As you can see from today’s photo, we had sushi! It’s my son’s 15th birthday today, so we went to his favorite restaurant to dine on delicious Japanese food. Our friend prepared this amazing selection of sushi, which included some beef! It was all so yummy, I could have eaten all night.
I’m so happy that our kids are relatively open-minded about food. My wife and I love to try so many different kinds of cuisines, so Bay and Koa are used to giving new foods a try. Of course they have certain foods that they really don’t like, for instance Bay cannot stand mushrooms, and Koa doesn’t like sushi rice (although he likes the fish). I am pretty sure that in time, they will grow to enjoy these foods as well! 😄
The photo below is from the box of uni (sea urchin) that we enjoyed. It was from Japan and was super delicious! I wish I could eat it every day. 🍣
Tonight’s photos were taken at a relatively high ISO of 6400, but the Fujifilm X-Trans II sensor handles it amazingly well. I don’t mind shooting at 6400 at all with my X100T, in fact, I have the Auto ISO range from 200-6400 which is something I would use only in extreme situations on my dslr. I think it is fantastic that cameras keep getting better at high-ISO. It’s the area where I think we can benefit the most.
I used the Fujifilm standard Provia film simulation for both of these photos, and in Lightroom I adjusted the white balance a tiny bit, deepened the blacks, brought back some shadows, and bumped up the vibrance a little. I then added a slight vignette and a some of grain, which is pretty much my standard look these days.
I hope you had a great Thursday. We’ve almost made it to the weekend!
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/8, 1/1250 sec, ISO400 “Texas Sunset” Cedar Park, 2016
こんばんは！How’s it going?
This evening I happened to glance outside our window and see some light streaming above a cloud, so I grabbed my camera, ran upstairs and snapped this photo. I used the circular polarizer because I was shooting through a window, but I don’t know if it helped at all. I suppose it could have reduced any reflection, but I wonder if the angle was correct.
At any rate, I got a nice capture and decided to see what I can do in Lightroom. Normally I will import the jpeg and then apply a nice “S-shaped” tone curve, adjust vibrance and saturation, apply some grain and save for upload. But tonight I decided to spend a bit more time to do some more editing.
A fun thing I did was to paint in some selections using the Wacom tablet. First, I painted in some clarity and sharpening around edges of the center clouds to add detail. Secondly, I made a new brush to darken some areas using negative exposure. You can see in the top-right corner, and center-top that I darkened the sky a bit to add more variation. The tablet is so fun to use with Lightroom – I highly recommend getting one!
To add a bit more color, I adjusted the vibrance and saturation, but also added a few linear gradients. There’s one coming up from the bottom added some more warmth with a pale orange color and white-balance shift. Then up in the sky, I added one in the upper-right to add a touch of purple via white balance shift, and in the upper-left, some blue. It’s really fun to add color gradients or white balance edits this way. I did it quite a bit in another photo of mine several months ago.
I think the final image of the cloud is a bit exaggerated, but I like it. I think it could have been even better if there was a jet streaking across the sky leaving a contrail behind, or even a few birds flying in the sky. Just one more element to add more interest.
Anyways, for comparison, here’s the original image:
If you use Lightroom and are curious, I’ve saved all my adjustments to a preset and shared it, along with the original JPEG below. I use Lightroom 5, but the preset probably works with other versions as well. Enjoy!
In other happenings, I was reading about the terrorist attack in Istanbul. How awful… so much violence in the world. 😔 Whenever I turn on the news, there are so many negative things being reported… floods, airplane crashes, hate crimes, etc… I almost would rather hide away from all that. But what can you do but focus on being positive? Teach your kids to be open-minded, respectful, and compassionate, especially when they are young. I guess that is a start.
Anyways, I hope you had some moments of joy today. Even the little things! 😄
Tonight’s photo is of (surprise!) another cloud. ☁️ I realize that clouds are one of my favorite subjects to make photos of, so I did a little research on how to make better photos of them.
One thing that people have recommended using is a polarizing filter. Usually this type of filter is used to reduce reflections off of glass or water, but it also gives better definition and contrast to the sky and clouds. I honestly don’t know how much of an effect it will have since I usually do some editing in Lightroom to get the style I like, but since I already own a circular polarizer, I figured, why not?
After buying a step-up ring so that the 55mm filter would fit on the 49mm thread on my X100T, I took a few photos while I was out and about with my son Koa. There were a lot of nice clouds in the sky because of the approaching storm so I took the opportunity to make a few photos.
Below you can see how the polarizing filter can cut the reflections out of the photo. The circular polarizer actually rotates so you can dial in how much of an effect you want to achieve. In the photo on the left, I kept a pretty heavy reflection, but for the photo on the right, I rotated the filter and the reflections disappeared like magic! If you click on the photos, you can see that the cloud reflections on the hood of my car were eliminated as well. Pretty slick!
