Out the alley behind our apartment building and across Monroe is what the Wilcox clan calls “Kuma’s house”. When our Maine Coon was still with us, and the 1,300-square-foot Craftsman, built in 1917, was a foreclosure, he […]
Tag: San Diego
Caturday Centered
Time comes to revisit a couple of furballs from my “Cats of University Heights” series: Biscuit, Frenemy, and Slumber. As an unabashed amateur photographer, I tend to avoid putting the capture’s subject in the centerfield. But sometimes, there is no other choice or such placement pleases the eye—so I believe (gulp) about these two portraits. Both animals live on different blocks along Maryland Ave.
The Featured Image gives better view of the black cat who is Morla the tortoise’s front-yard companion. The fence leads the eye down to the feline, which offset dinosaur adds character to the yard. The JPEG is straightened but otherwise as shot today using the Fujifilm X100F, with Velvia film simulation applied in camera. Vitals: f/5.6, ISO 200, 1/420 sec, 23mm; 9:38 a.m. PDT.
Sign of the Times
Two weeks ago, while walking around Hillcrest, my wife and I briefly stopped by the local, massive, used bookstore. To my surprise, the place was three-quarters emptied and going out of business. Yikes! I hadn’t shopped there for nearly a year, when purchasing a paperback for myself later given to my father-in-law. While 5th Avenue Books is gone, online counterpart Schrader’s Books will continue selling used titles through Amazon. As someone who almost exclusively reads ebooks, I occasionally—but, honestly, rarely—shopped out-of-prints not available in digital format, almost always finding the sought-after read.
That last purchase: The Past Through Tomorrow by Robert A. Heinlein, an old-time favorite selling for three bucks. When I first bought the anthology in high school, it came as a set with two other titles: Stranger in a Strange Land and Time Enough for Love. During the last year of my father-in-law’s life, reading became his main recreation. I donated the Heinlein title to that cause. Following the 95 year-old’s death nine weeks ago, I reclaimed the book to read and as remembrance.
The Cats of University Heights: Booger
Late yesterday afternoon, as I walked home from Trader Joe’s, I sighted a short-haired tabby in the same yard where Sebastian slept on the Ides of March. The cat came up a side alley, and I worried he might skitter away. So I got off a quick shot, forgetting that the Fujifilm X100F was set to Acros film simulation. I desperately changed to Velvia and auto-everything. Problem: The sun shone sharply over the animal to the camera. Rays are visible in the first shots. The cropped Featured Image is better-balanced from my getting down lower to the sidewalk, my using the left hand as make-shift hood, and the kitty moving to where the house blocked glare.
Vitals for the color pic: f/3.6, ISO 200, 1/125 sec, 23mm. Black and white (which is below the fold): f/5, ISO 200, 1/125 sec, 23mm. The sun situation actually adds character to the B&W photo. If not for the plastic containers, the portrait could be from days gone-by. Time taken: 5:37 p.m. PDT and a minute later for the color capture.
The Cats of University Heights: Spot
For several days in May 2014, a daring but skittish kitty skirted around my father-in-law’s apartment complex on Campus near Madison. I never managed to capture his image—he always ran from me. But the furball tolerated my wife, who snagged several photos, from which comes the first in this series snapped by someone other than me.
I cropped a vertical shot to make the Featured Image. Look for the original below the fold. Annie captured the moment on the 9th of the month at 6:21 p.m. PDT, using the HTC One M8 smartphone. Vitals: f/2, ISO 125, 1/302 sec, 3.82mm. I shot Farfisa, who also appears in this series, with the M8 as well, but in April 2014.
The Cats of University Heights: Sebastian
This morning, my wife and I jaunted down Maryland Ave., on our way to The Hub for groceries. Nearly to the Washington Street bridge, in a yard with “Wildlife Habitat” sign, and lush foliage, Anne spotted a furball belly up. I shot several back-to portraits, using the Fujifilm X100F. When we returned, the feline had flipped around my way.
The Featured Image is Annie’s preferred crop. The other, below the fold is mine. Vitals on the first: f/5.6, ISO 200, 1/450 sec, 23mm. The other: f/8, ISO 200, 1/280 sec, 23mm. Time on both: 10:38 a.m. PDT, using Velvia film simulation.
