Category Archives: Photography

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Returning to the love of photography

Photo taken during a walk, post thunderstorm.

Greetings. I hope you’re well at the time of reading this post. Over the last few months (I forget what prompted me to do so), I’ve been back to using my Nikon D3100 DSLR and have rekindled my love of photography. As I type this, what may have brought me back to it was seeing some photographs on Instagram and remembering the days of using an SLR camera prior to have a phone that can take decent photos (which currently is an iPhone 12 mini). Again, I think these photos I saw were on IG, but despite using the site for music production posts, I highly despise the ads, shopping features, and most the annoying algorithms. I had some recent discussions over the last few months with a long time friend, tech brother, and photo fan, DarrenKeith, about the merits of Flickr over Instagram for photo sharing. The main advantage is no algorithms. In addition, for me, Flickr’s features allow you to see the camera the photo was taken with along with lens type, shutter speed, aperture. EXIF data (if available). Since the camera name is shown, you can click on the camera graphic, and Flickr will show you all other photos on the site taken with the same camera you’ve used. Aside from that, Flickr allows for different ways of categorizing your photos via album and collection. I haven’t used similar photo sharing sites, but what Flickr does, it does well.

What also took me back to the D3100 was actually a few things. First was a user on Bluesky that goes by the name lilyannadream. She was posting photos taken with her Nikon D5600 and they are all very nice. I said to myself that her camera is probably just a few years older than mine (actually 5 years older and with a pixel resolution of 24.2 pixels vs my D3100 from 2010 with 14.2), so let me see what mine can do. Incidentally I just learned that the D5600 is the last DSLR Nikon made and they have been focusing on mirrorless cameras. Secondly, another new user to Bluesky, who gos by PWH3, is a NYC-based photographer who has some really nice shots and mentioned he has shot with a Nikon D700, which was released in July 2008 and is still highly respected in the DSLR world. That said, I again wanted the flexibility of shooting with different focal lengths, shutter speeds, etc instead of having to shoot everything in auto like the iPhone constrains you to do. Secondly, it takes me back to the days of shooting 35mm SLR print film in the 90s with a manual camera, my Minolta XG-7 to be exact. Then you had to understand how film ISO, shutter speed, aperture, and focal length come together to compose a great (or not-so great) photograph. After the XG-7 bit the dust, I purchased a Nikon N60 SLR with two lenses, which I still have. I would like to shoot print film again, but realize that in the end, I’ll be spending anywhere from $2 – $3 a shot, but the good thing is it will take me back to the days I mentioned above. I’ve been looking at places I can get fresh film and get it developed and printed, just in case.

It’s definitely good to be shooting with a DSLR again and doing so makes me want to get back to shooting scenic photos, especially of the urban type. I’ve done some low light indoor shots of my recording studio and will do more. As the summer continues, I’ll really try to visit various events around down, with camera in hand. I’m already thinking about possibilities of such for tomorrow.

Thanks for the read, be well and stay safe.

Fresh

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POTD – 22/365

“Does anybody know what time it is, does anybody really care?” – Chicago

I love that song by Chicago – the music, the lyrics, the arrangement, just a really great pop song, the kind you really don’t hear anymore. I remember first hearing it in regular rotation on NYC’s WABC-AM, with DJ Cousin Brucey! LOL.

It is mad cold today!

Time, so elusive, yet it can seem to drag on and on anytime you don;t want it to. I always seem to want more, but the old and factual saying, “We all get the same amount each day – 24 hours”, all boils down to how you use it. Is that right, or am I missing something??

Best,
Fresh

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POTD – 21/365

There is an old saying, that I pretty much wholeheartedly subscribe to: “Failing to plan means planning to fail, so plan the work and work the plan” Planning, to me, is not a difficult task at all, I do it well, frankly. Working the plan, that last part, in the midst of unforseen (and sometimes seen) circumstances can become most difficult at time. It’s that part that I truly try to focus on, but not always successful. Then there are some that succeed in just winging it (for lack of a better phrase) and generally succeed. Which category (if any), do you fall into?

Thanks for the read.
Fresh

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POTD – 19/365

Life is a sport, make it count.

Happy 7th birthday to the NikeFuel Band. I won’t wax poetically about this fitness tracker because I’ve provided a number of previous blog posts I’ve done that go into depth about my relationship with it. Breaking with the one-photo-a-day approach, I’ve included a few of my favorite video and images in honor of today.

The Fuel Baand wasn’t just designed to be an activity tracker but also as a bit of fashion statement, as with there gold and silver editions.

