Those Hokas featured so prominently in the last post, way back in April? Didn’t even bring them. Still have and wear and love them, but there wasn’t a need this time around. We did not walk for a week or more. We had someone drive us 6 or 7 miles out from our Santiago de Compostela hotel in the cold, dark pre-dawn and simply walked back to the cathedral over the course of a couple of hours. And that was enough. What changed?
As those posts back in April conveyed, we were fully immersed in prep for our Camino. But the hope of being able to work through some physical obstacles was not fulfilled, and we shifted the planning to a different kind of pilgrimage. Plenty of walking, to be sure: our most prolific day was over 25,000 steps, with several days of 20k+ over the course of the two weeks in Spain. But the kind of exertion that covering over 100km in under a week demanded was not something we were going to be able to sustain; as a result, we were left with the spiritual dimension of the voyage, which was as fulfilling (albeit in a different way) than an arbitrary amount of kilometers walked over the course of a set period. Along the way, we discovered beautiful cultures, new (to us) and amazing foods, and a historical, Catholic Church-based tour de force that was more satisfying than I ever dreamed it could be; mind you, I harbor some fairly lofty dreams!
In the coming posts, I’ll share my impressions and experiences in the major stops along the way: Madrid, El Escorial, Tolédo, San Sebastián, Loiola, Burgos, Léon, Santiago de Compostela, and Salamanca. Some for a matter of hours, others for a couple of days. Madrid, where our journey began and ended, quite unexpectedly captured our hearts, minds, and spirit for 6 glorious nights and the days in between. The country had us wondering, then questioning, and ultimately seriously contemplating: why, and then later, why not? As in: why would we leave everything behind – jobs, family, friends, all of it – in favor of a new place, particularly THIS new place? Well, that one was pretty simple. We simply fell in love, and love conquers all, right? The more vexing one was the why NOT? Because there is no single, logical reason / deterrent that could not be overcome by the simple act of our saying “yes” to Spain and then figuring it out, if only for a season (be it a month, a spring or fall, or longer). Not forever. Ok, PROBABLY not forever.
I’m not above motivating myself with YouTube. Photography, cameras, travel. Laptops, iPads, phones. Mediterranean diet, exercise, health. People are really good at YouTube, and I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt that they’ve likely done some research, personally used the thing, and at the very least, are passionate enough about it to have immersed themselves and arrived at a decently-formed conclusion that they are sharing with the world. Which saves the rest of us countless hours and money, thanks to the relentlessly competitive landscape in which YouTubers exist and ply their craft.
When it comes to Camino prep, what kind of person are you? Are you after the camaraderie? The spiritual? The physical? The foreign? Did you see a movie or read a book or article that nudged you into seeking out more info? Is it the shoes, the poles, the backpacks? The escape? Because it seems to hold something for everyone, no doubt a large chunk of its appeal.
The thing is, pilgrims have been making the journey to Santiago de Compostela for over a thousand years. They did it with their own versions of footwear, packs, walking sticks; their own motivations, including religious obligation as a far bigger player than it is for today’s pilgrims, but also with many of the same ancillary benefits of camaraderie and the excitement of traveling to foreign lands. There would have been more dangers to the journey, more hardships, far less ease and convenience. Still, they came. Month after month, year after year, century after century.
As I watch videos, talk to people at REI, order shoes, and endlessly ponder such life-altering questions as Hokas or Brooks, hiking boots or trail runners, is a 30 liter backpack enough for the 7–9 day trek, and all of the other things that probably don’t really matter all that much, I don’t regret any of it. I’m also getting myself in shape with what I’m eating and drinking and have dramatically increased the physical conditioning routine, and would absolutely not be doing that to this extent if not for the continuous contemplation / obsession with all things Camino. To each their own.
