Community Park North sits inside the much larger Billie Johnson Mountain Lakes Nature Preserve. The park is just a ten-minute car ride from my home. I had the day off on Monday to celebrate Indigenous People’s Day. I had planned to ride my Lectric XPremium to the park via Mount Lucas Road, but I had a problem with the speed sensor. By the time I had resolved the issue, it was much later in the day, and I had lost my enthusiasm for making the trip.
When she came home from work, Bhavna heard the disappointment in my voice. She encouraged me to make the drive and walk with her. I was happy that she did. We
Monday 10 October 2022 · FujiFilm X-T3 · XF27mmF2.8 R WR
I took my Fuji X-T3, XF27mmF2.8, Urth ND64 neutral density filter, and the too-heavy Manfrotto tripod. I also loaded a 24-exposure roll of Kodak Vision3 50D 35mm film into my Minolta XD-11 with the MD Rokkor-X 50mm f/1.7 lens. You won’t see the Kodak Vision3 50D images for at least a month. I’m not even sure I’ll get good results. The low ISO and low light between the tree meant I was shooting from the tripod.
We made our way through Community Park North, loosely following one of the trail paths toward Palmer Lake, a manufactured lake within the nature preserve. The tripod and the neutral density filter were handy for making long-exposure photographs on the lake.
Monday 10 October 2022 · FujiFilm X-T3 · XF27mmF2.8 R WRMonday 10 October 2022 · FujiFilm X-T3 · XF27mmF2.8 R WR
We continued to follow the trail through the trees, around the lake to the area below the Mountain Lakes House.
Monday 10 October 2022 · FujiFilm X-T3 · XF27mmF2.8 R WR
I explained to Bhavna that until we started the walk, I had felt that I had wasted my day. I was also upset that my attempts to leave my current gig, which is slowly burning me out, to find a new remote work opportunity were not fruitful. There are a lot of job opportunities available, but most are onsite in Manhattan, Jersey City or Philadelphia. I don’t want to waste precious good weather days sitting on a train to get to an office with no windows and nothing except noise.
Monday 10 October 2022 · FujiFilm X-T3 · XF27mmF2.8 R WR
Should I try to make an exceptional photograph of a commonplace scene or an ordinary picture of a memorable scene? What is normal and commonplace? Normal for me or normal for others?
UPDATE: My Fujinon MCEX-16 arrived on Saturday morning, but I didn’t open the package until later. I used the lens today, but it was too late to process and include photographs for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge.
This past week's Lens-Artists Photo Challenge was indeed a challenge. I. J. Khanewala1 has asked us to lift "...the commonplace into the most extraordinary thing that you have seen". But what does it mean?
adjective
with no special or distinctive features; normal.
noun
what is commonplace or standard.
Should I make an exceptional photograph of a commonplace scene or an ordinary picture of a memorable scene? What is normal and commonplace? Normal for me or normal for others? Does it matter?
At first, I thought about I.J. Khanewala's onion photograph and her approach. I might play with light and shadow from the early morning sunlight coming through the kitchen window. I'm a weekend photographer, and it's October in New Jersey. The light comes up later and goes down sooner, leaving very little time for playing with sunlight in the morning. The skies have been cloudy all week; flat light. But I tried. I'm not too fond of the result. I looked around my home and realised I didn't want to photograph any of it.
As a primarily outdoor photographer, my real challenge is seeing beyond the "every day feels the same" struggle of self-enforced "mental survival" routines I created during the pandemic lockdown. Netflix, Apple TV+, HBO, Hulu, and Disney+ became my escape from the constant reminder that I could not do the things I wanted to do. But, these routines continue despite the "opening". Monday to Friday, I usually don't leave the house Monday to Friday, and some weekends, I don't leave the couch.
It's October in New Jersey, and some leaves on the trees have begun to turn yellow, but not enough of them. I finally gave up on the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge and went for an early morning walk in the Billie Johnson Mountain Lakes Nature Preserve in Princeton. The preserve is about ten minutes (6.3 km) from home.
I've hiked the Billie Johnson Mountain Lakes Nature Preserve many times over the last several years. It's a quiet place to sit, think, and get some low-effort exercise. The loop around the lake often has stunning fall foliage. I've photographed spectacular displays in early October, mid-October, and late October. But not today. It's too early in New Jersey. The fall foliage forecast in Central New Jersey has defied prediction. Perhaps next weekend?
I focused on photographing what was commonplace at this time.
Saturday 16 October, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T3 | XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ 16 mm | 1⁄40 sec at f/16 | ISO 160Saturday 16 October, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T3 | XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ 55 mm | 1⁄125 sec at f/4.0 | ISO 320Saturday 16 October, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T3 | XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ 55 mm | 1⁄125 sec at f/9.0 | ISO 1000Community Park North | Saturday 16 October, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T3 | XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ 55 mm | 1⁄340 sec at f/2.8 | ISO 160Community Park North | Saturday 16 October, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T3 | XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ 47 mm | 1⁄480 sec at f/2.8 | ISO 160Community Park North | Saturday 16 October, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T3 | XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ 55 mm | 1⁄950 sec at f/2.8 | ISO 160Community Park North | Saturday 16 October, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T3 | XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ 55 mm | 1⁄640 sec at f/2.8 | ISO 160Community Park North | Saturday 16 October, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T3 | XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ 55 mm | 1⁄850 sec at f/2.8 | ISO 160Community Park North | Saturday 16 October, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T3 | 50 mm | 1⁄220 sec at f/1.0 | ISO 160
Bhavana asked what photography challenge I was working on. I explained what I thought the challenge was about and why I struggled with it. I stopped to photograph some flowers, wishing I had a macro lens. The XF60mmF has been on my "wish list" since I both my Fuji (2018). But it's an expensive lens, and I have not convinced myself I would use it enough to justify the expense.
