Missing Piece

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I found myself really missing Lucy this evening. Why today more than any other day, I have no idea. Just the way it goes, I suppose.

I went out for a drive and ended up by the river, where we often used to go after work to have a change of scene.
After I sat there for a few minutes, I remembered that we often used to go and get a cortado from the Starbucks drive through. Back in the days of COVID shielding, it felt like a relatively safe treat.

Anyway, I went and got our old order and sat in the car drinking cortado, watching the rain, and replying to a slightly curious work email until it got dark.

Yes, I know Starbucks are money-grabbing, tax-evading scumbags (and probably more besides), but I'm putting nostalgia over corporate boycotts tonight.

[This is the sort of post that will probably make certain people worry about me. If you're one of those people - don't worry, I'm OK]

Poppy

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I think this is the first half-decent poppy shot I've taken this year.
I rather like them, little explosions of red against the green background of grass or crops.

Time To Reflect

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I do enjoy an evening walk by the river.
A backup photo, my sound man hat was firmly affixed to my head today.

Riverside Chillout

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Such a pleasant evening that I went for two consecutive walks!
I was supposed to be going shopping, but that got pushed back so far that my usual places had shut for the night, so I ended up in Asda at midnight.
C'est la vie.

Luminarium

Click image to view a bigger version I went to Luminarium:Timisien at @lakesidearts this evening.
A fascinating, otherworldly installation. Well worth a wander round, I'd say, I really enjoyed it.

A few more after the jump.

Cedar Rose

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I've had this cedar rose floating about the house for a while, and landed on it as a last-minute subject today, after spending a large chunk of the evening updating and preparing my live streaming system for a job at work next week.
I've been intending to deal with it in working hours for about 3 weeks now, the box has been in and out of the back of the car at least twice, and it even made it all the way into the office on one occasion, but as ever, there were larger fires that needed for be dealt with, and it got pushed back again and again.
Still, it's done now, just need to connect and test it with the real camera setup at work, then I'll be all set to play vision mixer (and several other simultaneous roles) for the week.

Pineapple Weed

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And a bridge.

A backup photo today, it has been far too hot, and I crashed out badly after dinner.

I'm quite pleased with the teleconversion lens I picked up (used) for the X100V.
It gives a roughly 50mm equivalent field of view, up from the standard 35mm equivalent, but it maintains the f/2 aperture of the native lens by attaching to the front and having a larger front element. Rather clever - I'm used to teleconverters eating at least a stop of light.
It's quite a lump, but the camera still feels pretty good with it attached.
It turns out that it's easy to install a magnet into the Mk1 converter that I have in order to convert it functionally to a Mk2 - the optics apparently didn't change, but they added a magnet for auto-detection of the converters with the more recent X100 series cameras.