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Monthly Archives: December 2020

Merry? Christmas 2020

Christmas-Bench

Well, here we are at Christmas, 2020. Like everything else in this godforsaken year, it trends toward joyless. My wife and I are spending it alone as our children are essentially trapped in the Pacific Northwest by current circumstances. We will have a small dinner at the family homestead, but attendance is limited. Those of us who work in healthcare, (and have not, like me, recovered from Covid) have chosen not to attend given my father’s advanced age. All agree that this is prudent.

We had hoped for a white Christmas given the roughly 13 inches of snow that fell last week. My little Victorian hamlet looked like the background of a Norman Rockwell Christmas painting. But it’s 2020. Yesterday temperatures warmed into the 50s, and we had roughly 3 inches of rain. The high winds that accompanied this trough were sufficient to knock down a strategically placed tree, wiping out power for our little village about 8 PM. Power did eventually return overnight. I awakened this morning to green lawns, and with temperatures plummeting, freezing rain. Down in the Susquehanna River Valley, given the rain and the snowmelt, they’re making preparations for the river to crest above flood stage in a day or so.

Merry Christmas.

Still, I don’t want my seasonal affective disorder to completely overwhelm this Christmas posting. My family has much for which to be grateful. Despite several of us working in healthcare, my case of Covid 19 made me the only one affected. Despite misery of the lockdowns, we remain gainfully employed which cannot be said for many of our friends. My father, at 94 years old, still fully functional. I love having a beer with him at the end of the day.

For my Christmas gift to you, I offer a pleasant discovery I made this year. From Branson Missouri, I give you The Petersons, a wonderful bluegrass band that I found in my YouTube lineup. They are a very traditional family with a wonderful back story well worth reading. They are also, as a clan I think, an almost freakishly musical.

And here in the east… try to ignore the weather.

So Merry Christmas to one and all. Indulge yourself in the joy of friends and family. Stay safe. Eat a little, drink a little more.

As always, I would be honored to share this post.

Header Image: Christmas Bench (Fujifilm XE3, XF 18-55 f2.8-4)

Where are my images?

December Afternoon at Smith Cottage (Samsung Galaxy S8)

We should have waited. After all, it’s less than two weeks until 2021 and the end of this accursed year. But no, we forged ahead. And now many of the images included in the articles on this photography site have, for now, gone missing.

The good news is that I had stored the jpg files used on this site within dated folders, so they can be retrieved and placed back in the media file. Then, article by article I have to reset them in their former location. This is very tedious and I am working backward. I’m not sure how far I’ll go as there are hundreds of articles, and likely thousands of images, but I’ll plug along until I grow weary of the process. The articles themselves still exist and hopefully continue to provide a repository of information.

Just know, we’re working on it.

Henrysmithscottage: New and Improved

Time marches on. Given my temperament, I am generally content with the (functional) status quo. This certainly applied to my website, which to me seemed adequately engaging, and has been gaining in readership over the last year or two, based both on photography articles and now, of course, my ramblings on the coronavirus pandemic.

My younger brother Matt, however, is my webmaster, and a very talented one at that. He runs Mainline WebWorks out of Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. To him, my cozy and comfortable little website was dated and as his name is on it, he offered to bring it up to speed. Our priorities in this became improving the usability, upgrading the backend of the site which improves my options for formatting, such as allowing the images to occupy a bigger part of the screen.

I think you’ll see that he’s accomplished this. I have to now more careful with my image conversions as the larger sizes can definitely show things like clumsy camera handling and low light sensor noise. Still and all I’m extremely pleased. We’ve also improved viewers’ ability to subscribe to the site directly, or through Facebook. We are still tweaking some details such as fonts, and line spacing.

There is by the way, another Covid article in the works.

We hope you like the new design. We would welcome your comments.

Header image: December Evening Walk( Fujifilm XE3, XF 18-55mm f2.8-4).

As always, I would be honored if you would share this post.

Eight months with the Fujifilm X100V

Daffodil in Snow
Daffodil in Snow (Fujifilm X100V)

Once upon a time, this used to be a photography site. The site’s camera-related content, particularly related to Fujifilm gear, continues to be the most viewed content over time. Since March, however, I have been distracted by this trivial little virus problem which the articles on the site reflect.  I have now recovered from my own bout of COVID 19. It’s a good time to return to the site’s origins…

 In this case, to discuss my eight-month experience with the Fujifilm X100 V.

Spring Evening at Lake Francis (Fujifilm X100V)

As I wrote at the time, I acquired the camera in March, too late for the last dwindling period of normalcy before the restrictions ruined St. Patrick’s Day, as well as other public and private events I love to cover. Spring blended into a summer, similarly shorn of celebrations. Given this, I have tended to use the camera mainly for landscape photography. Thankfully, this is a discipline where its new features are particularly useful.

Side Fall At bear Creek
Side Fall at Bear Creek (Fujifilm X100V, TCL X100 II)

First and foremost is the new lens. My somewhat crude studio testing against the previous “F” model back in March did suggest that close up and wide open the lens is markedly superior to its predecessor. I captured a lot of close-up, open aperture images mindful that I might need examples for such an article. I love the sharpness and bokeh of the optics though I was hardly offended by the previous version.

Spring in the Nescopeck Plain
Spring in the Nescopeck Plain (Fujifilm X 100V TCL X100 II)

The “V” model addition of weather sealing too is obviously useful in outdoor photography. Though I never worried too much about moisture affecting the previous versions, on a rainy day I would reach for my X Pro 2 with one of the weather-sealed primes. Now either with a UV filter or a lens converter (I use the TCL X100 all the time), I no longer have to worry for instance, about the spray from a waterfall when the camera is mounted to a tripod.

In the Sun (Fujifilm X100V, TLC X100 II)

Speaking of tripods, the flip-out screen has turned out to be very useful. I do have to occasionally remind myself that it’s available given the clean look of the camera, but for low-level tripod work, it is proven to be invaluable. I know that I will enjoy it when I go back to shooting on “the street” but for now is still very helpful.

Mid August Stream
Mid August Stream ( Fujifilm X100V)

I honestly have little negative to report in my months of usage. There is this odd effect I noticed when the cameras turned on and I take off the lens cap. In the viewfinder, the view is entirely washed out and takes time apparently for the camera metering to throttle back on the sensitivity/aperture. This happens consistently with this camera, but I have not noted on earlier Fujifilm products. I’m not sure what it means but it’s a minimal problem once the sensor adapts.

Late Fall Water Colors (Fujifilm X100V)

Another useful feature has been the Bluetooth connection between the camera and my phone. This is much less fussy in my use than the Wi-Fi connection, and give you a quick way to remotely release the camera and avoid camera shake. It appears to use very little battery life.

It’s a measure of my enjoyment of the camera that I have used it almost exclusively throughout the year. I store my raw images on two external hard drives using the function in Adobe Bridge to clear my memory cards. They are stored in the main folder for the year, and then subfolders for each camera and date span. I was actually downloading some files from another camera when I noted that almost all of the subfolders for the year are those from the X 100 V. There are none for the X Pro 2. Perhaps it’s time for a sale?

Last Bit of Autumn ( Fujifilm X100V)

In summary, the X 100 V has proven to be an excellent update of this wonderful camera line, one which I continue to use with great enthusiasm and I think with excellent results. Having a hard time imagining what the next version might bring to the table. I suspect image stabilization could be on the menu as Fujifilm seems to be packaging this feature into smaller and smaller bodies.

That would be wonderful… but I’m in no hurry

As always , I’d be honored if you would share this post.