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The High Line and Hudson Yards Vessel

Tuesday

Here it is just the second day of the workweek, and I am already thinking about Friday. When I first started working in information security, I got out of bed excited and ready to work. I used to describe myself as one of the defenders of the realm, building walls and moats and shields, to keep the attackers from defeating the castle and pillage the people. I card. What is it about work in the present that I no longer enjoy?

cat in basket — Tuesday 8 June, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T2 | 16-55 mm f/2.8 @ 55 mm | ¹⁄₁₀₅ sec at f/5.6 | ISO 400

Did you know cats start self-grooming by the time they're a few weeks old? Self-grooming rids the fur of dirt and parasites and stimulates their sebaceous glands to release sebum, a type of cat disinfectant shampoo.

I agree with Bruce Schneier, our military systems are vulnerable.

Any 21st century war will include cyber operations. Weapons and support systems will be successfully attacked. Rifles and pistols won't work properly. Drones will be hijacked midair. Boats won't sail, or will be misdirected. Hospitals won't function. Equipment and supplies will arrive late or not at all.

This week's update to Adobe Lightroom Classic included performance enhancements and an interesting "Super Resolution" feature.

Screen shot of Welcome to Lightroom Classic — Welcome to Lightroom Classic

The new Super Resolution feature uses artificial intelligence to increase the size of the image to four times its original size in pixels. (It doubles the length and the width.) This can be useful for making large prints or for upsizing a small crop of an image. Super Resolution will work on any file type (raw, JPEG, TIFF, etc.). However, Raw Details must be run with Super Resolution if the image is a camera-proprietary raw file (not a DNG, JPEG, TIFF, etc.) like RAF.

Screenshot of Lightroom Classic Enhance Preview — Lightroom Classic Enhance Preview

I tried it on one of my Fuji X-T2 RAF images to get an idea of how it worked. "Enhance" replaced the 30MB Fujifilm RAF with a 339MB Adobe DNG file! I suggest using this feature only when ready to make prints. I recommend performing the procedure on a virtual copy of the original RAW file.

There are seven new premium preset sets available in Lightroom Classic and the entire Lightroom ecosystem. Adobe hired photo editing and preset-creation experts to create them. The first three, Portraits, are categorised by skin type – Deep¹, Medium, and Light. The other four, Style, include Cinematic, Futuristic, Vintage, and Travel preset sets.

Adobe Lightroom will now store preset files on your hard drive in a flat-file structure rather than subfolders corresponding to preset groups. This change did not affect the configuration of previously stored presets.

On macOS, this location is in the users home directory: ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/Settings

There are many new and improved privacy and security features in future releases of macOS, iOS, and iPad OS. My favourites so far?

Users have long worried about Siri recordings being uploaded to Apple, and listened to by teams trying to improve the Siri experience. In the future, Siri requests will be processed on your devices, so you won't have to worry about unwanted recordings being stored by Apple. This also means that you can make Siri requests without internet access.

It's spooky how sometimes the Alex agent in my eero thermostat randomly starts responding presumably to something overhead in household conversation or on the TV.

Thursday

The High Line | Saturday 6 October, 2012 | Nikon D40 | 35 mm f/1.8 | ¹⁄₂₀₀ sec at f/8.0 | ISO 1600

I'm excited about the weekend. Last Spring, I registered for a few workshops and courses with the Princeton Photo Workshop company. The owners, Alan Kesselhaut and Barbara Cuneo, are lovely people. Over the last decade, I have attended dozens of their workshops and course. Unfortunately, the planned workshops in New York City and Philadelphia were postponed during the pandemic under "shelter-in-place" executive orders from New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania governors. But now that New Jersey has reached its goal of 70% of residents being immunised, the workshops and field trips are back on the calendar. I will join a small group of photographers in Manhattan to photograph the area in an around The High Line and Hudson Yards Vessel. My first visit to the The High Line was over nine years ago, but this will be my first visit to Hudson Yards and The Hudson Yard Vessel.

macOS screenshot of console app — Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS and Apache/2.4.48

I wanted to enable TLS 1.3 on my webserver, which became available starting with Apache 2.4.37 which was available at Digital Ocean starting with Ubuntu 20 TLS. Although I know how to compile Apache from source code, I took the safer, faster and easier route.

Tonight I upgraded my Digital Ocean VPC to Ubuntu 20 LTS from Ubuntu 18 LTS. Just in case things went sideways, I turned it off and then made a snapshot of my VPC before following the tutorial. The entire process, including creating the image, took about sixty minutes. Everything appears to be working, but I will keep the snapshot for a few more days, just in case.

Friday

I upgraded my Ubuntu Linux server and Apache web server last night to enable TLS v1.3, but for some reason, the server was still only using TLS v1.2. I knew I had my SSL.conf file configured correctly.

