Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/5, 1/20 sec, ISO3200 Cedar Park, 2016
こんばんは！The weather today was amazing… sunny and almost 90 degrees. This is perhaps the one or two week period where we have great weather before it gets really hot. But it’s kind of too early… only March!
Also, it’s the time of year where we adjust our clocks forward an hour. We have “Daylight Savings” here, so now it is darker when we wake up but stays lighter later into the evening. This time, I am having a really hard time adjusting to it. I usually wake up somewhere in the 5am hour, and naturally it is now in the 6am hour. But for some reason I cannot shift back to 5am. It hasn’t been a problem yet since I have been working from home the past two days and the kids are on spring break so they don’t need to wake up early. But tomorrow I will need to go in to work so I should try to get back to my normal schedule. We’ll see if I can do it!
Today’s photo is of our coffee pot… it’s wearing a scarf! Actually, it’s a kitchen towel that I wrap around to try to keep the heat in. It’s all about hot coffee!
Well, it’s late already (11:20pm is late for me), so I should try to get to bed so I can wake up early. Take care! おやすみなさい！
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.2, 1/13 sec, ISO6400 Cedar Park, 2016
こんばんは！ Happy Monday everyone!
Today I worked from home because the kids are off from school for Spring Break and Mariko is working at SXSW. Today’s photo is of my workspace, and the new addition to it – a Logitech wireless mouse.
For the past month or so my old mouse has been acting strangely by disconnecting and reconnecting with my computer, seemingly at random. I’d hear the notification like when you unplug a USB device, but then immediately hear the new device notification. This would happen several times an hour. I figured it was time to replace that old wired mouse (which must be several years old) with a new wireless mouse.
I did a quick search on Amazon and settled on the highly-rated yet inexpensive ($12) Logitech mouse. I like the fact that it is a little smaller than a regular mouse (I have small hands) and that the battery is rated to last 12 months. That is great! I was also looking forward to losing the cord, which was a lot of visual clutter on my white tabletop.
But an unexpected benefit with the new mouse is that the tracking mechanism is much better than my old mouse. The wired mouse was very jittery on the surface of my desk which forced me to use a mousepad. The new mouse tracks very smoothly, even without the mousepad. So that means I can get rid of the visual clutter of the mousepad as well. Just look how nice and clean that space is now!
I’m so happy with the wireless mouse. I just wish I had made the switch sooner. For such a small price to pay, the benefits are huge!
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.2, 1/100 sec, ISO800 Cedar Park, 2016
こんばんは！ Good evening!
Well, the weekend is almost over but it was a very productive one for me! I helped Bay rearrange his room and get rid of his old IKEA bed frame. We also moved a desk upstairs into his room, and now he has two desks, which form one huge desk! They are both from IKEA, so they match nicely.
But the big task that I finished was installing a new kitchen sink. Our old one (which came with the house) has been leaking for a few months. It wasn’t a constant leak, but when the faucet was on, some water would trickle out from the base of the handle. A new washer kit to fix it cost $15, but we decided to get a newer, more convenient design, which you can see in the photo above.
It’s much taller, so it is easier to wash large pots, and the spout can detach to make cleaning the sink itself a lot easier. It also has an aerator mode for a wider spray.
The installation was not too difficult, but it involved two trips to the hardware store… the first was to buy a deep socket to get at the bolt that held the old faucet to the countertop. I wasn’t able to tell what size I needed (since it was in a recessed place that I couldn’t get to) so I bought three different sizes and planned to return the two that didn’t fit. My plan worked out nicely, and one of the sockets fit perfectly which made it easy to remove the old faucet.
But then as I was hooking up the new hoses to the water supply, I noticed that the connections weren’t the same size. So I headed back to the hardware store to get some adapters. That actually was fine, because I had to go back to return the two sockets that I didn’t need.
The rest of the installation went smoothly, although working from my back under the sink kind of sucked. I checked all the connections for any leaks but didn’t find any. This actually surprised me… and in the back of my mind, I think that something will happen in a couple of days… so I’ll keep an eye on things. But so far so good!
The weather here in Austin is very nice… just in time for SXSW. Today was sunny and in the 80s and it might get into the 90s later this week. If you are in town for SXSW, enjoy yourselves! 😎
Well, SXSW is happening here in Austin so things get a little crazy around town. But this morning I took the kids to Japanese school, then visited a cafe I like to go to. It’s not in downtown, but south of Town Lake, so I didn’t see many people. Plus I was there from about 8:30am – 10:30am. However, when I left the cafe, I saw that there was some SXSW activity in the same complex, and there was a guard at the entrance to the parking garage. It’s fun to have a lot of people visiting from out of town, actually. The city fills with an exciting vibe.
After I picked up the kids, we had lunch and then I took Koa to the batting cages to get some practice in. He’s really improving and can hit with decent power now. But he just needs to be more aggressive during the actual games. I’m sure he’ll get there though.
After that, I assembled a new barbeque for our backyard. It’s a smaller gas grill which should be pretty convenient. It took about an hour to put together but wasn’t difficult. Next up was disassembling Bay’s old IKEA bed. I guess he has outgrown it and wants a regular bed. He’s growing up!
So, that was a busy Saturday… and I am tired once again! But we got a lot done. It’s a good life!
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4.5, 1/40 sec, ISO6400 Cedar Park, 2016
こんばんは！Hello! Welcome to the weekend.
