Tag: Nikon Zf

Photo by Joe WilcoxFeb 15, 20268:42 pm

The Cats of University Heights: Besties

Duh. Usually when I shoot with the camera, I also capture with the smartphone so there is GPS location information. Guess who neglected to maintain that practice on April 12, 2025. With so much time passed, I don’t recall where the Featured Image was made. Location is unknown.

These two, nicknamed Besties, are the one-hundred-forty-seventh and -eighth felines found behind door or window. The portrait comes from Nikon Zf and NIKKOR Z 24-200mm f/4-6.3 VR lens. Vitals: f/7.1, ISO 100, 1/640 sec, 200mm; 2:55 p.m. PDT.

Photo by Joe WilcoxFeb 10, 202610:28 pm

So Cold, You’ll Hibernate

Flashback to May 2, 2025. My wife and I are walking along Texas Street, between El Cajon and Meade, in our San Diego neighborhood of University Heights. I see a lid for a product for which I am unfamiliar. Ah, hum. Ice Cream for Bears? Is that because of honey used to sweeten rather than cane sugar or high fructose corn syrup?

The company touts the natural sourcing of ingredients, such as milk from grass-fed cows and honey to sweeten. From a complex sugar perspective, honey isn’t as unhealthy as refined sugar.

Photo by Joe WilcoxFeb 9, 20269:36 pm

The Cats of University Heights: Berry

This is one of two kitties seen sunning behind vented screens along Meade (cross-street withheld). You’ll have to wait for a better portrait before the other joins the series. Nickname, for no particular reason: Berry.

I don’t recall the number of furballs featured from the street, but it’s only a handful. To name a few: Amanda; Chipper; Dragon; Honey Bunny; Mittens; Ninja; Pee-Pee; Siamese; Tink; and Vivienne.

Photo by Joe WilcoxFeb 8, 20269:16 pm

The Head

The Featured Image is an opportunity to shake up the flow of posts with something odd, if not disturbing. The head hangs over a fence along Mission Avenue in San Diego neighborhood University Heights. The photo is from Aug. 10, 2025, but the thing is still there—leering down on people who happen to look up as they walk by,

During any other Winter season, the thang might have been compromised by constant, heavy rains. But this part of California is experiencing unseasonably pleasant weather of warm days with low humidity. Today’s high, for example, was 28 degrees Celsius (82 Fahrenheit) and breezy.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 30, 20269:45 pm

The (Honorary) Cats of University Heights: Whimsy

I often wish for the simpler days of Leica Q or Q2. One camera and one great lens. Versatile, compatible RAW files (DNG). Image quality so sharp that close-cropping substitutes for telephoto lens. But in December 2024, I switched platforms and returned to the world of swappable lenses.

I seriously considered holding out for the then rumored Fujifilm GFX100RF. Like the Q series, the digicam is built around a single lens with leaf shutter—and it’s medium format, which I came to really love when shooting the Fujifilm GFX 50R. Everything about the rangefinder’s ergonomics and high IQ checked my benefits boxes. But the 50R was so big that it scared off animals and people, so I let it go. The 100RF should have been the ideal follow-on, but it shipped later than I needed and the massive file sizes are logistically unappealing.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 29, 20269:04 pm

Getting Good Graffiti

Last Summer, I started seeing sophisticated graffiti splash upon utility boxes across University Heights. My mistake. The San Diego village commissioned local artists to dress up the boxes, and so they did to about 51 of them.

The Featured Image and first companion catch artists at work on a box located near the intersection of Florida Street and El Cajon Blvd. Both photos come from Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, on Aug. 17, 2025. Vitals, first: f/3.4, ISO 32, 1/500 sec, (synthetic) 230mm (digital and optical zoom); 3:02 p.m. PDT.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 28, 20269:19 pm

The Golden Arches

Let’s stay a day longer on the food theme. The University Heights McDonald’s is located at El Cajon Blvd and Texas Street. While walking along the Boulevard this afternoon, I looked back to see the Golden Arches framed by nearby trees—and I happened to be carrying along Nikon Zf and NIKKOR Z 28-400mm f/4-8 VR lens.

I took two shots, being concerned that the first suffered from shutter shock. This is a new problem that fresh habits will fix over time. I had previously used Fuji X100 series cameras and more recently Leica Q and Q2—all of which rely on leaf shutters that are virtually silent and vibration-free. As such, I am too quick pressing the shutter and moving along.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 19, 202610:09 pm

Bodacious Bather

Sometimes you can’t let a bad photo go. Focal point is not on the bird, because of my clumsiness handling the autofocus. I was rushed after seeing the predator swoop down for a refreshing dip and drink at the water puddle.

I used some of Lightroom’s detail editing tech to recover as much clarity as the tools and my skills could accomplish; no AI fakery. The close-cropped Featured Image comes from Nikon Zf and NIKKOR Z 24-200mm f/4-6.3 VR lens on Dec. 16, 2025. Vitals: f/6.3, ISO 200, 1/500 sec, 200mm; 10:45 p.m. PST.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 17, 202610:10 pm

An Iris for Your Troubles?

All I wanted was to share the Featured Image, converted to JPG from RAW. More than an hour after I started said process, progress was zero. The photo was pixeled in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and editing option was greyed out. No online search, even with Artificial Intelligence insight, revealed any discernable solution.

I worked on ARM-based Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge, running native Lightroom. I eventually abandoned the effort, because the night waned away; I don’t like to give up without solving something. I instead processed the NEF file on Intel-based Microsoft Laptop Studio, which is older and considerably slower—and with atrociously disappointing battery life.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 16, 20269:54 pm

That’s not a Citrus Tree, It’s a Grove!

To commemorate the (so far) unceasingly unseasonably warm weather, I present the Featured Image and companion, which communicate something about living in Southern California. Look at the tree, which, unless my eyes are mistaken, presents several different citrus fruits.

Yesterday was the hottest day during this protracted summer-like period here in San Diego. Temperature reached 26 degrees Celsius (80 Fahrenheit). Today marked a slight cooling trend: 25 C (77 F). We can expect about the same air temperature tomorrow.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 3, 20268:56 pm

Nikon Zf: Alley Harley Film Grain

Early fourth quarter, Nikon released firmware version 3.0 for the retro-styled Zf, which I own. Among the many new features is built-in recipe (e.g. filter) film grain, which styling is succinctly named. When flipped on, the camera captures a standard photo in RAW and nostalgic film look in JPG.

But how meaningful is it, really? Let’s compare with the alley Harley that I photographed in early December 2025 using the zf; I converted the color original to monochrome in post-production. The Featured Image was film grain-stylized in camera, six days later on the 16th of the month. Additionally, the Zf has a dedicated switch for shooting black and white; both capabilities were active.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 1, 20269:27 pm

Return to Facebook

As explained yesterday, major anniversaries are coming, or recently passed, for a number of the cloud services that I have long subscribed to. For example, X, formerly Twitter, reached 20 years on Christmas day. Yeah, I registered in 2005. YouTube will be two decades on July 20. Then there is Facebook—around October 1.

I don’t love Facebook. The user interface is needlessly complicated, which must mean that’s by choice. For one, co-founder Mark Zuckerberg is a socially handicapped geek, and he designed a social network that defines how people interact online? Seriously? For another, the company’s profit-driven business model is all about time online—how long can somebody stay engaged and exposed to advertising. Deliberate design helps achieve that objective, by making people click, click, click.