After many hours on Google, I realised that Let's Encrypt includes its own Apache configuration file, options-ssl-apache. conf, where SSL Prototocls are defined. The Let's Encrypt configuration file was overriding the SSLProtocol and SSLCipherSuite settings in my main ssl.conf.

I copied the settings from ssl. conf to the options-ssl-apache. conf and restarted the server. My web server now uses TLS 1.3.

Saturday

Jim Grey recently posted about his experiences returning to working from a corporate office post-vaccination.

I worked in the office on Tuesday. The company opened its office on Monday, allowing anyone vaccinated to work unmasked. I had to provide a scan of my vaccination card. I understand how some people might find this too invasive, but in this instance, I didn’t mind sending in my scan.
...
Sure enough, working in the office on Tuesday left me spent. It had been a long time since I’d dealt with rush-hour traffic, and that finished a whole energy card by itself. It didn’t use to, probably by sheer daily repetition. But after a 15-month hiatus, I had lost my chops.
...
Of course, I did all the things you do when you work for the first time in a new office: set up my desk, figure out how to work the coffee machine, and find the restrooms. But I also took all my meetings over Zoom just as I did the day before working at home, as nobody I met with was in the office that day. So I had Zoom fatigue on top of everything-is-new fatigue.

Bhavna and I had only been indoors with the public for the first time last week. One brewery was entirely indoors, but we kept our distance from people. The other was a farmhouse brewery where both sides of the farmhouse were open, allowing a good breeze to blow through. Again, we kept our distance from people. We won't dine indoors in public for a while. Baby steps.

My employer (I consult) has not yet requested a return to the office. I'm unsure what's planned for our team. Our associate director is in Boston. One team member is in Brooklyn (New York), one in Atlanta, one in Dallas, one in Virginia, and I'm in New Jersey. We host all our meetings over Microsoft Teams. There is no good reason to be at a company location only to host all our meetings over Microsoft Teams.

Before the pandemic, I consulted for a UK-based bank with IT teams across London, Hong Kong, New York City, and New Jersey offices. We hosted all our meetings over WebEx, which I attended from my desk (each workspace had a VDI and phone with a headset). The two-hour commute to Manhattan each day just felt stupid. Our boss agreed and allowed us to work remotely two days a week. Commuting those three remaining days still felt stupid.

I think the whole "back to the office" thing is dumb. I can work remotely for the rest of my life. Before the pandemic, when I worked remotely (two days a week), I would meet friends and family for lunch or dinner or a pint at the bar. Besides losing out on lunch with friends and family, switching from two days a week to full-time remote during the pandemic was the easiest thing to do. I don't need to be with my co-workers to have friends. I want to continue working remotely, but now I can have lunch/dinner/beer with vaccinated friends.

A bill is being debated in the state senate that would ban the use of vaccine passports and bar any public or private entity — schools, businesses, beaches, doctors — from asking about or for someone's vaccination status Politics aside, I think it's too invasive and unenforceable and discriminatory. What if I lose the vaccination card? A person can't use vaccine passports apps such as New York's "Excelsior Pass" if they don't have a (compatible) smartphone.

No employer has ever asked me to prove vaccination from the flu or any other infectious diseases. In the past, they allowed sick people to come to the office during flu season. My wife's cousin was fully vaccinated months ago. He travelled to Florida. When he returned, he decided to get tested for COVID and of course, he tested positive. He was asymptomatic. But of course, his vaccine passport still allows him into the office. So the situation with COVID is no different than with the flu.

I'm taking the train from Princeton Junction (NJ) to Manhattan tonight for a photo field trip around The High Line and the Vessel at Hudson Yards. I have to wear a face mask but will not be required to show proof of COVID vaccination. When those 6 million daily commuters start using the overcrowded New York and New Jersey train system this July, none of them will.

The "proof of vaccination" request is "security theatre."

Rollei RPX 100 and Svema Foto 200

This afternoon I got a notification from The Darkroom that my rolls of Rollei RPX 100 and Svema Foto 200 35mm film had been processed and scanned.

Alphonso Mango | January 2021 | Minolta XD-11 | MD ROKKOR-X 45mm F2 | Rollei RPX 100

The 36 exposure roll of Rollei RPX 100 was exposed between January 2021 and February 2021. The subject matter is uninteresting. This was my first time shooting a roll of Rollei RPX 100. The images shown above and below are among the best frames from the roll and my two favourites. The remaining frames were either badly exposed or the subject matter was uninteresting.

man facing camera through a window — "RV" | January 2021 | Minolta XD-11 | MD ROKKOR-X 45mm F2 | Rollei RPX 100

The Rollei RPX 100 Rollei RPX 100 scans do not appear to have a lot of contrast, but I love how the whites are rendered.

kitchen — March 2021 | Minolta XD-11 | MD ROKKOR-X 45mm F2 | Svema Foto 200

The 24 exposure roll of Svema Foto 200 was exposed between March and April 2021. Unfortunately, I forgot the roll was still in the camera. A few weeks ago, when I opened the back of my Minolta XD-11 to load a roll of Vision 250D, I exposed the roll. Ugh! There were far fewer keepers than with the registration of Rollei RPX 100.

