Spring gardening

Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/125 sec, ISO640
Cedar Park, 2016

こんばんは!Hey there! How’s it going today?

It was a beautiful day here in Central Texas and I spent the morning in the backyard cleaning up some garden beds and trimming our fig tree. In the past two years, our fig tree has grown like crazy and kind of got out of control. So this year I cut it back pretty drastically. I now have a huge stack of branches piled up in the corner of the backyard and I’m not sure how I am going to get rid of those, but it probably involves sawing those branches into smaller pieces, bundling them up, and throwing them out with the regular trash. I think the bundles need to be under four feet in length in order for the garbage service to collect them. It’ll take a lot of work to make those bundles! But that’s for another weekend.

While I was doing that, Mariko was at the nursery buying some tomato and jalapeno plants for the garden. I’m excited about the peppers, but not too crazy about the tomatoes. I guess I am discouraged because the birds and squirrels usually get our tomatoes before we can harvest them. But this year we’ll be more diligent with the netting. We’ll see how that goes.

Tomorrow we’ll finish planting all of those and I also need to get our garden hoses in order. A few of the sections of the hose are leaking badly, and we want to make it easy to water the plants on the deck, which means splitting the hose (using an adapter) and pulling a length of hose up to the deck. Shouldn’t be too difficult, but might take some time.

Today’s photo is of one of the succulent pottings that we have on our deck. This one is a couple years old, but Mariko put in some fresh soil and cleaned it up a bit.

Well, I hope you had a nice Saturday! See you tomorrow!

おやすみなさい!

-バロン Barron Fujimoto

Friday night lights

"Koa at the Plate" Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.2, 1/125 sec, ISO4000
“Koa at the Plate” Cedar Park, 2016

こんばんは!Happy Friday everyone!

Tonight Koa had a baseball game… the second game of the season and the team did better. ⚾️ Unfortunately they lost, but they played well and Koa in particular had a strong performance defensively. He played center field all night and caught two fly balls! On the way to the game, he was telling me that he needs practice in the outfield because he has trouble judging where the ball will go. But tonight I think he got a lot of confidence. I am so proud of him.

Tomorrow he has another game, and I think he is scheduled to pitch. I hope he does well. I’m glad that he is having lots of fun. This season I don’t get stressed at all about if the team wins or loses, but I just want Koa to be proud of himself and to try hard. And of course have a good time! 😀

I hope you had a nice Friday and let’s have a fun weekend!

おやすみなさい!

-B Barron Fujimoto

80s?

"LOMO FishEye 2" Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/120 sec, ISO6400
“LOMO FishEye 2” Cedar Park, 2016

こんばんは! Hello! How are you today?

Can you believe the temperature was in the 80s today here in Austin? It’s only the beginning of March and it’s getting so warm. I wonder if this summer is going to be hotter than usual. I guess I wouldn’t be surprised since record temperatures keep getting set. 🌞

Today is Hinamatsuri, otherwise known as girls’ day in Japan. 🎎 In our family, we have two sons so there isn’t too much of a celebration. 😟 But maybe we’ll have a granddaughter some day and then we can have a proper hinamatsuri!

Today’s photo is of a fun little film camera that my family gave to me as a gift a few years ago. 📷 It’s a LOMO FishEye 2, and as you can probably tell from the name, the lens is a fisheye, with a super-wide frame of view. I don’t think it is true 180 degrees, but it’s still pretty extreme. I’ve had this camera in the cabinet and it still has the first roll of film that I loaded into it when I received the camera. No, I don’t use it very often! But there are only 9 more shots left on the roll so maybe I will finish it this year. We’ll see.

Well, it’s almost Friday, and then the weekend. Looking forward to it for sure! Take care.

おやすみなさい!

-バロン Barron Fujimoto

Mid-week

Leander, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4.5, 1/35 sec, ISO6400
Leander, 2016

こんばんは!Hello again!

Today’s photo is one that I took while watching Koa’s baseball team practice as the sky lost its light. I took the photo in color and converted it to black in white using Lightroom and tweaked a bit using the Exposure, Highlights, Shadows, Black, and White sliders. I’m quite pleased how it turned out!

I usually use Nik Silver EFX to do any black and white adjustments, but decided to try a new technique I learned after watching a video on Youtube. It’s a quick and easy way to adjust black and white images, loosely based on Ansel Adams’ workflow.

Well, that’s all from me for today. Let’s have a great Thursday!

おやすみなさい!

-B Barron Fujimoto

Already March

USA. Texas. Austin. 2016.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/60 sec, ISO1250
USA. Texas. Austin. 2016.

こんばんは!Hello! How’s it going?

Can you believe it is already March? This year is flying by like crazy. Soon it will be summer and then I hope things will slow down a bit since that is my favorite time of year. I miss it!

Today is “Super Tuesday” here in the States. It’s the day when several states hold their primary elections to help determine the official candidate for the two main parties of the US Government. Here in Texas we got to vote today, and I went to the polling location near our house to cast my vote. It was very easy and fast. I think it’s our duty as Americans to vote in the elections, even though you might live in a state that is always lopsided in its results. At least if you vote, you can complain about the leaders. If you don’t vote, do you have the right to complain?

Today’s photo is from a pizza restaurant that I often go to for lunch with friends. Lately, I’ve been enjoying making photos in black and white. I love the aesthetic and the simplicity of black and white, without the distraction of color. But it’s difficult too… and I am learning a lot about shooting in black and white. I have a ton to learn still but it is so fun to discover and grow!

Well, I think I will read a bit tonight since I am getting close to finishing The Alchemist. I am enjoying it so far!

おやすみなさい!

-バロン Barron Fujimoto