What a busy day!

"She's Asleep" Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/6.4, 1/160 sec, ISO800
“She’s Asleep” Cedar Park, 2016

こんばんは! Hello! How’s it going?

I had a super-busy day starting early… 6:30am I was working! Why? Well, I knew I was going to be in and out of the office because the kids’ school schedules are shifted due to the end of the school year and I have to be a chauffeur for Bay while Mariko is working at X-Games. So I thought I would get some work out of the way early. Plus I had three meetings today, one I took from home, and two were in the office. Besides the meetings, we have a few large projects with deadlines that can’t be missed. However, there was one task that sprung up unexpectedly at the end of the day, and that added about 4 hours to my workday. So I ended up putting in over 11 hours! I think that may be a new record for me. 😱

But, it’s stuff that really needed to be done, and I’ll probably take a half-day off at some point (if my workload ever allows it). 😛

Like I mentioned, Mariko is working this week down at the Circuit of the Americas for the X-Games. She’s helping out with translation duties for two Japanese 🇯🇵 skateboarders who are competing. It looks like a lot of fun (Mariko sends me photos of the venue) and I wish I could check it out too! Here’s one of the photos from a practice session. Looks so awesome!

"Practice Session" Austin, 2016
“Practice Session” Austin, 2016

Today’s photo is of our cat, Anko. She’s sleeping, believe it or not! Cat’s are so weird… I don’t think it’s a good photo (I hate the carpet!) but I just had to capture her twisted body.

Oh, this month, I am trying to take only black & white photos. But I already failed on the first day, when I took those cloud photos. 😅 Oh well. No biggie! More about my month-long black & white project later… as you can imagine, I am wiped out. 😴

I hope you had a nice Thursday!

おやすみなさい!

– バロン Barron Fujimoto

Homework time

"The Hermit of Homework" Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/60 sec, ISO1250
“The Hermit of Homework” Cedar Park, 2016

こんばんは! Hello! How’s it going?

There’s not a whole lot going on today, so I’ll just talk a little about the photo above. It’s of my son Koa working on his Japanese homework, while wearing a blanket over his head. He actually reminds me of a Jedi, or maybe Yoda. I took this photo using Fujifilm’s black and white + yellow filter film simulation, +2 shadows, -1/3 exposure, and dropped the exposure even more in Lightroom, added a strong vignette, adjusted curves a bit, added some grain, and cropped 4×5. I liked the look of this one, so I saved the settings to a pre-set, which I applied to the photo below. I think it came out nicely!

"Kitty!" Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/550 sec, ISO800
“Kitty!” Cedar Park, 2016

I might have found a nice black and white look that I’ll see if I can replicate in the future.

I hope you had a nice day, and I’ll see you tomorrow!

おやすみなさい!

– B Barron Fujimoto

Wednesday

"Entrance" Austin, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/5.6, 1/60 sec, ISO640
“Entrance” Austin, 2016

こんばんは! Hi all, how’s it going?

So tonight I went to Koa’s school for an Honors Band meeting. He found out last week that he made it into the top band at school! It’s pretty great, but he’ll have to practice very hard at his percussion this coming year. Tonight’s meeting was all about their December trip to the Midwest Clinic in Chicago, where they will perform. Koa’s pretty excited about it! Besides the clinic, they will have plenty of activities, including going to see Blue Man Group, going to the Shedd Aquarium, and seeing the Chicago Bulls. I’m sure he is going to have a great time. He is so into his percussion and practices quite a bit each day and it’s cool to see all his hard work pay off!

Today’s photo is of the entrance to my office building. I usually arrive at 7:30am, which is pretty early, but I like it because I can get a lot of work done before things get too crazy.

Well, the work week is past the halfway point! Onward and upward!

おやすみなさい!

– B Barron Fujimoto

Busy day

"Bay and I" Austin, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.5, 1/20 sec, ISO6400
“Bay and I” Austin, 2016

こんばんは! Hello, how was your Saturday?

Our was really good! This morning, Koa had another baseball game and they won! ⚾️ The final score was 12-2. The game was a make-up for an earlier one that was canceled due to rain… and it is the final game of the regular season. The final tournament starts Monday evening and should run the whole week. Lots of fun! The team Koa is on has a record of 3-10, so they weren’t very good, but they learned a lot and had fun every game. A successful season for sure.

This afternoon, Bay had his piano recital. 🎹 He played really well! I am so proud of him… now he is third from final in the recital line-up, which means he is one of the senior students. I am amazed that he has progressed so much… but really, he has been playing for several years now and practices every day… I guess it seems like he just started! Time flies so quickly and the kids are growing faster than I realize.

Today’s photo is of Bay and I after the recital. We went out for sushi dinner and I asked Mariko to take this black and white photo of us. It’s rare that we are dressed up nicely, so this is a special photo. 😊

Take care, and I hope you have a nice Sunday!

おやすみなさい!

– B Barron Fujimoto