Fujifilm X-T2 — MD Rokkor-X 45mm F2 adapted to Fuji X-T2 | March 2021 | Minolta XD-11 | MD ROKKOR-X 45mm F2 | Svema Foto 200

The Svema Foto 200 appears to have more contrast than the Rollei RPX 100.

The High Line

This afternoon I travelled into New York City for a photograph field trip with instructor Josh Weiss at The High Line and Hudson Yards Vessel. What I like about the instructors of the Princeton Photograph Workshop is how excited they are about helping students. Josh met the group near The High Line on the sidewalk outside the Mercado Little Spain restaurant. This is my fourth visit to the High Line. My first visit was in 2012.

Josh Weiss · Saturday12 June 2021 · FujiFilm X-T2 at ¹⁄₈₀ sec,ISO 1600 · XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR at 16 mm at f/5.6

We started on 30th Street between 10th and 11th Avenue. Josh provided passes to the High Line, gave the group assignments and told us where and when to meet. The High Line was more crowded than I expected. Face masks were required to enter the High Line, but some people I saw walked without masks. We walked from 30th Street to 16th Street before turning around and walking back toward 30th Street, continuing onto Hudson Boulevard to the Vessel.

Mercado Little Spain, New York, New York — Mercado Little Spain · Saturday12 June 2021 · FujiFilm X-T2 at ¹⁄₈₀ sec,ISO 800 · XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR at 33.2 mm at f/5.6

For this field trip, I chose to use Jamie Chance's Urban Chrome film simulation recipe, which is based on Fujifilm's Classic Chrome JPEG film simulation. Jamie uses this film simulation recipe for most of his travel photography. Film Simulations are part of what makes X Series cameras unique. Film Simulations can mimic well-known analogue films' colours, tones and contrasts. I can access them through my Fujifilm X-T2's primary menu system. I can see the effect of the currently selected Film Simulation in real-time through the camera’s viewfinder or rear LCD screen. I loved the look of Urban Chrome which I think mimics the ambience of documentary-style magazine photography from decades past. It has slightly desaturated colours (especially reds and greens) with more shadow contrast, resulting in a subdued vintage look that works well with dramatic lighting, retro-style subjects, and reportage projects.

As usual, I corrected my horizontal "tilt" in Adobe Lightroom and cropped the images as needed.

Saturday12 June 2021 · FujiFilm X-T2 at ¹⁄₆₀₀ sec,ISO 400 · XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR at 30.2 mm at f/5.6

two women taking a self portrait aka selfie — Saturday12 June 2021 · FujiFilm X-T2 at ¹⁄₁₇₀ sec,ISO 400 · XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR at 23.4 mm at f/5.6

middle aged black couple sitting on park bench on the High Line, New York, New York — Saturday12 June 2021 · FujiFilm X-T2 at ¹⁄₂₅₀ sec,ISO 400 · XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR at 55 mm at f/5.6

white couple sitting on bench on The High Line, New York, New York — Saturday12 June 2021 · FujiFilm X-T2 at ¹⁄₁₄₀ sec,ISO 400 · XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR at 33.2 mm at f/5.6

woman sitting on floor of The High Line using smartphone — Saturday12 June 2021 · FujiFilm X-T2 at ¹⁄₂₀₀ sec,ISO 400 · XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR at 55 mm at f/4.0

Saturday12 June 2021 · FujiFilm X-T2 at ¹⁄₈₀ sec,ISO 800 · XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR at 35.3 mm at f/5.6

mural near The High Line, New York City — Fathallah Saad · Saturday12 June 2021 · FujiFilm X-T2 at ¹⁄₁₈₀ sec,ISO 400 · XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR at 53.3 mm at f/5.6

woman sitting, using smartphone, high line, new york city — Saturday12 June 2021 · FujiFilm X-T2 at ¹⁄₈₀ sec,ISO 1600 · XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR at 55 mm at f/5.6

The Vessel at Hudson Yards

This was my first visit to the Vessel, and I was overwhelmed. Josh had arranged ticket entry, and we were allowed in a group. We set a time and a location to meet and then split up to pursue whatever object we desired.

There was a lot of climbing, and as the sunset, we all seemed to find a spot to practice shooting silhouettes. Then we went back down to the Backyard at Hudson Yards, where we photographed some food trucks while treating ourselves to soft-serve ice cream. It was an exhausting but fun field trip.

