Digital photo expert Styler Stalman joins David Sparks and Steven Hackett on Mac Power Users to discuss iPhone photography. It’s a great listen if you know a bit about cameras and photography (or want to learn) but came to this world from your phone. the ultrawide lens is 13mm, which is “beyond ultrawide” (typicallly 16mm) it’s not as good in low light as the 1x lens…

A couple of weeks ago, Rhonda and I visited Aaron at Rutgers for homecoming/parents weekend. We had a great time walking around campus and dining out. I took my camera bag so I could shoot with both the OM Systems E-M10 Mark IV and my older Olympus E-PL5. I kept the Lumix 20mm f/1.7 on the E-M10, and the whacky…

Rhonda and I agreed, just after our last visit to New Brunswick to see Aaron, that we’d trade in our annual visit to Rehoboth, Delaware, for another trip up to New Brunswick to visit Aaron. New Brunswick is peripheral to New York City, and represents the tip of the spear where New Jersey converts from bucolic and spacious to the stereotype of what most people associate with the Garden State: choked with cars and traffic, the Turnpike, jug handles, and road rage.

This past Friday, Rhonda and I lit out for another visit to New Brunswick to visit Aaron. Our tradition around this time each year is to take the ferry over to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, and stay at the excellent Hotel Rehoboth. Instead, we decided to visit Aaron again, since the boys don’t have a fall break for the New Jersey Teachers Convention now that they’re both in college.

Rhonda and I had to take the title for the old WRX back to the dealership, so we stopped at Bellview for a glass of wine. I took both cameras, the E-M10 Mark IV with and the EPL-5, the former with the 20mm 1.7 Panasonic lens, and the latter with the TT Artisans 18mm f/6.3 UFO. I was pretty sure I’d managed to outclass the Lumix 1.7 with this pic from the e-pl5/TT artisans combo: But an accidental ev setting and the E-M10 proved too good to beat:

Rhonda and I visited Bellview yesterday after our big car purchase. One of our former schoolmates (and the father of one of Aaron's friends) was there for a sip and had driven his MG replica. I grabbed this pic on our way out.

Rhonda and I were off work yesterday, and decided to look at a couple of cars to replace our aging 2016 Subaru WRX. It had almost 100k miles on it and was starting to look pretty beat up. We did the dealership visit and decided to purchase a new white 2025 WRX. I’m pretty used to haggling and dealing with dealerships, having bought a few cars of my own and also the boys’ cars.

All religions, all political movements and national identities, all business ventures, all charitable activity and all artistic pursuits are nothing but “immortality projects ,” desperate efforts to break free of death’s gravitational pull." Oliver Burkeman, The Antidote And yes, I did put the comma inside the quote, because that’s where it belongs. Do we hope to capture these moments... these…

I mentioned last weekend that I was trying to replace the flushing components in the toilet upstairs. The problem I ran into was that I couldn’t spin the nuts off of the bolts in water tank; the metal used in the bolts was softened by all those years of submersion in water, I guess, and not even some strategic spritzes with Liquid Wrench helped.

I took a couple of pics of my preprandial Manhattan yesterday with the TT Artisans 18mm f/6.3 UFO Lens. There's nothing milky or cloudy about the drink (see the second pic), but again, the weirdness of this lens enchants me.

Took this pic at work of the Air with Michael Caputo's six-color sticker affixed. Looks great.

Saw this whip on the commute home today. Shared with dad and Aaron. I was driving Aaron’s Mini, as I do, twice a week, as he’s off at college.

I snuck some pics Sunday while I was grilling with the TT Artisans lens.

When I was a kid, every Sunday at 9 pm, my paternal grandfather, “Gramps” to me, would call our house. The 9 pm time was, by his explanation, when the long distance rates dropped. He would call from a rotary phone in his kitchen, which did not have a long enough cord to afford him or my grandmother to sit down while talking.

Now this is some fall weather we’re having! Rhonda and I were happy to get to Bellview after a couple of weeks away. It was packed but we found an iron table near the arbor and packed own provisions. The live music featured a drummer I know personally, and the singer/guitarist is Aaron’s former history teacher. It’s spritzes while the ribeyes soak in the sous vide tank for a spell.

On Saturday of this year’s parents weekend at Rutgers, we picked up Aaron at his dorm and walked around the College Ave campus, stopping in at Zimmerli Art Museum, and then explored New Brunswick a bit. Zimmerli is a smallish museum, made of tan brick that reminds me oh-so-much of the architecture in South Jersey. Featured Holdings Immediately to the left of the entrance was a gallery of Zimmerli’s featured holdings.

For our big Parents Weekend visit at Rutgers, I made a reservation at Le Malt Lounge for Saturday night. I fully expected this to be the marquee meal of our trip. For Friday’s adventure, though, I texted Aaron to ask him if he wanted to go anywhere special. He didn’t express a strong opinion, but reiterated his interest in the…

Rhonda and I rolled up to New Brunswick to steal Aaron from his fraternity “learning” this weekend during Parents Weekend. We stayed over two nights in place of our usual trip to Rehoboth Beach, DE, in November, which we’ve been doing for years, punctuated by mandatory quarantine during COVID. Back in my day, this would have been called “homecoming,” but I guess Parents Weekend fits the bill more, as you can’t assume it’s for alumni only.

I was in Friday fettle today at work, as Rhonda and I are off to visit Aaron for Rutgers Parents Weekend tomorrow. We plan to stop at Stokelan Winery on the way up. I made a couple of dinner reservations: The Frog and the Peach and Le Malt Lounge. I’m not sure what we’ll end up doing otherwise but it’s going to be a nice visit no matter what.

I’ve contributed my fair share of posts about why (bother) blogging at all, and while I resist the solipsistic urge to overly consider myself, I am serially drawn to make some sense of it. Here are some recent posts to consider. David Johnson: That is me and blogging. I enjoy writing. It moves me, flexes a creative urge within me, one that I cannot leave alone or ignore - a wish to explain, describe, explore through the written word.

It feels like fall out there! Finally! I pulled some flannel out of the closet upstairs and swapped out my short-sleeve polos and shorts. It’s a good day to be inside, with all this rain and wind. We met Teri for some snackies and wine at Bellview for one of the last soirees of the season Friday after work. Next weekend Rhonda and I will be in New Brunswick visiting Aaron at Rutgers for Parents Weekend.

I find myself, sometimes, awake around 3 am, and after a trip to the loo, I’m not feeling tired and I toss and turn for a bit. My habit is to avoid looking at my watch when I get up so I don’t worry about falling back to sleep. After a while, if I can’t sleep, I’ve taken to dragging my ass out of bed and hitting the routine: rowing, kettlebells, meditation.

One of the central challenges (perhaps the challenge) of cooking at home is remembering dishes. You can easily get in a rut, or at the very least forget about some popular and easy dishes. To this end, I refer to AnyList to see what was on the meal plan recently, but the problem with ruts is they can stretch out interminably.

I took the E-PL5 with the TT Artisans 18mm f/6.3 lens with me to the winery yesterday and took some pics. It’s strange that I’m so drawn to taking that one with me instead of the E-M10 Mark IV with the Panasonic Lumix f/1.7, but I like wondering what I’m going to get. I toss a lot of the shots I take with this lens.

We’re well into October but I’m in shorts and it’s pretty much summer outside (during the day at least). I did manage to wear a flannel shirt Friday, though. I’ll be grilling ribeyes shortly; they’re in the sous vide tank right now. Not Your Desk I see your desk: bespoke. the ultra-clean, organized set up. The RGB lights tastefully illuminating the cubbies.