My Comic-Con Luck Runs Out
I dreaded this day but mentally prepared—or so it seemed. San Diego Comic-Con 2017 Early Registration commenced this morning. Passes sold out in about an hour, and I got none for any of the four days or Preview Night. I attended continuously, starting in 2009—the first six years as registered press. For reasons unknown to me, SDCC did not “verify” my media status for 2015 or 2016, but I was able to register and pay for the entire event.
Open Registration is still to come, and the convention changed the press submission schedule for the July 19 (Preview Night) – 23 event. Past years: December. Now it’s end of April. Before the new week starts, I will resubmit legitimate materials that, if my luck isn’t exhausted, might lead to press certification and attendance.
The Cats of University Heights: Henry
The Fujifilm X100F and I are still getting acquainted, bringing big digital lifestyle change: always-carry. The compact camera is lightweight and unobtrusive attached to ONA Lima strap, such that I sling it and bring it with ease and capture the moment where iPhone 7 Plus would miss. I only lugged larger Fuji X-T1 when planning to use it, thus making the Apple smartphone my primary street camera. That all changed February 28. The new digicam, with its 24.3-megapixel APS-C sensor and fixed f/2 lens, is classic—for style and shooting. I previously owned the original and preceding T model.
Rushing out for a twilight walk on March 9, I spotted, not for the first time, a tiger-striped cat in the yard at Campus and Monroe. Our eyes met yet again, around the same time of day; he lurked where he had several weeks before, cast in the shadows. I shot Featured Image at 6:09 p.m. PST—about 20 minutes after sunset. Except for straightening, the JPEG is unaltered from the X100F. Vitals: f/2, ISO 3200, 1/26 sec, 23mm. Despite its f/1.8 aperture, based on past efforts, iPhone 7 Plus would have botched the shot—or using flash to set focus, scared off the feline.
Scooter Booter
Did you know that mopeds typically are bigger air-polluters than cars or trucks? Kind of diminishes their mystique, don’t you think? Yeah. Yeah. But I would still consider riding (and owning) one. Some newer models’ emissions are cleaner (and, yes, that’s a justification).
I shot this scooter nearby the bridge that crosses Washington Street to The Hub shopping plaza, on March 2, 2017, at 11:41 a.m. PST, using Fujifilm X100F, which settings were changed to those used by photographer Kevin Mullins, with Classic Chrome film simulation. Vitals: f/4, ISO 400, 1/950 sec, 23mm.
The Cats of University Heights: Pepe
San Diego’s unusually wet Winter is finally giving way to sunny days, with the high temp reaching 26 degrees Celsius this afternoon, when my wife and I walked down Cleveland Ave., where we made new friends—tuxedo […]
My Fujifilm X100F Acros Romp
I see a fair number of professional photographers raving about Fuji’s black-and-white simulation, which I finally gave a try while walking the neighborhood today. Gotta say, as an admitted amateur, I am impressed by Acros—available on the X-Pro2, X-T2, and X100F—but more for what it enables: To shoot things that I otherwise wouldn’t; stepping back and looking differently. There are reasons why some mirrorless digital cameras are right for the street.
Take the Featured Image. Numbers on a building? I wouldn’t have bothered if not for Acros, which adds surprising dynamism by taking away something—color. The capture isn’t a favorite, honestly, but there’s something pleasing about the tone—the mood—that makes harsh shadows and sheering sunlight more palatable. Vitals: f/4, ISO 200, 1/2000 sec, 23mm; 8:42 a.m. PST.
Lemonade Stand
The Fujifilm X100F is now my nearly-always outdoor companion—a role iPhone 7 Plus had filled. The camera is compact and light and comfortably slings over the shoulder attached to the ONA Lima strap. Earlier today, my wife and I walked down Maryland Ave. toward The Hub plaza in Hillcrest. Along the way, we passed a lemonade stand, with some kids fundraising for the local elementary school, Alice Birney. They had already raised $60 when I snapped the pic, at 1:15 p.m. PST. Somebody paid more than the requested 25 cents a cup. Hehe.
The Featured Image is a crop of the original, which is visible below the fold. Both versions are unaltered, except for horizontal cropping to the first and straightening of both. The visual cue is different in each, though. The first is aligned vertically with the lemonade stand and the original against the house in the background.