Should the gear matter? Not really. The pilgrimage can be done regardless, as it has since long before any of our present versions of shoes and packs existed. But for me, it all serves as motivation, for the mindset as well as the physical prep. And if you must know, despite the mix of negative and positive reviews on the Goat Speed 6, that’s what I believe I have settled on. And fortunately, the color that I love is apparently not loved by all, hence marked down substantially at REI. Can’t wait to break them in on a local Audubon trail about 20 minutes away.
I never did finish that novel about world-altering fictional events that transpired early in the 20th century during a young pilgrim’s camino. Barely got past the opening, in fact. There was something inauthentic, at least to me, in writing a book about a place I had never been, or of a journey that I myself had never taken. Yet wouldn’t that be the case for any work of historical fiction? Or any fiction at all? In the case of the Camino de Santiago, however, the journey is undertaken by millions from around the world to this day. Not necessarily the entire lengths of it (there are multiple routes), nor for durations of a month or more (though many do spend that much time on it), but each in their own way can embark on a camino that fits them.
When I posted that fictional opening of “After Compostela” to Medium back in April 2016, the story had been taking shape in my mind and coming to life in handwritten notes for a little while already, along with several others. But committing it to Medium made it more real, as if it were to finally, truly exist. As it turned out, it was to be a case of “not…yet.”
Here at the beginning of April 2025, five months after purchasing round trips from Dallas to Madrid for my wife and me, we are now about six more months from our own camino. Currently set for early October (with the possibility of moving it up to mid-September to allow a bit more time, depending on work schedules), with a journey through northern Spain that will be limited to only a week or so for the actual walk (with a few days on either side of it for travel and exploration), getting to finally visualize some of what the fictional Pembroke encountered on his pilgrimage of a hundred years earlier should be the catalyst of catalysts; more to come on that tale. But for the months leading up to our actual pilgrimage, I’ll be sharing some of our preparation, inspiration, and motivations for making it.
For a change of pace today, I’m posting something from my other blog, something non-techy. A bit of actual culture – I dare say “humanities,” which was my first love (since, as a little baby in Detroit and small child on the outskirts of Rochester, NY, we didn’t have “tech” that was personally accessible to me; it was nothing but books, and history was the thing – dinosaurs, the Bible, you name it). Although it shares the spotlight of my life’s attention fairly equally with tech for the past several decades, it will always remain nearest to my heart. It will be there with me at the end, tales as old as time, and my dream has always been to work more and more of it into my life. Thanks to technology, I can. So here’s what I did a few days ago.
Courtesy of the Kimbell Museum
The day finally arrived: Saturday morning, June 15, 2024. The lecture auditorium at the Kimbell Museum in Fort Worth, Texas.
Listening to the world’s foremost expert on medieval and Renaissance tapestries, a gentleman who has earned the moniker of “Tapestry Tom” (aka Thomas P. Campbell of Oxford, the Met, and now San Francisco’s museums), exceeded all of my lofty expectations. Envious of one who had afforded himself the luxury of dedicating his life to the pursuit of something not of this world (“this world” being comprised of both place AND time), I was also keenly aware that I could have just as well done so, were it not for my younger self prioritizing the pursuit of immediate financial reward above a lifetime of personal and professional fulfillment.
The Battle of Pavia, near Milan, was part of the wars around the Italian Peninsula in the late medieval/early Renaissance period. Everyone wanted a piece of Italy, but the two major belligerents were the kings of France and Spain, Francis I and Charles I, respectively. Charles also happened to hold the title of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (not I, but V) for good measure, and his coffers were overflowing with the ongoing plunder of overwhelming riches from New Spain. He had money to burn on mercenaries, and burn he did. But Francis I (or “Francois Premier” as Tapestry Tom’s British accented voice repeatedly referenced him) was a formidable opponent. The battle came down to guns, specifically arquebuses, triumphing over armor, and it was over quickly. Charles had them, Francis did not. What remains are the exquisite tapestries that were created to commemorate the conflict, as they have done for the last 500 years. In fact, this first visit of the 7 Battle of Pavia tapestries to the U.S. will still be in America on the 500th anniversary of the battle in February 2025 (the exhibit will grace first Fort Worth, then San Francisco, and finally Houston, before making its way back home to Italy).