Saturday 12 June, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T2 | XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ 16 mm | ¹⁄₈₀ sec at f/5.6 | ISO 500

Saturday 12 June, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T2 | XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ 16 mm | ¹⁄₄₀₀ sec at f/5.6 | ISO 400

Saturday 12 June, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T2 | XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ 55 mm | ¹⁄₈₀ sec at f/8.0 | ISO 1600

Saturday 12 June, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T2 | XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ 38.8 mm | ¹⁄₈₀ sec at f/8.0 | ISO 500

Saturday 12 June, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T2 | XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ 20.6 mm | ¹⁄₁₇₀ sec at f/5.6 | ISO 400

Saturday 12 June, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T2 | XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ 16 mm | ¹⁄₁₇₀ sec at f/16 | ISO 400

Saturday 12 June, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T2 | XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ 55 mm | ¹⁄₄₀₀ sec at f/5.6 | ISO 400

This week's Lens-Artists Challenge #152 challenge is Shades and Shadows. Fortunately, today's field trip gave me ample opportunity to find the right subjects.

I have never heard a skin type described as Deep. ↩

Delta House

What happened this week.

Tuesday

Travel photographer Jamie Chance has updated his Fujifilm JPEG Settings for 2021.

Whilst the below settings are on my cameras right now, this is by no means my final and complete setup. I love changing and dialling in new recipes depending on my mood. However, I think I might have cracked the perfect seven settings to cover as wide a range as possible.

I’ve used well-crafted film simulation settings from Jamie and Ritchie in the past. What I like about Jamie’s settings is that he offers guidance on when to use them. Summer is almost here, and when I get the updated XF27mmF2.8 R WR lens, I think the Kodachrome II settings will serve me well.

Constant observation is a way of life for some, and the next generation looks set to be worse. We have become so used to look at other peoples lives so much that we expect our own to be under the same scrutiny. ~ Insides vs Outsides

Wednesday

I met a friend and former Squibb colleague for dinner tonight. We haven't seen each other since November 2019, and we both lost a loved one, my Dad in 2019 and her mom, to COVID early in the pandemic. We chatted for a few hours, talking about our concerns over ageing parents, work and kids going off to college. I needed this.

Riccardo makes a point about modern digital camera user interfaces that resonate with me and perhaps many other photographers.

Buttons and dials should be used for all basic functions, everything a photographer needs to quickly adjust in an intuitive way. Setting ISO speeds, changing the white balance, adjusting exposure compensation, focus lock, shooting modes, etc. — all these are functions the user should be able to change without having to look for them in a sprawling menu hierarchy.

This is one of the many reasons I bought my Fuji X-T2 three years ago. The experience of using the controls on my Minolta XD-11 35mm film camera is similar to using the controls on my Fuji X-T2. Buttons and dials allow for “muscle memory” to guide my use of each camera.

Thursday

I am looking outside at a dreary overcast morning and feel some dread that I haven't taken a photograph all this week.

I’ve followed Riccardo's writing for several years. His pieces are typically long and well written. He’s a fan but not a fanatic. It seems I will want to wait until the end of the year (or longer) to replace my 2013 iMac.

In this regard, if you’re a regular user who uses their Mac for everyday tasks, has a minimal backup strategy mainly consisting of Time Machine backups and the occasional manual backup of the most crucial stuff, doesn’t tinker with their machine, and so forth — then the transition from an Intel Mac to an Apple Silicon Mac should be relatively painless.
...
I’m what you would call a power user, but for what I do, I don’t need the latest and more performant machine, so I can play the waiting game without much hassle. Whenever I decide it’s time to upgrade, I always aim for a slightly more powerful Mac than I need because I plan to use such Mac as long as possible as opposed to upgrading frequently.

I think this is sound advice. My late 2013 iMac has served me well over the last 7 years. Unfortunately, it doesn't run the latest macOS, Big Sur, but when Apple releases more power M1X machines later this year, I can maybe ready to order the most powerful machine¹ they have that will serve me for the next 7 years.

Friday

W. Abdullah Brooks, MD writing in the Mac Observer..

Apple-critical pieces in the mainstream press often follow one of two patterns: they either negatively evaluate Apple’s policies or products, supplemented with commentary from Apple’s competitors or critics; or they are thinly veiled advocacy pieces designed to get Apple to take a specific action, focussed almost exclusively on Apple irrespective of other industry involvement. This NYT piece seems to fall into the latter category. Either way, like many of both types of criticisms, it was long on complaint and short on solutions. To be clear, big tech, Apple included, have much upon which they can improve; but critical analysis requires context, which in turn defines both expectations and performance indicators.
...
Whenever anyone opines that companies can simply opt not to compete in a market, specifically China’s, they assert that a global company can ignore the world’s largest market whilst their competitors, many of them Chinese, engage.
...
Survival is the long game, requiring both adaptability and seizing of opportunity when it presents itself. Adaptation necessitates sacrifice, not just of the non-essential, but often-times things that are valued. That sacrifice is the price of survival, not simply for survival’s sake, but to help create opportunity and then seize it to change the power dynamics in favor of one’s core values and the freest expression of one’s policies across the board.

By consistent adherence to those core values and policies, that has become Apple’s stratagem and Apple’s gambit.

