Tag: postaday

Cutie

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"Cute Fish" Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/7.1, 1/40 sec, ISO3200
 “Cute Fish” Cedar Park, 2016

こんばんは！Hello!

Here in Austin, we’re experiencing a lot of rain. 🌧 So today’s photo is of a little guy (or gal maybe?) who is right at home in the wet stuff. Literally. Its home is water.

It’s one of my new fish, an Albino Barb. It look just like my Tiger Barbs except instead of black stripes, it has white stripes. It’s so cute, isn’t it? 🐠

By the way, it’s so difficult to get a close-up photo of the aquarium fish. I set the camera to manual focus, pre-focused about 6-inches away, bumped up the ISO to 12,800, put the camera on burst mode and waited… and waited. When a fish came into the frame, I pressed the shutter and let it capture a dozen or so frames. 📸 And I still didn’t get a really good photo. Oh well, it was still fun!

When I imported into Lightroom, I had about 340 photos. From those, I rejected using the X key. If you hold down the Shift key while pressing X and you will reject the photo and move to the next one automatically. Makes it quick to mark photos for deletion. After setting the reject flag, just Delete Rejected Photos and say bye-bye to all those unwanted photos. After doing that, I was left with about 8 photos of the three types of fish I have, the two types of Barbs, and the Siamese algae eaters.

I find it so fun to delete photos… weird huh? But hoarding photos and things that are not useful or beneficial is so unattractive to me. Ugh the clutter!

I hope you had a nice Monday. Stay dry! ☔

おやすみなさい！

– B Barron Fujimoto

 

 

Library Visit

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"At the Library" Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/60 sec, ISO1000
 “At the Library” Cedar Park, 2016

こんばんは！

Today Koa and I went to the library to pick up some more books since he blazed through 5 paperbacks of One Piece manga. I also returned a book that I started reading, but was not really into anymore. That book, “Cursor’s Fury” is the third in a series of a fantasy epic. I thought the first two were really good, but for some reason, I just didn’t feel like continuing the series at this time. I’ll probably pick it up again at some point in the future, but for now I felt like I wanted something new.

I was just browsing the fiction section and I came across “Panic in a Suitcase” by Yelena Akhtiorskaya. It sounded interesting… the story of a family of Russian immigrants to the United states. We’ll see!

One thing that has changed about me as I get older is that now I don’t worry about not finishing books. When I was younger I’d feel an obligation to soldier on through a book that I wasn’t even enjoying all the way to the end. I’m not sure exactly why. But now I feel like it’s not such a big deal to not finish a book… who cares anyways? Life’s too short to spend time on things that aren’t fulfilling or enriching. You have to just let things go, right?

Anyways, that’s my thought these days.

I hope you had a nice weekend, and let’s have a great Monday!

おやすみなさい！

– B Barron Fujimoto

Saturday with the boys

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"Out for a Walk" Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.2, 1/1600 sec, ISO200
 “Out for a Walk” Cedar Park, 2016

こんばんは！Hi, how’s it going?

Today Bay and I went out to look for Pokémon again at the local YMCA. It’s got several good types that we like to catch, and also a PokéGym that Bay wanted to take over. It was fun hanging out with him once again! After that we went to the pet store to buy some more fish for his tank and also a couple fish for my tank. I’ll have to post a new photo of the aquariums soon… they are looking good! 🐠

In Louisiana today there were severe floods from some heavy rains, and here in Austin we also had a lot of rain. ⛈ I first heard the raindrops early this morning, at about 4 AM. It sounded pretty heavy but didn’t last long. This afternoon we got hit by another round of storms which is good because water is very much needed around here! ☔ Thankfully it wasn’t too heavy so we aren’t in any danger of flooding, but it is always a concern because the weather can be unpredictable. I guess that is the way of the world nowadays.

For dinner, I took the boys out to a Tex-Mex restaurant for enchiladas, and we enjoyed each-other’s company. In the photo below, Koa is giving his approval. 👍 Surprisingly, no one was able to finish their meal and we ended up bringing a lot of food home with us. I guess I know what we’ll be having for lunch tomorrow. 😀🍴

I hope you had a nice Saturday!

おやすみなさい！

– B Barron Fujimoto

How Times Have Changed

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"Shopping" Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/60 sec, ISO3200
 “Shopping” Cedar Park, 2016

こんばんは！Hello!

Tonight’s photo is of my son, Bay, shopping for some new shoes. 👟 On his laptop. It’s strange when I think about it – shopping for clothes online is so common nowadays!

I remember when I was a kid, going to the shoe store and my mom buying us new sneakers. It was so fun! Measuring our feet, trying on all the different shoes, that shoe-store smell, and the cool low seats that had the angled mirrors on them so you can see how the shoes looked from a distance. I suppose you can still do that, but the online option is so convenient, isn’t it?