The tapestries are enormous, 28 feet wide by 14 feet tall, and breathtakingly detailed. To give yourself an idea of the size, just go step off 28 feet in a large room (which will likely not be wide enough of a room, so find a bigger one) with tall ceilings (which will likely not be tall enough, so find a taller one), then imagine 7 tapestries of this size. With threads of wool, silk, and even gold and silver, only a few people in the world would have had the wealth to produce such a multi-year undertaking by the best weavers and equipment in the world (found only in Brussels due to a variety of factors) as the creation of these works of art and propaganda. Among them were the aforementioned combatants, along with King Henry VIII of England (whose country would have its own invasion by the son of Charles V, Philip II, thwarted 63 years later when the Spanish Armada sank). But what does this have to do with Faith, Reason, and Truth (the url of my other blog)?
These monarchs of Europe, be they Kings, Emperors, or Popes, all derived their legitimacy in one way or another from God. Without that, they would not have had the necessary authority to rule over the people of their realms. Still, they also very much relied on their reason to formulate not only the plans and strategies of warfare, of attack and defense, of diplomacy, of logistics, of alliances; not only those, but also for weaponry and armor. They needed all of their human faculties to create the kingdoms and empires whose achievements and failures have come down to us through the centuries. As for truth, we see once again that any true king would need both faith and reason in order to rule, as has been the case throughout human history. That is the truth.
Prior to my two Apple posts last Thursday and Friday, the last one was way back at the end of January. Boldly proclaiming that my internal struggle between Fuji X and Nikon Z had settled in favor of the Fuji X-H2 for a variety of obvious (to me) reasons. However, I ended up returning it and just going with the “good enough” Nikon Z6 II to tide myself over until the rumored, soon-to-be-released Z6 III that would allow me to keep my amazing Nikon glass (specifically, the Z 24-120S) – until reversing course yet again and picking up a mint condition Fuji X-H2S (even badder asser than the X-H2 that I had for a week or two), reasoning that whenever the Z6 III did come out, it likely would not be that much better than the Z6 II, at least not enough of an improvement to justify its likely $2500 cost, which would only be offset by a mere sub-$1000 return that I could get for my Z6 II.
Soon after falling in love with the new used Fooj, I landed a 2-3 month contract gig (I’m a corporate finance guy for income-generating purposes, as I never have nor never will make money from photography). Consequently, it’s been gathering dust up in my study since taking it to the lake for a family birthday celebration back in late March, where I stuck my new prime on it (the Fujifilm XF 50 f2, a 75mm full-frame equivalent that I had always feared would be too close to my subjects and was on sale at Amazon) for the entire day and got amazing shot after amazing shot, never missing a single one throughout the course of the day and evening, indoors and out. There is just something very, very special about that focal length that makes everything infinitely more intimate when going back to review the captured moments, and had I not been inspired to take the plunge due to its affordability and size on the Fuji X system (unlike the comparable Nikkor Z glass), I never would have known it.
Back to the task at hand. Why did I title this post “feelings” rather than “thoughts” or “impressions?” Well, simply put, I don’t have any thoughts or impressions yet. I was caught completely off guard by yesterday’s announcement (that’s how unplugged from photography I’ve become since getting back to consulting for a few months). But having been back off now for the past few weeks, I was still wholly uninspired to grab a camera and get out to take pictures. Life has just been too busy with the start of the summer to afford myself that luxury. But popping YouTube onto the big screen yesterday for lunch, lo and behold – the Z6 III announcement, everywhere! Which brings us to this: feelings.
The first thing that was felt was, for lack of a better word, shock. The shock of it finally arriving, the shock of my instantaneous awareness of how far away I felt from that world after just a few months of neglect, and the shock of the realization that I just didn’t care about it. Yes, the price was exactly in line with my expectations. Yes, it can do more amazing things than its predecessor, which is still in my possession. No, it would not supplant my X-H2S.
