Good evening! We made it to the end of the work week!
Today’s weather was pretty dang foggy this morning… rare here in Austin. Of course it slows down traffic, but so many drivers still like to tailgate. I find it crazy. But besides the added danger, the fog makes the drive in look really cool. A nice change of pace.
Tomorrow there will be rain, which I like once in a while. I’m really a sun/summer person but variety is good! It’s a pretty good mix of weather for me here in Texas. It only gets really cold a few days a year and the summers are blazing hot. I love the heat!
Today I met my friend for lunch at a new place for me, Salata. It’s a salad restaurant! I really liked it! Who would have thought I would like a salad restaurant… but I did. I noticed though that I did start to get really hungry in the late afternoon… but I held out until dinner.
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!
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.
We just returned from a week-long road-trip to New Mexico and one of the things we did was going hiking at Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument in New Mexico. The park is about 45 minutes from Santa Fe and cost us only $5 to enter. I’d suggest going early before the school buses arrive because it can get a bit crowded on the narrow trail.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/8, 1/450 sec, ISO400 “Start of the Hike”. USA. New Mexico. Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument. 2015.
There are two trails from the main parking area – the Canyon Trail and the Cave Trail. We did both, first hiking the Canyon Trail, then on the way back we split off to the Cave Trail. If you can only do one, I’d recommend the Canyon Trail. It took us about an hour and a half to complete the Canyon Trail, and add another 20 minutes or so for the Cave Trail.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/8, 1/140 sec, ISO400 “Looking Down the Trail”. USA. New Mexico. Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument. 2015.
The Canyon Trail is spectacular and you will find yourself walking between steep canyon walls, which quickly turns into a slot canyon. It’s reminiscent of Antelope Canyon, but I have to say that I prefer Kasha-Katuwe because the trail is so varied. Sometimes we were walking on gravel, other times sand, and other times over large boulders.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/8, 1/60 sec, ISO800 “In the Slot Canyon”. USA. New Mexico. Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument. 2015.
As I mentioned before, the trail can get very narrow and if there are people headed the other direction, you’ll have to wait a bit while they make their way through. We ran into a couple large groups of YMCA kids heading the other direction, but luckily we were headed down while they were headed up. Like I said, try to go early in the day!
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/8, 1/140 sec, ISO400 “Look Up”. USA. New Mexico. Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument. 2015.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/5, 1/750 sec, ISO400 “Blocking the Sun”. USA. New Mexico. Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument. 2015.
As the name of the park implies there are rocks shaped like tents all over this part of the park. They looked really distinct and cool! It was so neat to see them from all different angles, with the trail weaving around them.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/5, 1/950 sec, ISO400 “Fun Part of the Trail”. USA. New Mexico. Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument. 2015.
Besides the amazing rock formations, there are plenty of cool-looking gnarled trees and large boulders. We didn’t see any damage to the trail at all… it looked so natural and unspoiled.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/6.4, 1/1400 sec, ISO400 “The Tent Rocks”. USA. New Mexico. Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument. 2015.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/6.4, 1/1400 sec, ISO400 “Gaining Elevation”. USA. New Mexico. Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument. 2015.
After a while, the trail starts to get a bit more strenuous as it gains in elevation. There were a couple parts where you really had to climb a bit! But it was worth it because the views were amazing. We could watch as our viewpoint became level with the tent rocks that once were towering above us, and then soon we were looking down on them! (see the two photos above)
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/6.4, 1/1250 sec, ISO400 “At the Top”. USA. New Mexico. Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument. 2015.
We eventually reached the plateau and the trail leveled off and continued on to the lookout. The view was spectacular. You could see all the way to the trail far below and I noticed that there were large groups of hikers on their way up. I’d estimate that there were only about 10 people ahead of us on the trail (we only saw about 4 cars in the lot when we arrived), but on the way back down we must have passed about 40, including two large groups of kids out on field trips. It’s understandably a popular trail!
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/6.4, 1/950 sec, ISO400 “Almost Finished”. USA. New Mexico. Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument. 2015.
After we finished the Canyon Trail, we picked up the short loop of the Cave Trail. The cave itself was pretty disappointing, but there is a really cool section of the trail that weaves through some small tent rocks. When we arrived back at the parking lot, there were many more cars and picnickers enjoying the park. If you are ever in the area, I’d say block off a few hours in your schedule and hike the Canyon Trail at Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument. It’s really awesome!
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!
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My camera & photos
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?