I watched an episode of the show Stranger Things the other night, and I noticed they used the word “mixtape”. 📼 I told Bay that back in the ’80s, we didn’t have that word. He asked me what word we used, and I just said “tape” and he just shook his head… Also, they described someone as being “mental” which was not an ’80s term at all, at least not in the States. Anyways, I thought it was interesting that they didn’t use more common ’80s terms.

And just another sign that I’m getting older! But still young at heart. 😝

Well, I hope you had a nice Friday, and here’s to a great weekend!

おやすみなさい！

– B Barron Fujimoto

Quality Time

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"Sitting Reflection" Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/8, 1/100 sec, ISO1600
 “Sitting Reflection” Cedar Park, 2016

こんばんは！Hi, how’s it going?

This evening Koa and I went out looking for Pokemon again. You know, I think the game is pretty fun, but what is really cool is that it’s a nice way to spend time with my kids and wife. Since we all play, we can go out together and have fun together… which is kind of odd because I wonder, what is the difference from what we were doing before?

I think it has something to do with the fact that we are all doing something we all enjoy. Most of the time when we go out, we each have varying degrees of enjoyment in the activity. Sometimes, like for Koa’s baseball, that is his activity, and then Mariko and I enjoy it from a different angle, while Bay has zero interest and doesn’t even join us. But with Pokémon GO, we are all into it, and can play together. It’s really great!

I think a lot of families are experiencing the same thing. 😄

Tonight’s photo is of Koa and I sitting on a bench at the outdoor shopping center. We are sitting next to a PokéStop, within short walking distance of another PokéStop and a PokéGym too. Unfortunately, the pokémon that we found there kind of sucked, but it was still fun. And nice to get out for some fresh air!

I hope you had a nice Thursday!

おやすみなさい！

– B Barron Fujimoto

Fuchiko Appearance

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"Fuchiko Stuck in Blueberry Quicksand" Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/100 sec, ISO800
 “Fuchiko Stuck in Blueberry Quicksand” Cedar Park, 2016

こんばんは！

Today’s photo is of Fuchiko, the tiny OL (office lady) who appears in people’s photos, usually perched on the edge of a a cup or glass. Mariko went shopping and came home with a bunch of blueberries and I wanted to take a photo of them for Instagram, but then I thought it would be a little more interesting with Fuchiko in the photo.

So… a little bit of drama in this one! I guess I was inspired a bit by the awesome Instagram feed of Takuya Tanaka. He’s so creative!

I hope you had a nice Wednesday!

おやすみなさい！

– B Barron Fujimoto

🐠 New Old Aquarium

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"Cloudy Waters" Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/100 sec, ISO1600
 “Cloudy Waters” Cedar Park, 2016

こんばんは！Hi!

This evening we set up Bay’s new aquarium, which is actually our old aquarium, but since we got a new 20-gallon tank, Bay wanted the 10-gallon tank for his room. I was happy to give it to him because I remember when I was his age I also had an aquarium in my room. 🐠

Yesterday I helped him clean the tank, by taking out the old gravel and rocks and then he scrubbed the glass to remove the algae that has built up over the years. He also cleaned the filter pump and aquarium hood. It’s looking good!

And today we went to the local fish store to buy some new substrate and a couple fish. Since I kept the old biological media, the water should be cycled pretty quickly. I recommended Bay start out with a couple of Siamese algae-eaters, and then do some research as to what kinds of fish (and how many) would do well in a 10-gallon tank. He also wants to put some live grasses in it, which should be pretty cool.

I remember when I was in middle school I had a 10-gallon tank in my room… it may even have been smaller. Perhaps an 8-gallon? Anyways, the filter system we used was very different back then. We used one of those vibrating pumps that drove air through a tube and into a plastic filter box. The bubbles would create a current that would keep water flowing through the filter material. It was a loud system! But I loved that little aquarium and it gave me years of enjoyment. Our guppies lived long happy lives and we raised a lot of little baby guppies!

When I was in high school, I had a larger aquarium, maybe a 12 or 15-gallon tank, using the same filter system. But I was able to get some different kinds of fish – platys, mollys, plecos, and tetras. I loved that tank as well! I remember spacing-out looking into that aquarium for hours while listening to Environments records… ☺️

During college I had another aquarium in our dorm room. It was a cool plexi tank and I think I had a couple mollys and a little frog. This tank had an under-gravel filter system, but still used that loud pump.

These days, the pumps and filters we use are the impeller-type which are quiet, efficient, and easy to maintain. I’m sometimes tempted to get one of the air-pumps so I can have some cool bubbles in the aquarium, but I’m satisfied with how the aquarium is set up now.

I’m really happy that I’ve had an aquarium in my life since I was young. It’s a fun and relaxing hobby that can be so much more than “just taking care of fish”. I hope that Bay and/or Koa continue with the tradition!

おやすみなさい！Good night!

– B Barron Fujimoto