In his most recent post, Photography And The Joy Of Numbers, Dan James writes about the wonderments of his early days with 35mm film photography and understanding the numbers on his Praktica BMS Electronic and 50mm lens. He then poses the question.??

Do you remember your first days with an SLR or DSLR? How did you make sense of all those numbers?

The first camera I owned, a Pentax P3, was purchased in 1988 solely to take a film photography course at Drew University (C'91) for art credits. Students were expected to provide their own camera equipment and film, but the course fee included access to the on-campus darkroom. I think that on some level, I had an interest in photography. Still, the initial impulse was to meet the expected requirements to graduate with my Bachelor of Arts degree in Physics.

I naively bought the Pentax P3 because the man at the camera store in Flushing (Queens, New York) said it was the best camera for the price. I was further swayed by the fact that it was a Pentax, part of the Asahi Spotmatic II brand name that Dad owned. Had I known that the P3 was being discontinued that same year, I may have bought something else; a Pentax K1000 or better alternatives. I might have bought those instead. But the Pentax P3 was good enough for learning the photography basics covered in the course.

My initial film of choice was black and white, mostly Kodak Tri-X Pan (the update is now called 400TX) and (then new) T-Max 400, but I also used Kodachrome when I could afford it. The P3 can read the DX coding on the film. I quickly learned that ISO 400 film was often too sensitive for bright scenes requiring a shutter speed beyond the 1/1000 sec limit of the P3. I learned that ISO 200 films were best for sunny days and ISO 400 films were a good fit for those dreary winter days on campus. I didn't know about the sunny 16 technique back then, but I wish I had. It would have resulted in more keepers in the early days.

While I enjoyed the occasional one-person portrait, most of my early subjects were objects in my room, buildings around campus, and friends. Looking at my early work, it seems I was in love with f/5.6 and f/4. I rarely used anything wider, and even to this day, these are the most often used apertures on my Fuji X-T2.

It took me several weeks to understand the relationship between ISO, aperture, and film speed. Still, I eventually learned how to combine the "numbers" to achieve my goals and complete the course assignments.

Saturday

Since about 2012, Bhavna and I have been fans of Flounder Brewing in Hillsborough. In the "old days", the only way to get Flounder beer was to sign up for the mailing list, wait for an email announcement, and then queue up outside the warehouse garage on the right day and time with a clean empty growler and hope that the beer didn't run out before we got to the front of the queue.

In 2016, the Boston Brewing Company, makers of Samuel Adams ales, selected Flounder Brewing as the winner of the 2016 “Brewing and Business Experienceship,” a mentoring opportunity awarded to one craft brewer annually as part of the Samuel Adams Brewing the American Dream program.

Saturday 5 June, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T2 | XF27mmF2.8 | ¹⁄₅₅₀ sec at f/4.0 | ISO 400

Co-founder Jeremy “Flounder” Lees used that opportunity and the growing popularity of craft beer brewing in New Jersey to slowly build out his business, crafting easily accessible ales for Somerset County residents. Flounder Brewing was the first extant nano craft brewery in Somerset County. For years, Flounder Brewing served porters, stouts, IPAs, hefeweizens, and farmhouse ales out of a garage in an industrial park at 1 Ilene Court in Hillsborough.

When they expanded production to more regularly releases and added a few bar height tables, we were excited. So while our kids took Tae Kwon Do classes at the nearby Kickside Martial Arts Academy, Bhavna and I would pop into Jersey Mikes for a sub sandwich and then drive over to Flounder Brewing for a pint of the flagship ale Hill Street Honey Blonder or treat ourselves to Double Dry Hopped Genevieve. Over the years, we have come to know the taproom staff (William (Billy) Jordan, Bill "Woody" Woodrugg, Caitlin, the brewmaster Doug Duschl) and founder Jeremy. Today we saw the manifestation of a vision Jeremy had nearly nine years when Flounder Brewing started selling beer to the public.

Saturday 5 June, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T2 | XF27mmF2.8 | ¹⁄₈₀ sec at f/5.6 | ISO 3200

The soft opening of the new brewery was just for the Delta House Membership, a limited set of customers who have paid a membership fee for access to special events and promotions. On our first visit as a Delta House Member, we received a membership card, limited edition Delta House glassware and a limited edition 32oz Delta House growler. The glass was to take home (not to be used at the brewery), and the 32oz growler was for special fills at later dates. Flounder Brewing will not be fulfilling any to-go orders for the first month or so of operations as they manage their inventory while bringing the larger 15 barrel brewhouse online.

Saturday 5 June, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T2 | XF27mmF2.8 | ¹⁄₄₂₀ sec at f/5.6 | ISO 400

Saturday 5 June, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T2 | XF27mmF2.8 | ¹⁄₅₅₀ sec at f/5.6 | ISO 400

The new location is constructed from floor and beams from the original Dutch barn at Carriage Farm, a 250-year-old working farm on Clerico Lane. This helps anchors the brewery with character, historical and agriculture elements. In addition, flounder recycles the used hops and grains from brewing and gives them to Dutch Hollow Farms in Bridgewater for animal food. The brewery also collects and reuses rainwater. Large garage doors on either side of the barn lead outside the taproom to a beer garden with picnic tables.

