Tag: clouds

Bicycle Ride With the New Wheel

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“Bike Ride” Cedar Park, 2020

My new bicycle rim arrived and I got to work replacing the old one, which entailed transferring the spokes over to the new rim and then truing the wheel to make sure it’s straight. I followed this video’s instructions, which proved invaluable.

I also followed the advice in this video to true the wheel, and got it in good shape. Next, I adjusted the rear brake and it was ready to try it out on the road!

Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.2, 1/100 sec, ISO2500
 “New Rim” Cedar Park, 2020

I only intended to ride around the neighborhood to test it, but I wound up hitting the hike and bike trail and riding several miles. It was just so fun! It seemed like I was able to ride faster, accelerate quicker, and cruise at a higher speed with the new wheel. It might just be that I am getting in better shape, but I have heard that the bicycle upgrade that will make the biggest difference it to replace the wheels. Well, I’m not sure if my new $33 Sun Ringle rim is an upgrade or not, but the stock Mavic rims are generally regarded poorly. So I’m leaning towards the opinion that the new rim helps out a lot. 😀

Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4.5, 1/1100 sec, ISO200
 “At Brushy Creek Lake Park” Cedar Park, 2020

Later in the evening, Mariko mentioned that the sunset was probably pretty nice so I hopped on my Kona again and headed down to the place where I like to take sunset photos. Turned out pretty good:

Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/5, 1/500 sec, ISO640
 “Sunset” Cedar Park, 2020

I’m so happy to have my bicycle back, and working better than ever!

またね～

Supermarket Trip

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Photo info: motorola moto g(6), 3.95mm, f/1.8, 1/20 sec, ISO435
 “Japanese-Style Peanuts” Cedar Park, 2020

This afternoon I went to the supermarket to pick up a few things. I think I am the person who always picks the slowest check-out line. In my defense, it’s a little more difficult to choose a good line because of the pandemic.

I try not to get too close to people, which means lots of traffic jams at the check-out area. Therefore, you kind of have to get in the line that is convenient and close by. I thought I got lucky in that my line had one person waiting in front of me. However, I didn’t notice the amount of items in the lady’s cart… it turns out her family just moved into a new house this morning so they were stocking up on food. Her total (yes, I eavesdropped) was about $450!!! So you can imagine how long it took to ring up and bag.

Besides standing there silently cursing myself as I watched the shoppers in the adjacent lines being checked out quickly, I did notice some “Japanese-Style Peanuts”. I thought it was interesting to see the mixing of cultures here. Japanese style, packaged under the Mi Tienda brand of a Texas supermarket. Kind of cool!

But I was an idiot and didn’t buy any. Oh well, it’s just not my day.

I did spot this amazing cloud formation in the parking lot as I left, so that lifted my spirits a bit. 🙂

Photo info: motorola moto g(6), 3.95mm, f/1.8, 1/2400 sec, ISO100
 “Cloud Shadows” Cedar Park, 2020

I hope you had a nice day!

Captured Bird

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Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 19mm, f/2, 1/16000 sec, ISO200
 “Bird” Cedar Park, 2020

When I make a time-lapse video, I’ll set my camera to capture a photo every few seconds, resulting in thousands of images which I’ll later compile into the video, and I will also use one of these images as my daily photo. I usually scroll through the small thumbnails to find a cloud formation I like, then post-process it. Today the photo I clicked on had a bird in it. Yay! Is that like finding a lucky penny on the street? 😄

Anyways, enjoy the video. Lots of cool shadows being cast upwards this evening!

Black and White Cloud and Color Time-Lapse

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Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 19mm, f/2, 1/25000 sec, ISO200
 “Black Sky” Cedar Park, 2020

Today we had some fun clouds roll through so I set up my camera for a time-lapse. You can see it below. The still image wasn’t very interesting so I decided to choose a filter in Silver Efex Pro to make it a bit more dramatic. 😊

I hope you had a good day!