I will teach you a new word: 나비 (or nabi, Romanized), which means butterfly in Korean. The genus is Tiger Swallowtail. The Featured Image isn’t recent. Vitals: f/5, ISO 200, 1/200 sec, 70mm; 6:19 p.m. EDT, Aug. 29, 2005.
Location: Wilcox backyard, Kensington, Md. Camera: Canon EOS 20D.
Driving home tonight, I came upon the most magnificent moon rising on the Eastern Horizon. I pulled over the car at Georgia and Meade, which crests a hill, here in San Diego community of University Heights. I had read that, using the 100x zoom (optical and digital), Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra can produce impressive moon shots. Is it perfect? No. Is it fantastic coming from a device carried in the pocket? Absolutely. Wow.
The Featured Image has a little help from Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, which I used to tweak the white balance and to amp dehaze and texture settings. Vitals: f/4.9, ISO 50, 1/120 sec, 230mm (film equivalent); 6:48 p.m. PST. Composed as captured.
There are days that I really regret parting with the Leica M10, in October 2018. My eyes were still in a state of recovery—cataract surgery in summer 2016 and regular shots (gulp, yes, needles) for Macular Edema. Fast forward: My retinas are no longer leaky; treatment isn’t necessary; and my eyesight is normal enough that I probably could adequately handle the rangefinder now.
The Featured Image, taken on April 25, 2018, demonstrates what the camera can produce—even in incapable hands. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/4 (guesstimate), ISO 100, 1/1000 sec, 50mm; 12:35 p.m. PDT; composed as shot. Lens: Summarit-M 1:2.4/50. The bokeh is quite pleasing, and I speculate the location is the Madison overlook in San Diego neighborhood University Heights.
For this sunny Saturday, we once again go back 10 years to a Featured Image that I don’t recall taking—neither why nor where. The location data claims the 4500 block of Campus Avenue in San Diego neighborhood University Heights.
This one comes for the LG-produced, Googe-branded Nexus 4, on March 31, 2003. Vitals: f/2.4, ISO 100, 1/1000 sec. 33mm (film equivalent); 2:16 p.m. PDT.
Last night, I set up the Galaxy S23 Ultra, using Samsung’s Smart Switch app. I connected the new smartphone to the older (S22 Ultra) and followed the prompts. What a superbly smooth process followed. Sometime in the next day or two, I will pack up and ship the other device, as per my trade-in agreement.
For every new smartphone, there is a first photo, which is the Featured Image. Vitals: f/1.7, ISO 10, 1/1200 sec, 23mm; 9:58 a.m. PST. While walking to San Diego neighborhood Hillcrest, I detoured off Washington onto Normal to avoid sidewalk congestion. There I passed this helmet, which unusual placement beckoned to be shot.
Two days ago, our cats Cali and Neko were beside themselves with excitement, as they sat transfixed—and chirping—looking at something outside in our apartment courtyard. I peeked through the window numerous times trying to see what, which typically would be a squirrel. I looked low when my eyes should have turned high.
A pigeon, or is it a dove, perched on the upper balcony railing directly across the way. My camera was in the office, so I used Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra to capture the Featured Image. Vitals: f/4.9, ISO 64, 1/120 sec, 230mm (film equivalent); 4:53 p.m. PST; composed as shot. The bird basked in the last rays of the setting sun.
Rains returned to San Diego but broken by sunshine long enough for my wife and I to take a morning walk. After going along Panorama Drive, we crossed Adams Avenue to where Alabama Street starts. Few houses along, Annie stopped and regarded a pink rose poking through the open slats of a fence.
I turned Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra to that one, and another, which is the Featured Image—but from when I returned about 30 minutes later for a more deliberate composition. Vitals: f/1.8, ISO 12, 1/250 sec, 23mm (film equivalent); 9:48 a.m. PST.
On a quiet Tuesday evening, with the car in the shop and my finger healing (hopefully) from a second-degree grease-splatter burn, I share something simple and soothing.
I used Canon EOS 20D to capture the Featured Image, which is composed as shot and presented without alteration. This one is a JPG straight from the camera. Vitals, aperture and shutter speed manually set: f/7.1, ISO 400, 1/500 sec, 100mm; 3:19 p.m. EDT, June 24, 2007. Lens: Canon EF100mm f/2.8 Macro USM.
Two days ago, while walking along Panorama Drive in San Diego neighborhood University Heights, I came across an unusual crop—if that word can be used—of mushrooms. They stood out for their number, small size, and very existence. Too many residents replace grass with imitation greenery or rocks/gravel. So it’s also a wonder the fungi had any place to grow.
The Featured Image is the first of only two photos taken. This one uses car tires for perspective showing how tiny, and many, the mushrooms are. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/5.6, ISO 100, 1/200 sec, 28mm; 2:16 p.m. PST.
Typically, homeless hang out on the sidewalks along the walls outside Sprouts supermarket, located at the intersection of Georgia and Howard in San Diego neighborhood University Heights. As such I wouldn’t have seen—or been able to take the Featured Image of—the tree-hanging lucky charm, whether he be leprechaun or Santa’s elf (you tell me which). But yesterday, the space was uncharacteristically unoccupied.
What a difference 24 hours makes. This afternoon, when I strolled by: One gent lay sleeping, wrapped in a brown blanket. Someone else huddled under a makeshift habitat, of which bicycle hubs were part of the structure. Another fellow crumpled cans collected from recycle bins; he worked from garbage bags carried in, and hanging from, a shopping cart. I couldn’t see the tree, or what was on it.
Why are you looking at a couple of lonely leaves? Because their grapevine is something of an obsession; I am enthralled by the growing location—on a grassy patch between sidewalk and street somewhere in my San Diego neighborhood of University Heights.
Last year, I chronicled the grapes’ progression from green to mixed color to richly ripe. Walking by today, I saw that the branches had been clipped, as they are every autumn, but something remained—making me intriguingly sentimental enough to stop with Leica Q2 and capture the Featured Image. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/2.8, ISO 100, 1/1250 sec, 28mm; 11:45 a.m. PST.
As autumn colors lavish landscapes across the Northeastern United States, but eternal summer simmers in Southern California, I must go back to the past to find something appropriate to share—from our family’s time living a few miles outside the Washington, DC Beltway. On Nov. 2, 2005, I lugged outside Canon EOS 20D, mounted with the EF 70-200mm f/4L USM lens obtained a few days earlier.
The Featured Image and companion, both composed as captured, are picks from a series for each. Looking over the set reveals similar shots at different apertures. Interestingly, for the first, I prefer the renders where the house is less blurred. Vitals: f/18, ISO 800, 1/125 sec, 200mm; 12:51 p.m. EST.