Unlike the Apple Watch, the idea behind the NikeFuel band was to track all kinds of activity. If memory serves me correctly, the Fuel Band tracked 288 types of activities, and allowed for customized input of ANY activity, as opposed to the Apple Watch which iists 66 different workouts, including an entry called “Other” which only allows you to save the workout as “Other” or one of the 66 in the watch’s list. Below is an excellent video explain what’s behind the idea of the FuelBand.

And this video is the official launch of the NikeFuel Band (it’s about 40 mins long).

There’s still a good number of folks that wish the FuelBand would return, despite the ups and downs it faced. I really, really enjoyed its entire concept.

Have a great day!
Fresh

References:

1. Why The NikeFuel Band in 2017 – Band on The Run
2. Apple Watch Calories to NikeFuel Points
3. Farewell NikeFuel Band, It’s been a sheer pleasure

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POTD – 17/365

“….Adele got a flip phone…”

Greetings all…

I’m a bit of a gadget monger. While I don’t keep every bit of outdated, dead tech (I’m about to throw some on eBay and Craigslist though), I have kept a few devices. Kept not only for nostalgia, but good memories of using them as my tech journey continued along. One item I fondly remember using is the Motorola Razr V3 above. It was my second mobile phone and I loved everything about it, from its sleek design, lines, futuristic look, operation, and form factor. After leaving it for two BlackBerrys and then the iPhone, I always wished I would still be able to use it on current networks. It was early last year that I actually became weary of all the convenient technological features (believe it or not) of my great iPhone and actually longed for the days of simplicity (and truthfully far less distraction) of a mobile phone.

Surprisingly, Verizon announced today that they are re-introducing the Razr V3 in limited quantities, only 200,000…but the cost of $1500 a pop…$1500?? No. I’m sure there are those with pockets deep enough to easily scarf one or two of these apparent “collectibles” up, but…nah. At the same time, I’m glad to see it back. If they were to release one at a far cheaper cost, I’d highly consider going back, even if Adele didn’t have a flip phone😏. (Sunny Mabrey is mad hilarious! LOL)

Peace,
Fresh

Reference:

1. A New Motorola Razr Will Be Released This Year as a $1500 foldable phone | Android Central

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POTD – 16/365

“There ‘s an app for that.”

I started seriously, or maybe I should say consistently, going to the gym in my very late 20’s…(yeah, yeah, there have been a FEW hiatuses, but that’s not what this post is about,😂)…long before the iPhone or any wearable fitness tracker was even in existence. It was then that I recorded all my workout data in a notebook: pen and paper.

Fast forward to 2019, when wearables are still the rage and smartphones are pretty ubiquitous, and everyone’s fitness data touches the cloud (if you use these devices for such) at some point. Yes, it makes it convenient, even motivating for sure, but there are still times I write down stuff in notebook – easy access, no power needed, right there whenever I need it on a sunny day (in other words, no “clouds” (get it??) in sight.

Best,
Fresh

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POTD – 12/365

In remembrance.

I’m not one to post very personal things to social media, I’m just not – never have been/never will be, for reasons I need not get into here. In this case I will make an exception.

Today marks two years since my father passed away. I have very fond memories of him, and like with many fathers and sons, things happen where the agreement of things don’t occur 100% of the time, but I will say this – he always provided for me in a great number ways, and has been there. The photo above was a small memorial ceremony, held at my uncle’s house – the releasing of balloons in remembrance of him

You’re still missed.

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POTD – 11/365

…and you’re complaining about that download time, huh?

So, yeah… New Year’s Day, early in the wee hours of the morning, there was a celebration of another type going on at my job. The photo above explains it all – it’s a certificate marking a historic event of a flyby of a mission by NASA and Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab.

In short, I’ll explain what happens next, a process that is typical of all space missions that gather images for relay back to earth for science processing. Such images are stored on the spacecraft, just as you would save them to your mobile device, computer, or the cloud, until transmission to earth takes place. The New Horizon spacecraft has SSD (solid state drives – hard drives) that store the images taken of Ultimate Thule as the flyby occurred. In this case, during the flyby, it was known that the spacecraft would “go dark” (meaning that there would be no communications with Earth) as the camera was taking the photos – all could go successfully or there could be any kind of anomaly – either way neither could be known in dark mode. Fortunately, communication back to Earth after the flyby sequence essentially meant the spacecraft saying “Hey, my SSD is full and I’m going to start sending you images back to you!” – which is just what began happening. The interesting thing with the design of this is NASA wanted to study the images as soon as possible BUT in order to do so, low resolution images are the first to be sent because of their size with respect to the distance from Earth the spacecraft is. It will be *two years* from now until any hi-res images will reach Earth. So…the next time you’re crying about how lonnnnnng it’s taking to download your file (raises hands)….think about the Ultima Thule images 😏🙂.

Peace…

Fresh