August 27, 2023

Apple Blossom Festival

Well, this is a bit awkward…. Completed missed this opportunity to yapp about a wonderful experience. H’mmm, “old-timers” disease perhaps? Well, we’ll leave that discussion for another day. As part of my retirement celebration, the kids and I decided to visit the Apple Blossom Festival in Winchester, VA. It’s kind of an odd thing, as this is held at the same time as the Wine Festival in Winchester. The difference is the Apple Blossom Festival is free to enter while the Wine Festival is a paid entry. It made for an interesting situation getting around in Winchester, and it definitely wasn’t an ideal situation. Hopefully the Winchester folks can see…

Read more

written by Chris - Posted in Fuji, Photography, Travel, Fuji, X-T2, Fuji, XF 16-80mm F4 R OIS WR

August 6, 2023

Udvar-Hazy

One of the amazing benefits of living in the WMA (Washington Metropolitan Area) is the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum. We’ve been to the center a couple of times, but it has been a number of years since our last visit. Jourdan and Stefani were in town for the 4th of July holiday, and seeing as it will be the last time that we will see them up here in the WMA, Jourdan and I decided to visit the center. It was a busy 3rd of July at the center as most folks had the day off in advance of Independence Day. There wasn’t…

Read more

written by Chris - Posted in Fuji, Fuji, X-T2, Fuji, XF 16-80mm F4 R OIS WR, Yapping

May 31, 2023

Fairfax Antique Car Show

The City of Fairfax, the town we live in, is an interesting community. Once upon a time it was small out of the way hamlet isolated from the hubbub of the WMA. Nowadays, urban sprawl has encompassed Fairfax and it acts a thoroughfare through which people travel getting back and forth to work. Saying that, it’s been a pleasant place to live the 2+ years we have been here. Fairfax still is operated as a small town and presents a large number of annual events, many of which we have taken part in. The subject of today’s post is the annual Fairfax Antique Car Show held on May 20th. We…

Read more

written by Chris - Posted in Fuji, X-T2, Fuji, XF 10-24mm F4 R OIS, Yapping

May 18, 2023

Seattle Part Dieu…

So, after a takeout dinner of excellent Lamb Biryani from Kanak Indian Quisine, I fell into bed and slept the good sleep. Only I was still on East Coast time, so my eyes opened automatically at 5:00 a.m. local (8:00 a.m. EDT). That’s about as long as I’m going to sleep nowadays. Years of getting up at 5:30 a.m. have left their mark. After taking a shower, I dressed and headed out toward our meeting. Stopping in at Cafe Madeline for breakfast, it’s early and I’m the only one in the place, thank goodness. Service is, as they say, sub-optimal. Luckily, there was plenty of time, so it wasn’t a…

Read more

written by Chris - Posted in Fuji, Fuji, X-T2, Fuji, XF 16-80mm F4 R OIS WR

May 7, 2023

Seattle Part Un….

Back in early April, I was voluntold to travel to Seattle to attend a meeting with a potential business partner to the company I’m contracted to. They needed someone technical in the discussions as the primary members were business types with little to no technical expertise. I’ve not typically done this in the past, but all of the others who had were, for various reasons, not available. So, lucky me I got to spend 10 hours of plane time for 2 hours of meeting. Yay! The benefit was there was going to be ample downtime to go out and exercise the new to me Fuji XF16-80 lens I bought with…

Read more

written by Chris - Posted in Fuji, X-T2, Fuji, XF 16-80mm F4 R OIS WR, Yapping

December 18, 2022

Manassas National Battlefield

Precursor: Some time back, I stumbled across a “final post” on a blog I had never before heard of; Leicaphilia. I don’t consider myself to be a particular Leicaphile, but this final post was quite poignant. The blogger, who was a dedicated Leicaphile, had been fighting stomach cancer for some time. He had just been sent home from his latest visit to the hospital to die. Doctors gave him a week, maybe two to live. So he posted a farewell to all the friends he had made worldwide via his blogging about Leica’s and film photography. Only. he didn’t. This was several months ago and Tim is still with us….

Read more

written by Chris - Posted in Fuji, Photography, Fuji, X-T2