After the shock wore off, I found myself several minutes into an official Nikon video of all of its impressive capabilities in the hands of incredibly talented professionals. A feeling of, dare I say, boredom crept in. I ended the video not yet halfway through. Then, faced with a sea of familiar YouTubers who cover Nikon, rather than binge them all as I used to, I just kind of internally shrugged my shoulders. It was a mixture of feelings – “nah, I’m good” and “I just don’t have the time to go consume all of that info right now” and finally, “man, I REALLY need to get out with the X-H2S and shoot some pictures!”
So, to Nikon and the Z6 III team and all those who cover it, I say thank you. Thank you for pushing forward, thank you for keeping the pressure on Fujifilm, thank you for your joy and passion. And also, thank you for putting your amazing work on YouTube, where I can and no doubt will come back to it when I’m ready, to gobble every tidbit and morsel of what this thing can do. I love technology!
At some point several months in the future, Apple will make available some of the AI-powered features that it demo’d for its upcoming Mac, iPad, and iOS annual updates. Some of it has been around for years on other platforms, and some has been around on Apple’s own products. The biggest difference this time around is that some of the user requests will now have the option (at Apple’s and the users’ discretion) to be farmed out to ChatGPT, which is a welcome addition to Apple’s woefully inadequate Siri. Gone will be the days of interactions like “hey Siri, what’s the score of the Longhorns football game?” with the answer coming back “the Texas Longhorns defeated the Baylor Bears on…” which was in fact 3 games ago. Or, “I don’t understand the question, but I can Google it for you and display on your phone screen that is actually over on the counter where you can’t see the screen right now.” It should, in a few months, at least in theory, be able to supply requested information as intended by the requestor.
But what about the reason that many people actually already interact with chatbots, be they ChatGPT or Google Gemini or Microsoft Copilot? What about “chatting?” Is this something that Siri – sorry, “Apple Intelligence” – will be able to pull off come September 2024? Unlikely. Which is why Apple had to enlist OpenAI at the last minute, literally days or weeks before its huge annual dev conference where it answers to the world on all the progress it has (and hasn’t) made over the past 12 months with its various software platforms, to save the day with its ChatGPT. And soon enough, OpenAI will be joined by Google and its Gemini AI. Because these are companies with products that have been able to handle these types of interactions for years, while Siri has remained an embarrassing laughingstock. Yes, rather than being able to sheepishly say “our stuff isn’t ready yet and still won’t be by September, so we’ll use ChatGPT to temporarily fill the huge gaps while we polish it up for a few more months,” they went the opposite direction and informed us that not only were they so unprepared for the moment that they had to bring in OpenAI at the last minute, but that they will ALSO bring in its biggest rival, Google, to help shoulder the load. Unbelievably, even though nobody trusts OpenAI or Sam Altman with any of this – not even Microsoft, who handed him $10 billion to build out what he needed because THEY were so far behind, and on whose Azure cloud service all of OpenAI’s queries will run, to the chagrin of Apple – they feel like they have no other option available to them at this vital crossroads other than to deal with the ChatGPT devil. As to the timing of when Gemini will be added to the mix: “Nothing to announce right now” per Craig Federighi, because that’s how behind the eight ball they are with all of this. Couldn’t even come to terms of agreement in time for dubdub 2024, let alone build it all out and hook it all up.
