Davenport Bluffs

File this under "I spent so much time exploring and taking photos that I forgot to pay my credit card bill."

Shot with the Fuji X100S and my new 50mm attachment.







And, of course, a few from my favorite instant camera to carry around, even more so than the Polaroid 195.
Take the photo, stick it in my pocket.

 
 
 

Finch Snuggles

Sometimes, they sleep together all cuddled up like this at night. The baby birds have pretty much developed all their final colors. No matter how old they get, the children will always be babies to me.

(Left to right: Baby boy, mother, baby girl, father)

Shark Fin Cove in Davenport Beaches

While Tyler was driving, I frantically searched "Shark Fin Cove" into Google Maps, but no actual location popped up, only a not-very-useful "Highway 1, Davenport, CA" address.

It was coming up any minute and turning around on a one lane highway was too stressful to think about.

I googled "Shark Fin Cove" and looked for any indication of a location on a map and then proceeded to try to match the edges of the coast to the app. It was like studying puzzle pieces.

It looked like it was coming up soon. One minute later, I told him "It should be any parking area that comes up RIGHT after Bonny Doon road."

We literally just had a few minutes of light left. It didn't help that I wasn't wearing appropriate footwear.

(I'm never wearing the right shoes for these things.)

 


Also, as a final note, here's how to find Shark Fin Cove, since it wasn't easy finding exact directions.



Basically, turn left and park in the lot that comes RIGHT AFTER BONNY DOON ROAD when traveling north on Highway 1.

Two Thoughts About the Fujifilm TCL-X100

Precisely a year ago, I attached a Sony teleconversion lens with a step up ring and made a poor man's 50mm attachment for the X100S. It was neat for a few shots, but the crazy amount of distortion and warping in the sides made any photo that wasn't a close up portrait of a single person pretty much unusable.

With a trip to Japan coming up soon, I wanted the real thing. So I plunked down $350 and got the Fujifilm TCL-X100 teleconversion lens.

Here's what it looks like on my X100S:

Here are two thoughts from my initial use of it  -

1. There's still some distortion, but easily correctable in Lightroom. I found that setting the distortion to -13 got me a pretty accurate image. I only need to do this if my background has distinct straight lines, such as doorways, window frames, or the horizon of a landscape.

EDITED: The firmware update 1.2 fixes this.
http://www.fujifilm.com/support/digital_cameras/software/firmware/x/x100s/

Left: No distortion correction.
Right: Set the distortion to about -13 in Lightroom.

2. It's not the sharpest when focusing at close distances. Using the 50mm attachment, yes - I can focus pretty closely. But it will be soft. For pixel-peepers, this will be a glaring problem. For the average shooter, maybe not too much. I don't really consider myself a pixel-peeper, but I did find my close up images a bit too soft for my taste.

Solution: just back up a bit. Even without the 50mm attachment, the X100/S isn't the sharpest when you're shooting at the minimum focusing distance.

Other thoughts:

It's easy to attach and small enough to fit in a jacket pocket. It made the X100S larger, but definitely not obtrusive. The only thing I'm bummed about it is that I can't use the optical viewfinder with it so it'll drain my battery faster.

I have a few photos from exploring some new places shot with the X100S and the TCL-X100 50mm attachment that I'll be sharing shortly.

A Few Frames on Expired Kodak Gold 200

Back in late July of last year, I spent a few days by myself driving up over to the northwest side of California. I had two second shooting jobs nearly back to back, so I took a few days to explore the Twin Lakes area, Lake Mary, and even some quick areas of Yosemite as I drove through. I brought along my Nikon FM and a few rolls of Kodak Gold 200 that didn't have any expiration date on them and hoped for the best.

Kino, Flo, Jr, and Baby

In the beginning, there was Kino and Arri.

They were originally purchased as props for a short student film project that I was a part of back in 2012. After production wrapped, I volunteered to take the birds and care for them.

