Foto Life

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"Car Camera" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.2, 1/125 sec, ISO2000
 “Car Camera” Cedar Park, 2017

こんばんは。Howzit?

Ever since I bought my new car, I’ve missed some nice cloud/sunset shots because the bag in which I I keep my camera is often on the back seat. The Odyssey had a center tray which was great for keeping my bag on top of, and so my X100T was always close at hand. But not so with the Crosstrek. In order to rectify this unacceptable situation, I now keep a different camera in the glove box so I can take those quick shots.

In today’s photo, you can see that camera sitting in the cup holder. It’s my wife’s old Sony NEX-6 camera, which she hasn’t used it since she bought her Fujifilm X-T10 last year, and has been sitting on the shelf collecting dust. It was easy to sell the NEX-6 lenses on Craigslist, but the camera body and kit lens had some wear and tear, so I never tried to sell it. It operates perfectly, though, and for one-handed operation, I think it’s even better than the X100T.

Besides being easy to use, the camera’s kit lens defaults to its widest angle when you power on the camera, so the need for precise framing is lessened. It’s just a quick flick of the switch, half-press autofocus, and fire. All in a couple seconds.

In other super-important photo news, I haven’t been posting to Instagram as much, but that is going to change! I’m going to try to be less particular (and more spontaneous) about the photos I post, and just have more fun. At least I think it will be more fun. I’m guessing I will lose some followers, but who cares?

I hope you had a nice day!

おやすみ

Winter Concert

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"Winter Concert" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.2, 1/125 sec, ISO2000
 “Winter Concert” Cedar Park, 2017

こんばんは。How’s it going?

This evening Koa performed with his middle school band in the Winter Concert. 🎶 It was pretty cool because the percussion section had an ensemble performance, and they were awesome! 🥁 I have to say that the percussion section is the most interesting of all the band sections. I guess it’s just the nature of the instruments that you can see the mallets and movement and standing percussionists, as opposed to the brass and woodwind sections which are seated and you can’t really see the finer detail of finger movements.

At any rate, the entire Honors Band sounded fantastic and it was yet another highlight of Koa’s middle school band career. 🎼

FYI, I can’t post the video of the performance until the end of the contest season since tonight’s recording will be used in the judging process… 😞

I hope you had a wonderful day!

またね～

Clouds and Oden

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"Fine Weather" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: SONY NEX-6, 16mm, f/5.6, 1/1000 sec, ISO100
 “Fine Weather” Cedar Park, 2017

こんばんは。How’s it going?

So I mentioned the other day that we had a nice cold-weather meal in curry　🍛, and well, tonight we had another perfect cold-weather food: Oden!　🍢

"Oden" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/125 sec, ISO3200
 “Oden” Cedar Park, 2017

Mariko use the Instant Pot to cook the oden, and it turned out great. She really loves her Instant Pot!

I hope you had a great Sunday.

またね～

Pizza Time

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"Homemade Pizza" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/125 sec, ISO3200
 “Homemade Pizza” Cedar Park, 2017

こんばんは。Tonight we used our new stove-top pizza oven for the first time and the pizza turned out pretty good! A few weeks ago we bought a Pizza Pronto, which is basically an enclosure with a double-layer pizza stone inside. You put it over the burner and after a while, it will come up to temperature and you’re ready to put in the pizza. After about 8 minutes, the pizza is done. 🍕

Mariko made some homemade pizza dough and we had some leftover tomato-based pasta sauce to use on two pizzas, some pesto to use for another pizza, and then a store-bought CPK pizza. All of them were cooked nicely, and the oven crisped up the dough deliciously. 😀

"Pizza Oven" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/125 sec, ISO3200
 “Pizza Oven” Cedar Park, 2017

My only complaint is that it took longer than expected to come up to 500° F, and it never rose above that. Our burner is rated at 18,000 BTU so we should be able to achieve more than 500°. I guess it just takes more time? Or maybe the built-n thermometer is broken?

"Baking" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/80 sec, ISO6400
 “Baking” Cedar Park, 2017

Anyways, more “testing” is needed. 😉 Bring on the pizza!

I hope you had a nice Saturday.

またね～

Snow?

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"Movin'" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.2, 1/15 sec, ISO6400
 “Movin'” Cedar Park, 2017

こんばんは。How’s it going?

Well, the cold weather continued today, but I wasn’t expecting to get any snow. ❄️ It was just 81° F the other day, for goodness sakes! But snow it did, and it was actually pretty fun. When I went to pick up Koa from school at 5:30 pm, there were only a few snowflakes falling, but on the way to get dinner, the snow was coming down a lot harder.

"Snow?" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/30 sec, ISO3200
 “Snow?” Cedar Park, 2017

Obviously, this being Texas, the snow is not as serious as up north, however, it was a bit more challenging to drive in since we’re not used to all these particles floating down. 🌨️

Lani also seemed to enjoy the weather. 🐕 As you can see in the top photo, the snow didn’t slow her down at all. She’s leaping over the stairs like she always does… full speed!

Lastly, I couldn’t resist getting a photo of my Subaru with a light dusting of snow on her. 😁 Cool huh!

"Slight Dusting" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.2, 1/125 sec, ISO4000
 “Slight Dusting” Cedar Park, 2017

I hope you had a nice day!

おやすみ