Finally, are people actually missing out on anything by Apple not having any of this under their own childproof, kneecapped, Apple-branded tent? Absolutely not. You can do any of this on any computer today. Just go to Gemini or ChatGPT or Copilot on the web and you can do whatever is doable with any of these chatbots. Which is entertaining for all, productive for some, and indispensable for a sliver. Would it be nice if you could pull your iPhone out and tell it to tell you something that is actually informative and useful, rather than telling or typing on your computer? I suppose, but the jury is still out for now. My Pixel 8 with its new Gemini Nano model on device thanks to the latest Pixel feature drop a few days ago will be a fun testing ground for the utility of such a capability in my pocket (while my iPhone 14 Pro Max will have to wait until September or beyond to have any of these things on device – wait, check that – unless you have a 15 Pro, the most expensive version of the phone released 9 months ago, you will not have this on device EVER). But for me, when I am immersed in a chat with these humanlike info interfaces, I have no inclination to do it on a phone – which is why I have yet to try it out on the newly enabled Pixel 8. I want a screen, the bigger the better, to voice or type long, luxurious prompts which are edited on the fly, to consume the even longer and more luxurious responses to my queries, to click on source links, to look at images returned, to open up a new tab and riff on what I’ve just seen or heard or otherwise learned or been inspired by. I’m not doing that on my phone. And honestly, I don’t care if Google or Microsoft or OpenAI knows that I am interested in the Battle of Pavia or war tapestries from the 1500’s or El Escorial in Spain or blue zone lifestyles or Christian Dior’s life or whatever. As always, the more these companies know about my interests, the more useful they are in my life. “Here’s the information you asked about – also, the Pavia Tapestries are on display at the Kimbell Museum in Fort Worth beginning this weekend, since you live about 20 minutes away from there.” Because the vast ocean of things I don’t know that I don’t know can be made smaller and smaller with every interaction of an intelligent helper that knows almost everything that is known and is only too eager to share it with me.
Look, I don’t trust any of these companies. No one should. Not Google, not Microsoft, not OpenAI, and certainly not Apple. All you need to do is look at how their stuff is made, where it’s made, where the money goes. And it’s a LOT of money, which is priority one for them. If you doubt that, then please tell me in what universe you foresaw Apple striking a deal with ChatGPT for its users’ chatbot requests. For companies of this size, there is an unyielding requirement that unpleasant actions must be taken in order to keep the money flowing in sufficiently mind-bending, breathtaking volume. So to say one is better than the other is at best meaningless, since they’re all bad; at worst, it’s just plain naive and dangerous to an unsuspecting public that is constantly programmed by billions of dollars in messaging from the companies every day. You just need to ask yourself if you are better off with, or without, the things that the companies try to sell you, then decide to transact or not. For every “Google is selling my interest in 16th century tapestry museum exhibits,” I will counter a “do you know how much more powerful Apple has single-handedly made China in China’s quest to dominate the world?” There are no good guys here; let’s stop acting like Apple pretending that they are only here for our benefit is anything other than their preferred method of scaring and extracting maximum financial resources from us.
Of COURSE Apple decided to commandeer the AI abbreviation. Of course. That’s what Apple does; it’s who they are.
Famously, Apple always “waits for new technologies to mature a bit” before “doing it better than everyone else.” Except, they don’t. They are usually late to the party, true. But what they actually come of the gate with is what they are “going” to have, eventually. Maybe. Or not. And it isn’t necessarily better than Google’s 3rd or 5th or 7th iteration of it by the time Apple announces their version 1 beta.
Anyone out there (outside of people who make a living buying Apple things and discussing them via writing, podcast, and/or Youtube) actually have the misfortune of plunking down a few grand on Apple’s VR/AR googgles? No? Neither did I. And those that did, wish they didn’t. Yes, they are cool. Amazing, even (from what I’ve read and watched and heard). But as was and still is abundantly clear to anyone not caught up in the ghost of Steve’s Reality Distortion Field, there is simply no use case for them at this time. Maybe not for any time, for that matter: by the time any developers decide that the market of thousands (not millions) of users would be worth addressing, something else will have supplanted it.