Saturday 5 June, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T2 | XF27mmF2.8 | ¹⁄₈₀ sec at f/5.6 | ISO 4000

Saturday 5 June, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T2 | XF27mmF2.8 | ¹⁄₃₀ sec at f/5.6 | ISO 6400

Saturday 5 June, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T2 | XF27mmF2.8 | ¹⁄₅₀ sec at f/5.6 | ISO 12800

Saturday 5 June, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T2 | XF27mmF2.8 | ¹⁄₈₀ sec at f/5.6 | ISO 2000

Upstairs we found another large tasting room that I think is perfect for hosting a private party. My 55th birthday is in November.

The tasting room is friendly and open, with plenty of airflow and tables that are spaced out, along with two outdoor patios. This is the first time Flounder has had a dedicated tasting space, the first time they served beer glassware, and the first time they ran a long draw draft system.

Bhavna and I were allowed to each bring two guests. Given that this was the first weekend that Governor Murphy had removed pandemic mask-wearing and other restrictions, most of our invitees declined to decline. But my friend and fellow photographer Ed Velez joined us. We had fun exploring the new farmhouse building, and Ed enjoyed tasting the ales.

Bhavna's hair blowing in the breeze | Saturday 5 June, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T2 | XF27mmF2.8 | ¹⁄₁₀₀ sec at f/5.6 | ISO 400

Strawberry Patch | Saturday 5 June, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T2 | XF27mmF2.8 | ¹⁄₈₀ sec at f/5.6 | ISO 1250

Finishing Touches | Saturday 5 June, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T2 | XF27mmF2.8 | ¹⁄₈₀ sec at f/4.0 | ISO 1000

Saturday 5 June, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T2 | XF27mmF2.8

Sunday

Argh! The Darkroom refunded a portion of my recent 35mm film developing order. I sent them a 35mm film roll each of ADOX Scala 160, Rollei 100, and Svema Foto 200. Darkroom says they can't process B&W white reversal film. The Scala 100 is a B&W film reversal film. I've just wasted 30 minutes trying to find somewhere in the USA to process this roll of the film once it is returned to me. The ADOX.de website recommended dr5 chrome, a Stuart, Iowa based film lab offering custom B&W slide film processing that was created by a photographer and photographic chemist David Wood.

I don't remember why I bought this film if I had no way to develop the film and get scans.

There are various blue objects, from umbrellas to signage, to t-shirts, to glassware, that I hope suitable for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #151: From Large to Small.

My iMac sees: 3.5 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7, 32 GB 1600 MHz DDR3, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M 4 GB ↩

REO Speed Wagon

Monday

Nomad Pizza | Monday 24 May, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T2 | XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ 24.9 mm | ¹⁄₁₄₀ sec at f/11 | ISO 800

Except for two local online newspapers, most of the feeds in my RSS reader are written about cyber-security, photography, and Formula 1 racing. However, what I find interesting is how I sometimes stumble upon posts in photography related blogs that lead me to discover other exciting things to read. Although, usually, that blog would be The Online Photographer this morning's discovery was unexpected.

I read an article in Steven Schwartzman blog that quoted another article by Gary Saul Morson and Morton Schapiro professors at Northwestern University who wrote a thoughtful but short editorial about the value of free speech in a free society.

For the most part, our thinking should remain open to persuasion. Living in echo chambers where our views are only ever reinforced by friends and the media does a disservice to us all. Ideological segregation, like any other kind, promotes the demonization of the excluded.

Gary Saul Morson and Morton Schapiro https://www.persuasion.community/p/beliefs-arent-facts

Gary Saul Morson is the Lawrence B. Dumas Professor of the Arts and Humanities and Slavic languages and literature professor at Northwestern University. Morton Schapiro is president and a professor of economics. Their latest book is Minds Wide Shut: How the New Fundamentalisms Divide Us.

Tuesday

Wild Geranium — Tuesday 25 May, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T2 | XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ 55 mm | ¹⁄₁₂₅ sec at f/4.0 | ISO 3200

I looked at my calendar this morning and felt a pang of anxiety and dread. There is little to no room for thoughtful introspection and critical thinking. It's all go-go-go. I could barely schedule a lunch break, and there's no time in the schedule for an afternoon stretch and mental health break.

Our team was assigned more projects to assess this week, and I was given two more, bringing my total to thirteen. During our one on one, the manager commented that I was perhaps at capacity.

