag:

  • Fujifilm X100T
  • USB cable/plug
  • Spare battery
  • Pen
  • Notebook
  • Kindle
  • Earbuds
  • Cellphone
  • Cellphone battery
  • Small bag with medicine, bandaids, lipbalm, gum, etc.
  • Work laptop

My carry-on bag (the Patagonia Minimass) was so light! And when I was on my day off in Stockholm, I didn’t even carry my bag. Just the camera across my body, cellphone, and extra camera battery in my pants’ coin pocket. It was great not having a bag! And I enjoyed myself even more. My shoulders didn’t hurt, I didn’t have to worry about a bag in small shops or crowded museums. I’ve come to realize that having more stuff just gets in the way of having better experiences. It’s not only the distraction of the extra weight, but the distraction of extra things to think about. The less I have, the less I have to worry about. And that means more time and mental energy to spend on simply enjoying where I am. If you haven’t done so, try traveling lighter. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised that you can get by with so little!