Tag: well-being

Simple Camera

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"Camera Love" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: Motorola Moto G (4), 3.64mm, f/2, 1/15 sec, ISO3200
 “Camera Love” Cedar Park, 2017

こんばんは！How’s it going? Are you staying warm this winter? The temperatures will drop below freezing here tonight, but we’ll be warm and cozy in our beds!

Today’s photo is of my camera, the Fujifilm X100T which I have blogged about before. I’m still loving it – definitely my favorite camera I’ve ever owned. It’s not the fastest, doesn’t have the highest resolution or specs, but it has a certain charm in its body design and the image quality that the jpeg processing produces. That combination is why so many people love their X100 cameras, and Fujifilm cameras in general.

This camera has changed the way I think about making photos. Having multiple lenses that cover the ultra-wide to the super-telephoto range isn’t that important to me anymore. Simplicity has become much more valued to me now. The single focal length simplifies so much. Decision-making is easier. In fact, a lot of decisions have been eliminated… and I love it! It’s truly liberating.

Of course, I value the knowledge and experience I’ve gained from owning and using many different cameras and lenses, and it still comes into play with the photographic duties I sometimes take on at work, but for my personal photography, the X100T is all I need.

I guess this simplification is part of a trend in my life… getting rid of things I don’t need or use. Do I need all the apps on my phone? No, I only need a few. Having less keeps my phone light and fast.

Do I need to keep all the books I have already read? No. I donate or sell them, and free up physical space and clear the clutter. Seeing books that I’ll probably never read again just gives me a feeling of incompleteness. Get rid of them and close that chapter for good. (I made a pun!) Closure feels nice.

There are so many opportunities to simplify!

Focusing on just a few quality items seems to be a path that makes sense to me now. It gets me excited to think about jettisoning the things I don’t need anymore.

I hope you had a great day!

おやすみなさい！

– B Barron Fujimoto

End of the Trip

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"End of the Trip" Long Beach, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/5.6, 1/8000 sec, ISO6400
 “End of the Trip” Long Beach, 2016

こんばんは！How’s it going?

We have returned to Texas from our week and a half trip to Southern California. It was a wonderful trip to see my parents, brothers, nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends. I actually most enjoyed just relaxing at the house watching tv, eating good food, drinking whiskey, wine, and cocktails, and our nightly mahjong games. It went by so fast!

But I am glad to come back to our Texas home. I never really realized it, but the life in California is a lot different from life here in Texas. I don’t mean geographically or culturally, but more personally the way I live my life and spend time in each location is very different. I’m still trying to process those differences, and maybe I will write about what I figure out, but I think it’s all good. The things I can learn about myself from these experiences can help me grow in a positive way!

I hope you had a great day!

おやすみなさい！

– B Barron Fujimoto

Kindle

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Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/5.6, 1/100 sec, ISO1250
 “Kindle PaperWhite” Cedar Park, 2016

For my birthday this year, my parents bought me a new Kindle Paperwhite. It is awesome! I’ve had an older Kindle “Keyboard” version for a while now (I blogged about it here) but have wanted a new Paperwhite version because of the upgrades.

Here is a list of advantages of new Kindle PaperWhite (which I named “Echo”):

  • Backlight: Not only can I read at night without the light on (which bothered Mariko), but the backlight adds some contrast for increased readability in daylight
  • Higher resolution: The text looks sharper and the display is more like a printed page
  • Smaller: Although the screen size is the same as my old Kindle, the bezel is smaller and I can “palm” it with one hand
  • X-Ray: I can find out more about the characters in the story by tapping on a name
  • Goodreads: I can update my reading status on Goodreads directly from the Kindle Paperwhite

Although the new Kindle is superior to my old Kindle (which I named “Persephone”), the old one is still useful and works great. And it has a couple of advantages over the Paperwhite:

  • Lock screen art: I hacked the OS so that I could load custom lock screen images
  • Audio: I have loaded some nice classical guitar mp3s onto the Kindle, which I can play via the built-in speakers or the headphone jack

Having two Kindles is nice. I keep Echo (the new one) by my bed, and Persephone is in my messenger bag. Do you own a Kindle? I have to say, my Kindles are possibly my favorite technology gadgets. ❤

A brief bit of sunlight

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"Morning Light" Austin, 2016
“Morning Light” Austin, 2016

こんばんは！How’s it going?

Today was another cold day, but it started out with clear skies and when I arrived at work, the sunlight was streaming in from the east side of the building. It looked so cool that I had to take a photo of it.

Lately I’ve been having a bit of wanderlust, since I enjoyed our road-trip so much and I’m looking forward to traveling more in the near future! We have a few trips planned, which reminded me of a bit of advice I heard last year… It was something like, “Always have something to look forward to.” I didn’t really know what it meant, but I think I am starting to see how it can be a nice way to keep yourself motivated.

Or maybe it’s not so much motivation, but just keeping yourself in a positive mindset. I’ve always thought that my days and years were spent trying to achieve a certain goal, and once I reached that goal, I could just coast. Kind of like I would dread doing my taxes, and I thought when I finished my taxes, then I could rest forever! But of course the next year’s taxes come again… and again.

So now as I get closer to 50 years old maybe I realize that it’s just an ongoing journey, and that it’s the journey itself that’s important, not the destination. Or maybe just shifting my thinking that the destination isn’t an endpoint, but more like a milestone and to look forward to the next milestone. And things do get easier, the more you go through.

Eh… I have no idea if that made any sense or not, but I’m pretty sure I am not articulating my thoughts well. But I’m not going to go back and edit this. You know, life’s too short to spend too much time going back to edit.

Anyways, I do think it’s good to have some things on the horizon to look forward to. Make some fun vacation plans and put them on the calendar!

I hope you had a great day!

おやすみなさい！

– B Barron Fujimoto