Microsoft learned this lesson the hard way over a period of over a decade with multiple iterations of its HoloLens goggles (which were equally jaw-dropping in their day). And I hate to admit it, but Facebook/Meta was actually smarter about it, because their founding DNA is not about R&D and doing things that have never been done in order to create a new world, unlike Microsoft and Apple; the force that drives their existence is eyeballs. How did they go about their goggles play? By making them as cheaply as possible, while still being “good enough” to get people to use them. And they actually have an ecosystem, thanks to that decision. Will you have your very reality altered after trying them on for the first time? No. But are you more likely to keep using them, rather than tossing them aside after the initial wow factor wears off and until devs actually bother developing for it? Yes you are!
Which brings us to Apple Intelligence. We all know better than to associate the word “Apple” with the term “AI,” despite Apple’s pathetic and cynical attempt (no doubt to be backed by tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars’ worth of advertising) to co-opt the ubiquitous acronym that has been in use for decades. Not to mention the fact that none of it actually, you know, EXISTS yet for non-beta testers, and won’t for several months. Even then, only a fraction of what was demo’d a few days ago will roll out; the rest will arrive incrementally over the next year, if at all. Not everything makes it to public release, after all; not just for Apple, but for any company.
Apple is dominant, and that won’t change in 2024 or ’25, perhaps not even in 2026. If they had waited yet another year to flail and jump onto the AI hype train, they may have been in trouble earlier than that, though I kind of doubt it. But for the first time since the unveiling of the iPhone back in 2007, they were (or at least ought to have been) scared of becoming irrelevant. Though I remain thoroughly unimpressed by the reality of what was shown in demo form at WWDC 2024, it was certainly enough to keep would-be competitors at bay, at least for a few more years. By then, by the time it becomes clear to all that Apple’s way cannot compete with Google’s and Microsoft’s, the phone itself may not matter as much, which will make the AI panic in Cupertino over the past 9 months seem like a walk in the (Apple) Park.
Well folks, I have finally made up my mind. Fuji or Nikon, there can be only one (not really; I have done both for the past 8 months, but we need to make this as dramatic as possible to retain your interest for a few more minutes).
Having the X-H2 in my grubby little paws for the past week and half, all I can say is, wow! Did NOT expect to love it as much as I do, but here we are. The thing I thought I loved about the Fuji X system was the retro styling, and as a side benefit, the dials on top were / are an excellent learning tool for someone attempting to master the craft of camera photography at a more involved level.
This and all images in this post shot with iPhone 14 Pro Max unless otherwise attributed
Now that I get it though, I don’t need to be able to see and rotate the dials on the top to achieve my desired results. And something else that I knew but didn’t fully realize about the X-H2 was how incredibly useful the LCD on the top is.
It is always on (pretty sure you can turn it off in settings, but I love that is always on and it doesn’t affect the battery to an extent that affects my usage), and it is actually easier to check everything at an effortless glance than studying the teeny tiny numbers on top of the dials of the X-T-whatever (I have the X-T20 and the X-T3). And if I want to change any of them, then yes, the dials take less thought, but it is quite easy on the X-H2 as well. You can either roll the front or rear dial, depending on which setting you are changing, or just quickly hit the Menu and do something like this: go to the Camera icon, scroll down to ISO (I often have ISO set automatically) and change it there to whatever you like – OR, you can set the ISO to Auto1, Auto2, or Auto3, where you can have presets (for instance, Default Sensitivity of 125, Max . Sensitivity of 3200, and Min. Shutter Speed of Auto). You can set those 3 Autos to whatever you like, then quickly select whichever one suits your current purpose.
This is not to convince you, dear reader, of the merits of modern or retro styling. To each their own. It is simply to say that for me, with two feet already in Camp Fuji from May 2018 through May 2023, then one (maybe one and a half) in Fort Nikon for the past 8 months, the time has come to fully commit. And with Nikon gear-selling quote from MPB firmly in hand, I will be selling off the Z6 II, the 24-120 S f/4, and the Tamron 70-300.
