Turkey Milanese. A great use of leftover white meat.
Turkey Pho (well, inspired by Pho).
Stuffing waffles for post-Thanksgiving breakfast is now 100% a tradition.
My partner in crime sure does know how to cook a golden, juicy bird.
Earlier this month In Lahaina, Maui, two Java Sparrows (Padda oryzivora) silently discussing the two intrusive humans below them.
For the first time, tried a very simple beer brewing. This is Hank’s Hefeweizen. I’m fermenting in the tub because I worry about leaks despite an hours long leak test last night. It’s already bubbling!
From Maui earlier this month: Waihe’e Ridge Trail. A very popular choice these days. It’s in much better condition than the last time we hiked it in 2015. I recall a big storm washed out the trail, closing it for a while. They did a great job!
Was trying to take a casual picture of The Annie Cat and…
Finished reading: Champion by Marie Lu 📚 I read this one pretty dang fast! I returned it to the digital library 9 days early (21 day loan). ★★★★
From Maui earlier this month: a few more early mornings with Haleakala.
macOS 12 Shortcut: What was my Fujifilm Film Simulation?
I’ve got a proof of concept macOS 12 only Shortcut to remind me what Fujifilm Film Simulation or Recipe I used for my off the camera photos. It relies on exiftool being installed and in your path (manually or via Homebrew etc). For some reason I couldn’t successfully compare dictionaries as text in an if statement so I am using hash…
So this first version is tested on Straight Out of the Camera JPEGs from an X100V (X-Trans IV class camera). It requires exiftool. Be sure to add its path if it isn’t in your system path. You also need to add your own simulations using the exact Schema in the FilmSimulations text box. Hashing is annoying like that. But for me, this is great, because I can’t be bothered to keep track of what recipe I’m using. There are a few comments in this Shortcut that may be of use for those comfortable enough with Shortcuts to try this out…
I’ll update this Shortcut as I make it more sophisticated. I apologize in advance if it doesn’t seem to work for you :-)
Oh, and of course, all built-in or slightly modified recipes come from Fuji X Weekly and Life, Unintended.
Hint: if you allow the Shortcut access to Finder’s Quick Access, you can then right click an image in Finder, go to Quick Actions, and use the Shortcut! Or, if previews/column mode is enabled in Finder, left click an image and the Shortcut will show up below the image preview. Handy!
Download this Shortcut from iCloud.com: https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/d10b5f998c0f46b3a78c861b3df63f39
Changelog (I’ll update the iCloud link for each dated “release”):
v.20211124 - Remove Dynamic Range because there is too much variability. There’s enough variables that removing DR from match shouldn’t result in false-positives. This allowed me to remove recipes that only had their DR adjusted (mostly because I accidentally set the wrong DR :-p)v.20211123 - Film Simulations that come with this shortcut are mostly from Fuji X Weekly at fujixweekly.com. I’ve tweaked some of the simulations and those have parentheticals in the keys in the FilmSimulation text box. v.20211123 - added a few more recipes I use, added missing photo file paths, restrict file input to just images. 20211121 - initial release
From Maui earlier this month: sunset on a boat. While we mostly enjoyed the sunset cruise, we learned that we are firmly terrestrial people and won’t bother with boats again. Unless it is a ferry in exceedingly calm waters (like the San Francisco Bay).
With macOS 12.0.1 Shortcuts’ Run Shell Script, Shortcuts often crashes when reading stdout text. After much experimentation, my workaround: send output to a file and then use Shortcut’s File function to read the file into the workflow.
From Maui: Sea Turtle Part Photos
Here’s a collection of sea turtle parts while on Maui earlier this month. I made ample use of the X100V’s continuous shooting mode, getting several hundred photos and out of those only about six with clearly identifiable turtle parts. They’re amazing creatures and I can spend hours watching them from a distance that won’t stress them out.
You will likely need to tap on a photo to zoom in to see details of the turtle part(s) :-)
Turtle fin:
Head of a turtle:
Another head:
Yet another head with perhaps an exposed shell below and left of the head:
Rear of a turtle:
Saw a beautiful orchid today.
From the left: Jupiter, Moon, Saturn. Then just the moon.
Haleakala as the morning sun peaks over. Then crepuscular rays! The first time I ever noticed them.
Dragon’s Teeth at Kapalua, Hawaii.
Playing with Bulb on my X100V. 7 second exposure of Haleakala at nautical dawn. So cool that I can control the shutter with my phone.
Sunrises and Haleakala on Maui, Hawaii never get old.
I didn’t get why people include grain in their digital photos, thinking it is an anachronistic hipster thing. I’ve fully come around and find grain added by my camera can make photos seem sharper yet give blur and subjects more character. Photos feel better with grain.
Current Slate of Fujifilm Film Simulations
I’ve got a slate of six Film Simulations from Fuji X Weekly loaded on my X100V. Fuji X Weekly’s Film Recipes app is nice for a quick reference. Here’s what I’ll be working with for a while in hopes of greatly limiting RAW reprocessing with Straight-Out-Of-Camera (SOOC) JPEGs:
- General Purpose:
- Landscape:
- Street:
I figured out how to use Fujifilm X Raw Studio to save user settings to the camera. Depending on the RAW you’re using to create a user setting, it may not let you set a higher Dynamic Range so one must find a RAW shot with that dynamic range or higher or adjust that setting on the camera. I made sure to copy these to X Raw Studio’s User Settings to keep a backup. Oddly enough, the User Settings have more restrictions on allowable characters than the camera itself. As a Mac user, X Raw Studio is clunky as heck and has needless alert dialogs but it works well enough. It is clearly purpose built.
Closer look at a senescing apricot leaf compared to a still green leaf.
Our apricot is almost ready to overwinter. The nectarine at the bottom left is being a bit stubborn. California wild rose at the bottom right is in full growth mode.
Perfect field weather today.