Tuesday 25 May, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T2 | XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ 51.6 mm | ¹⁄₂₈₀ sec at f/4.0 | ISO 3200

Bhavna saw me struggling to finish up my last meeting of the day, which ended around 5:30 PM. I was mentally exhausted. While I ate dinner, she suggested a walk on the trail through Autumn Hill Preserve. One part of the trail starts on Blue Spring Road in Montgomery Township. It runs over into Princeton Township before splitting off and looping around. I was refreshed by being in the woods surrounded by trees, shrubs and ferns and the sweet smell of early summer. One of the things we like about this trail is that the trailhead on Blue Spring Road is within walking distance of our home.

Tuesday 25 May, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T2 | XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ 55 mm | ¹⁄₁₁₀ sec at f/8.0 | ISO 6400

Wednesday

I have been thinking about 1980s film cameras and how they don't record any meta-data about the photograph. Except for GPS coordinates, a modern digital camera will record everything about a picture. For example, my Fuji X-T2 records time, date, aperture, ISO, shutter speed, metering mode, exposure bias, pixel resolution, distance to subject, whether the camera fired a flash, make and model of lens, and of course, make and model of the camera. That information is written directly into the image file meta-data.

When I remove a roll of film from one of my film cameras, the only thing I know for sure is the film information and the make and model of the camera. I have three undeveloped rolls of film on my desk, and I have only a faint idea of which camera I used. Suppose I don't save that information somewhere. In that case, whether it's one roll of or three when the film scans are sent to me by the developer, usually online or via USB flash drive, none of the information about the film is included. All I get is a set of numbered images. As a result, I have had to rely on memory.

Alphie enjoying a nap in his chair | Wednesday 26 May, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T2 | XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ 55 mm | 2.3 sec at f/5.6 | ISO 200

I had used the Film Rolls iOS app to manually record, view and export my shooting data for each film roll and frame. But the developer has not updated the app, and it no longer works. iOS 14.5 was the last version of iOS where the app works. So I looked for a new app, but I have yet to find one that is as easy to use as Film Rolls.

I put a roll of Vision 250D in my Minolta a few weeks ago and starting shooting the roll as I please. With film, I never had an automated way to record meta-information. When I'm using the camera, stopping to record the shooting conditions interrupts my focus (no pun intended) on composition and lighting. I think I will be ok simply knowing which camera and what roll of film was used. I can live without documenting the rest.

I know we work in what can be seen as a very fickle, trend-obsessed medium, and it's vital to stay relevant. However, that doesn't mean that you need to work the way everybody else does. For example, currently, there is an obsession with shooting on film, which would make me run the opposite way.

Authenticity doesn't come from the kit or technique you use but from your mind. So stay true to who you are. Professional photographer John "Rankin" Waddell in Amateur Photographer

Thursday

I have been thinking about quitting my new job. I'm putting in more hours than I want, and the pace is too hectic, and I no time for deep thinking. The manager added two new meetings to the weekly schedule for the security architects. I now have a conference call at 11 AM, one at noon, and one at 1 PM. Lunch? What's that?

I sent him a short email explaining that with my diabetes, skipping lunch is not feasible and may have long term negative health impacts. Staying seated at a desk for long periods during the day may cause tension in muscles, pain in joints and can weaken hip and core muscles, which can, in turn, lead to other problems with muscles and joints. This also leads to increased stress levels from not having a break and from interruptions during eating.

Information security is a stressful profession. We need time to refresh to perform at our best.

Today marks eighteen years since the very first release of WordPress. ~ WordPress 18

I started with WordPress in 2003. Over the years, I tried other platforms such as Radio Userland, Moveable Type, Blogger, and LiveJournal, but I always returned to WordPress.

This is exciting news for Automattic.

This original image was captured on the Western side of Carnegie Lake in Princeton in May 2015. After tweaking in Adobe Lightroom, I pulled the image into Luminar AI and then used the Sky AI to replace the flat washed-out sky.

I love that the tool is smart enough to add the reflection in the water. The reworked image is below.

Friday

Electronic ballot return (EBR)–casting ballots over the internet–is known to be insecure and not securable by any known technology. Nevertheless, many people would like to vote, paperless, on their computers or smartphones–and if it were possible to do so securely and fairly and with equal access, I might want to as well.

Even though it's impossible to make secure, the argument is sometimes advanced that we need EBR to accommodate voters with disabilities. But the Rutgers opinion surveys (quoted above) show that voters with disabilities are less likely than other voters to want this.

You might argue, nonvoters with disabilities need this to become voters. But the Rutgers opinion surveys show that nonvoters with vision impairment are less likely to want EBR than other nonvoters. And nonvoters with other disabilities are about as likely to want EBR as nonvoters without disabilities. So I think these arguments–that voters with disabilities wish to and need EBR—are unsupported by evidence. ~ Accommodating voters with disabilities by Andrew Appel for Freedom to Tinker.

Someday.

After reading the article, the first thing I thought was that "I've never seen this done at any bar or brewery tap room".