Saturday 16 October, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T3 | XF27mmF2.8 | 1⁄210 sec at f/8.0 | ISO 160Saturday 16 October, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T3 | XF27mmF2.8 | 1⁄125 sec at f/8.0 | ISO 160Saturday 16 October, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T3 | XF27mmF2.8 | 1⁄640 sec at f/4.0 | ISO 160Saturday 16 October, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T3 | XF27mmF2.8 | 1⁄950 sec at f/4.0 | ISO 160Saturday 16 October, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T3 | XF27mmF2.8 | 1⁄320 sec at f/4.0 | ISO 160Saturday 16 October, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T3 | XF27mmF2.8 | 1⁄125 sec at f/8.0 | ISO 200
I recently re-discovered Fuji X Weekly's Nostalgic Negative Film Simulation. Ritchie Roesch created this recipe to mimic the Nostalgic Negative Film Simulation, which can only be found on the high-end and expensive Fujifilm GFX100S medium format digital camera.
Ritchie wrote:
Fujifilm stated that the Nostalgic Negative film simulation is based on "American New Color" photography of the 1970s. They studied photographs by William Eggleston, Stephen Shore, Joel Sternfeld and Richard Misrach in order to create them. Eggleston and Sternfeld largely shot on Kodachrome—II and X in the early 1970s, 25 and 64 in the late' 70's—while Shore shot mostly Kodacolor, and Misrach shot a lot of Vericolor. All of those are Kodak 35mm films but with different aesthetics.
The Nostalgic Negative Film Simulation recipe may not be an accurate facsimile of the true Nostalgic Negative, but I am an instant fan. All of the images in this blog post are straight-out-of-the-camera (SOOC) JEPGs captured using Ritchie's Nostalgic Negative Film Simulation with some cropping to suit my needs.
Who is I.J. Khanewala? I don't know. Unlike Patti and Leya, some guest bloggers don't post their first names. ↩
Wednesday was just one of those days. Nothing seemed to be going right. The heavy rains the night before had flooded most of the smaller bridges and country roads around my town and nearby towns. The rush hour traffic to work in the morning was pretty bad. My phone was buzzing with text updates from the county about road and bridge closures.
I hopped in my car around 7:30 AM, launched Waze and punched in the address for my client's location. With its near-real-time social updates, I hoped that Waze would provide the best route to the office. My hopes were dashed when I got to Princeton Avenue. Bumper to bumper traffic heading out toward Route 206.
I bypassed Princeton Avenue via Montgomery Walk and headed up Mount Lucas Road to Route 206 South. Waze routed me to Mercer Street, and I headed Princeton Pike. I usually take Quaker Road to Route 1 from Princeton Pike, but I knew that Quaker Road would be closed because of the rains. What I didn't expect was that Princeton Pike at Quaker Road would be closed as well. I updated Waze and took the Quaker Road west back toward Route 206. Route 206 North also had heavy traffic, so I headed south.
Waze directed me down another street toward Princeton Pike. Nope! Princeton Pike at that location was closed to southbound traffic. So I turned around and headed back to Route 206 South.
Waze sent me toward Province Line Road, which had started backing up. Three light changes later, I was headed back down Princeton Pike toward Princeton Avenue. I arrived at Spruce street around 8:45 AM. My 16-mile commute had taken me over an hour to complete. But this was only the start of my frustrating day.
Thursday 1 May, 2014 | Nikon D5100 | 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 26 mm | 1⁄60 sec at f/11 | ISO 100
After commiserating with my office mates, I took a look at my calendar. I had a meeting scheduled for 9:00 AM at the other office. What!? So I decided to reschedule that meeting for Friday. I started to unpack my computer bag and realized I had left my glucose meter at home. The meter is the brain of my insulin pump. While I can manually give myself a bolus of insulin, the calculations for getting the dosage correct are complicated.
So, at 11:30 AM, I drove home to get the meter. It took me about 30 minutes to get from the office to my door. I rushed in, grab the meter, tested my blood glucose, entered the carbs for my lunch, and bolused. Then I hopped back into my car and started driving back to the office while eating my sandwich. I was frustrated and stressed. As I drove down Route 206, I noticed the pink buds on the trees along the road near Community Park North. To hell with it. I need a break. Work can wait.
Community Park North lies between Mountain Ave and Route 206 and across Route 206 from Community Park Swimming Pool and Community Park South. The park's western boundary abuts Mountain Lakes Nature Preserve. I pulled into the park, grabbed my camera and went for a walk. It was noon, and the sun was overhead. I know it's not the best time of the day for photography. But I didn't care. I needed this. I inhaled deeply and walked around, looking for whatever caught my eye. The Greenery. The pink. The sky.
There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer. ~ Ansel Adams
My shoes were a little muddy from walking in the sopping wet grass to get that first shot. I didn't care. Thirty minutes later, I got back into my car and drove back to the office.
Thursday 1 May, 2014 | Nikon D5100 | 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18 mm | 1⁄100 sec at f/11 | ISO 100
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