Surprisingly, going off of strictly memory of past quotes from MPB, I’m pretty sure the Z6 II has gone down by a hundred bucks or so, while the 24-120 lens has actually gone up from last time I checked. This does make logical sense though, if one were to ascribe it to the new Nikon ZF’s arrival on the scene last year driving down the price of older cameras while increasing demand for better glass by those who have purchased the latest and greatest camera offering. It is Nikon’s attempt to more fully engage with the retro phenomenon so thoroughly dominated by Fuji, complete with top dials, and is by all accounts a major success for them, both in terms of sales as well as being a winner of a photo and video maker.
Don’t think I haven’t been tempted! Indeed I have, particularly for the much-improved autofocusing capabilities that vault it not only beyond the Z6 II (which is not the greatest, but plenty good for my usage) but also beyond the Fujifilm X-H2 that I have added to the stable. I had been even more tempted by the soon-to-be-announced Z6 III though, whose ergonomics I would prefer over the new ZF; additionally, the Z6 III should be a purely technological advancement, rather than a styling + [some] technology leap forward, but I know that it will cost a fair bit more than what I am looking at spending, and that I would likely not be able to justify that kind of pricey upgrade from the Z6 II for quite some time.
That’s not what made my decision though; in fact, it really wasn’t much of a consideration at all. The simple fact of the matter is something that I have known about myself for going on 6 years now: I am a Fuji man. I just love their stuff. I love how metal and solid it feels. I love how much image quality they pack into their bodies and (I suppose more importantly for me) lenses. I love their kaizen philosophy and practice, literally improving products that you already own via free software updates that actually make a difference in the thing. And the familiarity that I have with operating their system means something, has value. I’m all in.
Listen, you can’t go wrong with Nikon. You can’t go wrong with Sony, or Canon, or Panasonic. These cameras and lenses take impossibly fantastic images with incredibly little effort, and if you are inclined to really work on your craft, learn about light, composition, focal lengths, compression; familiarize yourself with all of the buttons and dials and switches and menus; get out to amazing places, or simply out on the street or over to the park – it just levels up from there. I am still on that path, taking that journey, and enjoying it beyond any reasonable right to such things. Fortunately, Fujifilm is right there with me, every step of the way.
Downtown Fort Worth is pretty perfect for a late afternoon photo walk. I’ve done quite a few over the years, often (but not always) testing or comparing different cameras or lenses. A few days ago, for instance, as the media spent the entire week boosting their ratings by scaring us all into believing that life as we know it was once again about to cease due to an impending weather disaster, it was 70 degrees here, deep blue skies, crystal clear and windless. A better day for meandering around the stately courthouse, the serene Trinity River along whose banks the original Camp Worth was located, and the outskirts of Sundance Square with a couple of cameras dangling from one’s body simply could not be asked for. This was an afternoon for shooting some of my tried and true favorites illuminated by the setting western sun, shadows and sidelight in full effect.
New-to-me locales are my usual preference when it comes to photo walks, but there are decided advantages to hitting certain places over and over, provided they are photogenic enough to merit it. Case in point: the photo at the top of this post. When I drove by the Bass Performance Hall around 4:30pm, the famous angels were in complete shadow. This is downtown after all, and despite the fact that sunset was a little over an hour in the future, the long shadows were already cast. I knew from my summer shooting, however, that the shadows move as the sun sends its rays out into the solar system, creating shafts of light that find their way in between some of the buildings. It changes drastically over the course of a few minutes, so I made a point to walk over to check on things after about 30-40 minutes over by the courthouse and the river behind it and lo and behold, there it was! The angels and their trumpets blaring with a solar spotlight highlighting their magnificence.