Do you see all of those tiny bubbles attached to the inside of your glass? That is not a good thing. Those bubbles are alerting you that there is some foreign substance in the glass. It could be soap, food particles, oils from your fingers, or something more sinister. If you see bubbles, your glass is most likely not clean. Here is the best way we found to clean your beer glass to drink your favourite beer. ~ How to clean a beer glass

Since it seems I won't be doing too much outdoor photography this month, I took a look back at photographs I made in past years. Looking back through the years, I see a pattern. I captured most of my favourite pictures during May and November during personal or group photo walks, and I was very much into landscape photography.

Ken Lockwood Gorge | Monday 25 May, 2015 | Nikon D5100 | 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18 mm | 15.0 sec at f/14 | ISO 100

I captured the image above during a 2015 family picnic on the large boulders that line this four-kilometre stretch of the Raritan River's South Branch through Ken Lockwood Gorge. This was not my first visit to the gorge. My first visit was in March 2014 during a late winter Photowalk with the Somerset County Photography Meetup hosted by professional Loren Fisher. If I remember correctly, I think Ed Velez was with me on that Photowalk.

The image is an HDR image created in Photomatix from three images, bracketed one stop apart. I imported the original images to Adobe Lightroom from frames captured on my Nikon D5100 and AF-S DX Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR lens. I pulled the existing HDR image into Luminar AI. I used the Composition^AI to automatically adjust the composition, crop, and perspective.

Sunday

Today is the start of Lens-Artists Challenge #150: Let's Get Wild. Again, I think the intent is to showcase wilderness.

noun:
an uncultivated, uninhabited, and inhospitable region.

No part of Somerset, Mercer or Hunterdon County could be considered inhospitable, and very little of it is uncultivated or uninhabited. Like other New England states, New Jersey is one of the original thirteen European colonies and one of the most developed due to its age and proximity to New York City and Philadelphia. So, while I do have access to nearby woodland, it's undoubtedly not inhospitable, and very little of it is uninhabited. In addition, the woods in this area are valued for their well-maintained nature trails and streams. On some trails, you may even find the remnants of early European settlements.

Only two areas of New Jersey classify as wilderness, Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge and Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge. The Brigantine National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1939, and Barnegat National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1967. In 1984 the National Wildlife Service combined refuges to create the larger Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge. Although the refuge consists of more than 39,000 acres, less than 7,000 acres in the southern division in Brigantine qualify as wilderness.

I visited the Brigantine section of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in January of this year and the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in November 2016. From a photography perspective, both of these field trips were a disappointment. I was sure I would see more birds, but April to July are the best months to visit these wildlife areas, not January and November. The field trip to Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge yielded only a few photographs. The winter field trip to the Brigantine section of Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge was similarly disappointing.

I'll attempt to complete the blog post with my trip to Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge and post it for Lens-Artists Challenge #150: Let's Get Wild.

It's not quite a wilderness, but in the Spring of 2019, I was fortunate to photograph some of the migratory Warblers in the southern part of New Jersey.

Prothonotary Warbler | Sunday 19 May, 2019 | FujiFilm X-T2 | XF100-400mmF4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR @ 400 mm | ¹⁄₅₀₀ sec at f/5.6 | ISO 4000

I've known Tejus since he was born, and I knew his parents for several years before that. Tejus was born in August 1999, just three months after my eldest, Shaan, was born. He's grown into a fine young man. The last few years, he has spent the summer with his grandparents, sometimes in Pune, India, and sometimes in Mauritius, so we've celebrated his birthday in late May, close to Shaan's Birthday. The global pandemic precluded celebrating his 21st birthday. We are vaccinated against the VID, so even though Shaan and Tejus are 22 this year, we're making up for time lost.

Bhavna's sister, Nilima, offered to host on her deck and backyard. Tejus mom, Ami, had arranged for catering from Nomad Pizza in Hopewell. When we arrived, the staff prepared the pizza in a wood-fired brick oven mounted on a 1949 REO Speed Wagon, the same truck that gave its name to rock and roll music quintet.

REO Speed Wagon Truck | Sunday 30 May, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T2 | XF27mmF2.8 | ¹⁄₄₀₀ sec at f/5.6 | ISO 3200

Ami assumed warm weather for the end of May when she arranged for the pizza truck and didn't consider many cicadas awakening after 17 years! Instead, Nilima's deck was covered with the carcass of these giant insects, and a cold front brought cold rain.

Sunday 30 May, 2021 | FujiFilm X-T2 | XF27mmF2.8 | ¹⁄₆₀ sec at f/5.6 | ISO 6400

Nilima's husband, Mukesh, opened up the doors to the garage and fired up the outdoor gas fireplace. Tejus and I made cocktails, alternating between Jamaican rum punch, mojitos and margaritas. I enjoyed a slice of pepperoni, but the hot soppressata slice was divine.

After the pizza truck left, we moved inside to sing Happy Birthday for Shaan and Tejus.

Despite the change in weather, we had fun. I think we all missed being together, and this event was an excellent kickoff to a summer filled with more family gatherings.

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