bruni wrote:
Reagan - I'm using the XT30 with the16mm f2.8, 20mm f2.8, 27mm f2.8, 35mm f1.4 and 56mm f1.2. I used to have the 16mm f1.4 but I was too mean to re-buy it so I got the f2.8 version instead - but I regret it.
Colin - that's very kind of you. I can see exactly how good life is at chez McIntosh.
DeltaSigma wrote:
Ben - if you do make it over England then we should definitely meet up. Quarantine has been fine for us. Plenty of space here if you need a crash pad. Food is good. Wine flows when required...... 🤪
Colin
You'd better watch out Colin... a message like that might snare a great many of your cyber friends...
Of course, is ANYONE getting on an airplane nowadays?
Thanks George and Doug. I've set the camera up correctly... I even pulled out the Df manual to make certain I hadn't missed anything. I checked the lens and watched its operation through the front element as I took a photo and the aperture blades seemed to close without difficult. This is very bizarre. I even tested it again a few moments ago and it was overexposing even with -3 exposure compensation and fixing exposure on the brightest part of the scene. The image was glowing it was so overexposed. I've no problem with other lenses, so I have to conclude something is amiss with this lens. Mmmm.
At the moment it is 95 degrees in San Anselmo but it is still early. Yesterday it reached 97. That was when I left home with the 180 f/2.8 AI-s mounted on the Df and headed for the Marin Municipal Water District watershed. I've been watching videos by a medical doctor certified in internal medicine, endocrinology and hospice. He suggested that a good thing to do for our bodies is to head into the woods, preferably woods where ferns are growing. Well I happen to know a trail where ferns are in abundance. A creek wanders through this area, the trail actually following the creek. With sheltering in place we've been discouraged from heading into territory like this but yesterday things were relaxed a bit. When I arrived I saw a large sign telling us how to maintain distance as we walked trails that are often quite narrow. I headed off and once past the stables and into the watershed I felt myself relaxing. I've so needed my time in the woods.
So here are a few photos from the walk. It was about twenty minutes in and twenty minutes out... but I brought a book so I could spend some time next to the creek... which I did. It was very warm, but I was in the shade.
So a few more from my ramble with the 180. I needed to take it out after our recent conversation with Doug about longer lenses. What a sweet lens it is...
[/url[url=https://flic.kr/p/2j5YMMU]180.WatershedFern.01 by Curtis Grindahl, on Flickr
This limb is directly about the creek... spot metering does some wonderful things...
I have done the walk in the woods and know how the smells and background sounds are very relaxing
but the wide open space of the ocean has won me over as I have gotten older
I guess just being separated from everyday life is what makes the difference
I think you're right Reagan that we miss our everyday life, whatever that has involved. I don't mention it here, though I may have said something to you and Ray when we met years ago, but I have a skin condition called vitiligo. For some bizarre reason the melanin in my skin has over time lost its capacity to protect me from the sun.
It began when I was in my late teens and gradually extended from the back on my hands and around my eyes to most of my body. They characterize that as "universal" vitiligo. It is for this reason that I always wear a hat, usually wide brimmed when the sun is high. I also wear long sleeve shirts even in hot weather and typically forego wearing shorts or sandals without socks. Needless to say, beaches are my least appealing places. And when I hike I do my best to walk trails with trees. I'll put sunblock on the back of my hands and occasionally on my neck, though I often wear a kerchief to protect my neck. So beaches work for you and tree shaded trails work for me... and I miss them.
I take medication that I am supposed to avoid the sun also
but I would rather have the sun beating on me than take the medication
I do both only time will tell
alcohol has slowing come back into my life but in small amounts
As JB would say
"I'd rather die while I'm living than live when I'm dead"
As you likely remember I've a volunteer with a non-profit called The Living/Dying Project for the last twenty plus years. We use a line similar to yours... saying that even if you have a diagnosis that suggests you don't have a long time to live, that doesn't preclude you from living as fully as possible... whatever that means. A dear woman friend with whom I worked for four years had ALS. Two and a half years into her journey with me she was in a wheelchair the entire day. She decided she wanted to take her 11 year old son to Europe. The logistics to make that happen were daunting but she did it. I wrote about that story in this newsletter... Life is Always Worth Living.
So yes, we are often challenged in life and on occasion we make choices that carry with them a price. I know when I eat Indian food that my body will likely respond with a rash... and I eat it anyway. We get to do those things... makes life more interesting.
Closed the lid on work at a reasonable time and headed out for a walk in the neighbourhood with my good wife.
One of two churches that are within a few minutes walk of our abode.
Typical use of flint in the construction due to its abundance in the local soil.
Very attractive in colour but due to the low humidity, a few whispy clouds I opted for the D7100 IR plus 24/2.8 NC
The 242/8 on a DX camera isn't wide enough so I had to stitch a few together in a pano.
Messed up the edges a bit so didn't quite get the image I imagined.