Another rainy day, but the weather should improve tomorrow and then the coming week will be very warm… almost in the 90s! Just in time for the SXSW crowds. But these past few days of rain have meant that Koa’s baseball activities have been cancelled. 😞 I hope the baseball field dries up quickly so he doesn’t miss any more games.
Speaking of SXSW, Mariko is doing some work coordinating some visitors’ activities so she’s really busy. I kind of want to head downtown this weekend and see all the people, but it’s a bit of a hassle too. Maybe I can sneak down tomorrow morning since I have to take the kiddos to Japanese school. I’d love to get an Uber from the school. We’ll see!
Today was super-busy for me. I was working from 7:30 in the morning all the way til 6 in the evening. Just a log going on, plus some unplanned work popped up. It sometimes happens. But not often, so I think it’s ok once in a while.
Today’s photo is of the items on my desk next to the monitor. I’ve got photos, some cd’s, old birthday cards, pens, etc. It’s all stuff that I like and make me feel good. 😄
Well, I hope you have a great weekend! I’m definitely going to try to enjoy it.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/8, 1/125 sec, ISO5000 Cedar Park, 2016
こんばんは！Happy Thursday!
We’re getting a lot of rain here in central Texas, which is great because we always suffer dry summers it seems. So hopefully the rain is filling up the lakes.
Today was a strange day at work. I worked pretty much non-stop from 7:45am until 4:25pm (working through lunch) but the weird thing was, I didn’t even have time to open Photoshop, InDesign, or Illustrator. I spent the entire time either in meetings, or emailing people and coordinating projects. And it was EXHAUSTING. I don’t think I’ve ever had a day like that before… I didn’t realize it before, but all that planning and crafting emails takes a lot of brainpower. At the end of the day I was in a daze! But it was great to know that all of that planning was necessary and important and will be a huge benefit in the near future.
As I was observing how fatiguing that kind of work was today, I remembered something that was said in the asadora Amachan. One of the experienced sea-urchin divers told the newbie diver to not think while underwater. Huh? It turns out that all that brain activity uses up a lot more oxygen, and therefore you cannot stay underwater as long. Maybe today’s type of work, which I am not used to, was using up all my energy.
Today’s photo was taken at the drive-thru of our local In-n-Out. When I got home from work, the family requested this specifically, and I was happy to oblige! I love the burgers there. My oldest son loves to order a double-double animal style, and his brother likes his double-double with no onion, tomato, or spread. I got a cheeseburger animal style, and my wife got a regular cheeseburger plus pickles. It was delicious as usual! 🍔
Well, the weekend is almost here! I hope you have a great Friday.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/25 sec, ISO6400 “Olympus XA” Cedar Park, 2016
こんばんは！How’s it going? Over here, it’s raining… make sure to keep dry and stay healthy!
Today’s photo is of one of my favorite cameras, the mighty Olympus XA. It is such a great design, and takes wonderful photos because of the lovely Zuiko lens. I love it, although I don’t shoot with it too often.
Tonight I replied to a post on Flickr that was concerning running out of hard drive space because of shooting many RAW files. In writing my response, I thought about how my philosophy on making photos has changed over the years to where I am now, which is a happy place. Not surprisingly, it has to do with decluttering. Below is the response I posted:
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Just my personal experience…
Short answer: It helps if you cull your photos early on, and be “ruthless” about it. :)
Long-winded answer:
I think many of us have gone through or are going through a similar situation, myself included. There was a time when I was shooting so much, in RAW, kept everything, was running out of space, and “got behind” in processing those files. Photography started being less fun for me.
Then, I started shooting some corporate events and my view on culling the photos started to take shape. Each time I clicked the shutter, I would think “This photo is going to take me X amount of minutes to process.” This left a feeling of dread – I didn’t want to stay up all night processing so many! So I decided I needed to cull more aggressively. Now, if I shoot one event presenter, I might take 40 shots, but immediately (in camera) cull that down to 15, deleting obvious ones like closed eyes, weird mid-talk expressions, etc. Then later in Lightroom, I’d spend one minute to cut that to 3 maximum (more for a keynote), and post-process those.
I then started applying that to my personal work. I found that choosing the best ones in-camera soon after I took them made photography a lot more enjoyable. The sooner I deleted the rejected photos, the less I would think about them and consequently eliminate any regret I might have had in not keeping them. (I didn’t have time to get attached to those photos) And my memory card felt nice and tidy, free of clutter.
Another change that really helped me enjoy photography more is that I now shoot exclusively (for my personal photos) in JPEG. I have found that committing to the image immediately gives me a sense of closure and peace-of-mind. This may sound weird, but to me, a RAW file is the middle step in the photographic process, with the end of the process being a print or JPEG. It’s like the RAW file represents an unfinished project (with endless possibilities) and when I had 1,000 RAW files sitting on my hard drive, it was like having 1,000 unfinished projects just gnawing away at me. (I guess I have some issues!)
So now I cull like crazy, and I’m happy with (or at least committed to) the images I keep, and forget about all the others… it’s a lot less clutter on the hard drive and less clutter in my mind.
Sorry for the long-winded (and somewhat off-topic) message, and thanks for reading.
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I hope you have a nice rest of the evening, and let’s do our best tomorrow!
おやすみなさい！
-B
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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?
