When we bought our home in 2001 the demand for new home caused prices to inflate.
Colours
Trees in the backyard.
Tag: Montgomery Township
Forest Bathe
I felt an overwhelming sadness.
After yesterday’s walk around Thompson Park with Bhavna, I still felt in a funk today. I wanted to get outside. After a late lunch, I drove to Zion Park section of the Rock Brook, near the border with Montgomery Township and Hillsborough Township.
I bought my Fuji X-T2 and XF16-55mmF.28 R LM WR and my Pentax P3 and SMC Pentax-A 50mm f/2 lens. I wasn’t sure about the Pentax. Just as I left home, the rubber band holding the film door shut broke, and the film was briefly exposed. I expect it’s a lost roll. But I brought it with me anyway.
My intention was photography, but after a few shots on both cameras, I walked down the middle of the Rock Brook and sat atop one of the large boulders. I felt the sun on my face and listened to the sounds of the wind. The birds sang from the trees and the water bubbled and gurgled around the rocks and boulders of the Rock Brook—no human sounds.
Then it hit me; the feelings that started yesterday. The anger and frustration that I had buried came rushing up.
In 2018, I was dealing with the effects of hyperthyroidism that was so bad that one evening, while returning home from work in New York City, I sat on the sidewalk near the World Trade Center. I was unable to move. I put my life on hold until I had surgery.
In 2019, I was dealing with Graves Eye disease. My father passed away while I was undergoing radiation therapy. Before two eye operations, one of which left me with double vision for several months, I put my life on hold again. 2020 was supposed to be the year I got my life back.
The anger didn’t last long. Bathing in the forest had transformed my feelings into something else. I felt an overwhelming sadness. Tears flowed. I cried. I sat under the forest canopy weeping. It was what I needed: a form of nature therapy.
When I was done mourning, I went home.
Submitted for the 100DaysToOffload project.
Fujifilm Film Simulation Challenge Roll 9 : Fujicolor Superia 800
For the ninth episode of the Film Simulation Challenge, I chose Ritchie's Fujicolor Superia 800 Simulation Recipe. The goal of the challenge is to use the same settings for 24 or 36 exposures to simulate shooting a roll of film. Ritchie's intention for this particular film simulation recipe is to imitate the look of Fujicolor Pro 400H film.
I've never used this film, so I'll let Ritchie give you his overview of Fujicolor Superia 800 film.
Fujicolor Pro 800Z was a good indoor portrait film. It had muted colors, low contrast, a very slight yellow cast, accurate skin tones, and fine grain (for ISO 800 film). It was quite popular among wedding and event photographers. For low-light pictures of people, it was the best option. I used it a few times.
Fujicolor Superia 800 was a better film choice for things other than portraits. Of the two films, it had more color saturation, more contrast, a green cast, less accurate skin tones and more grain. It was the more bold, gritty, punchy choice of the two. Not that it was particularly wild (because it wasn’t), but Pro 800Z, while it could be beautiful, was especially bland (which is why it was good for pictures of people). I used Superia 800 a lot more frequently than Pro 800Z.
I wanted to imitate the feeling of shooting a roll of film. I photographed all of the images at f/5.6 and ISO800. At that ISO and aperture, I was able to keep my shutter speed enough to ensure I got sharp photos.
The photographs below are all straight-out-of-camera JPEGs captured using my Fujifilm X-T2, Fujinon XF27mmF2.8 at the Blooms at Belle Mead Garden Center in Montgomery Township which has a large greenhouse, with sunlight filtering through a white taupe. I photographed these images on the same day I shot pictures for the Fujifilm Film Simulation Challenge Roll 7: Fujicolor Pro 400H.
I need to experiment more with this particular film simulation and perhaps try an actual roll of Fujicolor Superia 800 in my Pentax ES II. The photographs below are all straight-out-of-camera JPEGs captured using my Fujifilm X-T2, Fujinon XF27mmF2.8. If you want to see my RAW edits, I have another blog post detailing my trip.
I love how this film simulation recipe renders the greens in the foliage. I think I will test out this recipe on my next hike.