Light Polarization
Heavy Polarization
Anyways, I played around with the image in Lightroom and eventually I found the look I wanted, which is the black and white version below. I used Nik Silver Efex Pro2 to convert the color image to black and white.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/100 sec, ISO1600 “Usagi Shamoji” Cedar Park, 2016
こんばんは！
Today’s photo is of our Usagi Shamoji (usagi=rabbit; shamoji=rice spoon). We’ve had several different shamoji over the years, but I really like the fun(ny) ones, such as the rabbit spoon. Not only does it look nice, but it’s practical too since it stands up! The “standing fish” spoon is also a good design. We had one of them for a couple years until it cracked, and now we have the rabbit spoon. I recommend either one. 😄🐰🐟
Omukae Death お迎えデス is a live-action dorama (Japanese TV drama) based on a manga of the same name, and has an interesting premise: after someone dies, they become ghosts and exist for up to 49 days in the real world before being escorted by “grim reapers” to the after-world. If they aren’t escorted within those 49 days, they become evil spirits and are eliminated, never to be reborn again.
Assisting the grim reapers (who aren’t really grim at all) are people who can see and communicate with ghosts. The two main characters, Madoka (played by Sōta Fukushi)and Sachi (played by Tao Tsuchiya) are two such people, and their job is to help the ghosts remove any regrets they have before they go to the after-world. In this way, the ghosts can rest in peace. So, the plot revolves around Madoka and Sachi helping the ghosts come to resolution so they can move on to the after-world.
Omukae Death has a total of nine episodes, and each one is kind of a story unto itself with guest actors in prominent roles. There is a larger story arc that concludes in episode 9. Some of the stand-alone stories are really good and tug on the heartstrings (they’re stories about people who died, after all!) so I was expecting the larger story to also have a nice emotional element. Unfortunately, it isn’t as strong as it could be. 😞 I think there was just too much going on with a few stories coming together, and it was hard for me to form a bond with a single one since my attention was divided. As is so often the case in Japanese dorama, there isn’t a single strong focus.
*** SPOILER ALERT START ***
One thing that I like about Omukae Death was that not all of the shorter stories have tidy, happy conclusions. For instance, there is an episode in which a high school teacher, with the help of the Madoka and Sachi, looks after her former student to make sure his life gets back on track. Even though he eventually shapes up and decides to go to university, the teacher waits too long to go to the after-world and her transformation into an evil spirit is irreversible. The ending scene of that story is probably the most emotional of the entire series.
*** SPOILER ALERT END ***
A funny thing I noticed was that throughout the entire series, Sachi always wore shorts. I thought it looked a little funny in the first episode, but then in all subsequent episodes, she also wears shorts! ❓ In fact, I started to keep a lookout to see if any other characters had the same fashion, but nope! I guess one of the brand sponsors is pushing their summer fashion line. Once or twice during each episode of Japanese doramas, there is a short ~15 second brand sponsor “break” where a voice-over announces the sponsors. The first time you see this, it’s really odd, but you quickly get used to them. Also, during the end credits, there is a list of brands that sponsor the show. I guess if I were more familiar with women’s fashion, I would be able to pick out the brand of shorts that Sachi wears in Omukae Death! 😃
Black Shorts
Black Shorts
White Shorts
On the acting front, the two mains are not spectacular, but they are both popular young actors so I can understand the casting. Like I mentioned before, Tao Tsuchiya is one of my favorites so I generally watch the shows she is in. 💖 The two actors who play the grim-reapers are fun and do a good job, especially because one of them is just a kid! Of course, my Japanese language skills are not great so I don’t pick up on all the nuances, but I think the acting was okay!
In conclusion, I’d give Omukae Death a rating of 6 on a scale of 1-10. It’s certainly watchable and if you have any interest in the actors or the manga, then it might be worth giving it a shot. However, devoting ~10 hours for the entire series might be more of a commitment than you want to make for just an average dorama.
Photo info: SONY SLT-A77V, 10mm, f/5.6, 1/20 sec, ISO800 “Sunday Morning Light” Cedar Park, 2016
こんばんは！
On Sundays I can sleep in later than usual, but today I woke up early and had a quiet morning to myself while the rest of the family slept. Well, the kittens and dog were up and kept me company while I drank my coffee! In the photo above, you can see the morning sun coming in from the west, and the kittens relaxing under the dining table. They are really funny little creatures who can seemingly be comfortable sleeping anywhere. Amazing!
Today I spent a lot of time in front of the screen watching Japanese dorama. I really can get sucked into these and I prefer to binge-watch them, so I wait until the entire series is finished then watch them all at once. The first one I watched today was Omukae Death. I watched the bulk of the episodes yesterday and finished up the final episode this morning (mini-review coming soon!).
This afternoon I continued watching Juhan Shuttai and now it is 11pm and I am on the second-to-last episode of that series. It’s pretty interesting, and I’ll finish it up later this week. Besides those two, I am waiting for the final episode of Hayako-sensei, Kekkon Surutte Hontou desu ka? to be shown. That’s the series I am enjoying most this season. I guess it’s because it’s aimed towards an older crowd, although still younger than me!
There are a couple other doramas that I want to watch (which Mariko says I will enjoy), but I’ll probably binge watch them next week when my family travels to Japan and I am left at home for “bachelor summer”. I’ll have a lot of free time! 😟
You know, I rarely spend a lot of time watching long stretches of tv, but once in a while I’ll get in the mood and enjoy it a lot!
Well, I hope you had a nice weekend, and we’ll see you tomorrow!
おやすみなさい！ – B
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I use a Fujifilm X-series camera for most of the photos on this site and my Instagram. Why not pick one up for yourself?
