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

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

View over Osaka

JAPAN. Osaka. 2014.
Photo info: SONY SLT-A77V, 10mm, f/8, 1/350 sec, ISO100
JAPAN. Osaka. 2014.

I miss Japan! Unfortunately, I won’t be traveling there this summer 😢, but perhaps next year! I took this photo from the Tsutenkaku observation deck. In it you can see the tallest building in Osaka prefecture, “Abeno Harukas”.

One thing I love when traveling in Japan is that my wife (who was born and raised in Kansai area of Japan) really takes care of us and we get to do lots of cool things. It’s kind of like we have a tour guide wherever we go! She treats us so well, and for that I am truly grateful. 🙇 You know, I would be happy just hanging out in the city during our visits, but my wife often takes us around the country to see new places (and eat local foods). It’s kind of surprising for me (as someone who grew up in the U.S.) to realize that there are so many regional differences throughout the country of Japan. I love it! So much to explore… 🇯🇵

Fuchico photo

USA. Texas. Cedar Park. 2016.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X-T10, 23.3mm, f/4.5, 1/40 sec, ISO6400
USA. Texas. Cedar Park. 2016.

It’s been a while since I’ve made a Fuchico photo. Here’s the classic フチ子. For those of you who don’t know, Fuchico or “Fuchico on the cup” is a series of small plastic toys of an office worker named Fuchico who sits on the rims of cups. The one in the photo is the original, but since then, there have been so many different poses, outfits, and spinoffs. It’s cool because these little figurines make the photos a lot of fun! Here’s another one of my favorites that I took.

Recently, my wife showed me this video of SMAP member Tsuyoshi Kusanagi trying to recreate some of the Fuchico poses. It’s so funny. Enjoy!

Photos page

JAPAN. Kyushu. 2014.
Photo info: SONY SLT-A77V, 16mm, f/8, 1/500 sec, ISO100
JAPAN. Kyushu. 2014.

This is a photo I took during my last trip to Japan. We took a tour of Kyushu, the southern part of the country. It was beautiful in the summertime!

Speaking of photos, I have created a page called “Personal Photo Documentary”. Since I started taking daily pictures, I thought it might be nice to put them all in one gallery. So now if you don’t want to read the daily post, you can just go the the photo page and see the latest pictures that I have made. You can get to the page using the navigation at the top of the site, in the Photography drop-down menu. I hope you enjoy!

X100T Viewfinder Position

Just a quick note – one thing I love about the Fujifilm X100T is that the viewfinder is on the left side of the camera. Because I use my right eye to compose photos, this means my nose doesn’t hit the LCD screen of the camera. On my DSLR, with the viewfinder in the center of the camera, my nose would leave grease-marks on the LCD all the time. Just another reason I like the rangefinder-style design of the X100 series!