Kino (left), Arri (right)
I printed this photo after Arri died. 

Kino and Arri laid lots of eggs together, but unfortunately they were always either unfertilized or never came to term. When Arri died, Kino spent most of the rest of the year alone.

I decided to move Kino up to Gilroy so I could take care of him every day. He was pretty good during the entire 5 hour drive. At first he squabbled a bit for the first half of the trip, until it got so quiet that I had to pull over and check up on him. I found him sleeping on a perch in the corner contently.

A few days after moving up to Gilroy, I decided to go to Petsmart and get him a female friend. After so many unsuccessful attempts at breeding with Arri, I figured I'd get him a male friend to avoid having to deal with eggs. Getting a female and having eggs was better than the potential that two male finches would fight all the time, though.

Zebra finches sound JUST like Peanut's squeaky toys.

I went to Petsmart and picked out a female finch that seemed the calmest, since the rest of the finches were chasing each other aggressively. I brought her home and let her fly into the cage.

Flo (left) and Kino (right) meet for the first time.

Kino seemed SO happy and immediately did his mating song, flying around happily. Flo seemed neutral at first.

I read that to discourage breeding, you simply take away the nest or any nesting materials, so I didn't give them any. One day as I was cleaning up the cage, I noticed that Kino and Flo were staring at a particular corner of the cage, past the bars. Apparently, despite not having a nest, Flo went ahead and laid two eggs, which cracked when they fell from the top perch through the metal floor of the cage. Additionally, when I picked up the cage to clean the bottom, I noticed that Kino had pulled out a bunch of his own feathers in attempts to make a nest.

:( At least this egg was unfertilized.

After that, I decided to give them a nest so that they wouldn't pull their feathers out or have their eggs fall through the bars. Since previous attempts between Kino and Arri to have babies didn't work out, I didn't think that Flo laying eggs would result in anything.

Kino and Flo dutifully worked at making a nest in the box and nesting material I provided them. One day, I found a few eggs in there so I decided to candle them (hold a flashlight underneath them to see if they're fertile). Behold, veins!

With it being the holidays, I didn't have time to keep track of how long it had been since they laid eggs. Occasionally I'd shine a light into their nest to see how things were doing. On New Years Day, I discovered two hatchlings in the nest! At just a few days old, they looked more like potato bugs than birds. I named them Jr and Baby.

What the heck is that, people often asked. They're stretching their necks out with their beaks up and open, begging for food. 

Kino and Flo did a great job keeping their tummies fed. Just a few days later, they were big enough for me to reach in and hold them. I also couldn't help but get in on feeding them a little bit of soft egg food whenever they opened their mouths for me.

Jr at about one week.

Baby, who is about two days younger than Jr. 

THAT FACE!

Feathers starting to grow.
(Thanks Tyler for helping me take those last four black and white photos!)

Each day, they grew right before my eyes. Those strange yellow sacs on the side of their necks are where their food goes. When it's engorged, that's when I know they're full and well fed.

At approximately 1.5 weeks.

I found it absolutely adorable how there were still stray baby hairs on the tops of their heads.

At approximately 2 weeks old.

Still looking a bit scraggly.

As they're getting older and learning to fly confidently (there were a few tumbles and falls when they were just learning), they're less inclined to stay perched on my finger, so I try to hold them for a little bit each day.

Hey sweetie, what are you guys doing in the food dish?

At 3 weeks old now, they can fly pretty confidently. Unless they're sleepy, they get more antsy when I try to hold them for photos.

Jr at approximately 3 weeks. 

Baby at approximately 3 weeks.

I am absolutely in love with them. <3 Kino and Flo already seem to want to start another clutch of eggs already, so I'll have to try taking the nest away soon after Jr and Baby no longer stay in them.

Family photo! It took a bit of patience to catch them sitting on the same perch.
(Left to right: Flo, Baby, Kino, Jr)