Fuji X-T20, Rokinon 12mm f/2 manual lens, June 2018
Getting back to the difference that is made by not only the time of day, but also the time of year, let’s look at the shot above. This was taken 5 and half years ago, soon after settling on the X-T20 as my first official foray into mirrorless. I had tried out a few others, including the Canon M50 (new at the time, and a year newer than the X-T20), but it felt so flimsy and plastic-y compared to the rock-solid, Made In Japan X-T20. And the quality of the lenses in my price range were simply no comparison. The 18-55mm variable aperture kit lens with the Fuji was jaw-droppingly good, and I had also picked up a very reasonably priced manual lens, still to this day the only manual I have ever owned: the Rokinon 12mm f/2. When I tried my hand at being a “real” photographer for a few hours, heading to the Trinity that snaked through Fort Worth and Dallas with a camera, a couple of lenses, and a tripod, this was the shot that I loved most. A few years later, this same camera+lens+tripod combo produced my best astrophotography session (not that there have been that many), but that is an adventure for another post.
Nikon Z6 II, Nikon 24-120 f/4 lens, January 2024
The above was taken this past week. Exact same concrete platform overlooking the river from which the June 2018 image was created. This one was handheld though, as it was immediately obvious that where the sun was setting was not going to give me the image I wanted. Not at all surprising, by the way; I did come prepared with the tripod just in case, but fully expected the tilt of the earth to be wholly uncooperative at this time of year, based on my vantage point.
That is probably enough blathering on about time of day, time of year, sun and shadow. Another part of the beauty of downtown Fort Worth is how compact everything is. Total time from exiting the highway, including driving through downtown, parking, walking, and getting back onto the highway after leaving, was roughly 4:30pm to 5:45pm on a weekday. Try doing THAT in most big(ish) city downtowns!
Here are a few more shots from last week’s walk (everything in this post, with the exception of the June 2018 image of the Trinity at sunset, are with the Nikon Z6 II + 24-120mm f/4 or the Fuji X-T3 + 35mm f/2, straight out of camera JPG; the last 2 of the radio station give you an idea of which is which, and it should be fairly obvious for the ones that are not labeled):
Decades after typing on my first PC keyboards, I finally have that same keyboard experience on this Keychron V6 full size mechanical keyboard (with numeric pad, of course). The sheer exhilaration of everything rushing back at once, going back to 1981/82 when I got on an old TRS-80 my dad had picked up from someone, followed by my own Commodore 64 as a Christmas gift, then an IBM PCjr, and eventually my own PC clone when I headed off to the University of Texas in 1988, is not describable with words.
Firing off a text to my dad and best friend/brother-in-law was the first actual intentional typing of full words and sentences, sharing something I had just read about the Texas football coach staying at Texas instead of returning to Bama (which was no surprise – why would anyone ever voluntarily leave Austin as the head of the Longhorn football program?). The experience was magnificent. The feel, the SOUND, the hand position, all perfect. Perfect in a way that I knew could never truly be realized, even though all of my reading about mechanical keyboards over the years forced me to perpetually dream that impossible dream.
Then, just as suddenly, a voice from somewhere in the immediate vicinity spoke. “What is THAT? Oh, no, we are not doing that. Are you serious?” My beautiful, loving wife, the back of whose monitor you see in the image at the top of this post, is not a fan of the sound. Within roughly 30 seconds of pulling the unexpectedly heavy (making it all the more satisfying) keyboard out of its styrofoam-cushioned box and plugging it into the USB-C port on the iPad Pro 12.9 M1 where it was automatically and instantly recognized and enabled, I experienced the full reaction gamut of mechanical keyboard aficionados everywhere: “YES! I have FOUND the thing that has been been missing from my life, and all is now complete!” coupled with an immediate and severe rejection of the soothing clickety-clack on offer from the Brown switches housed within.
For now, I type on, as Sandy works silently across from me. Or is she? Where is her proof? She cannot be seen, other than a disembodied hand on the mouse. There is no noise emanating from her keyboard as her ghostly hands occasionally glide across her keyboard while she mutters something quietly to herself (why would she do that, other than for auditory reinforcement of her own apparently self-doubted existence?) Whereas I have that glorious audible evidence of not only my physical presence, but also the very work that is being produced. Something’s gotta give, and I fear I know what that will inevitably be. Thoughts and prayers are welcome, for me and my Keychron.
Somewhere In the Middle 