Scattered Thoughts . . .

I had written previously about an old film-era lens I picked up at an exceptional price but feel it is worth revisiting again today in this blog post.  The lens is an old Konica Hexanon AR 40mm, f1.8... I added a short vented lens hood to this lens which helps reduce flare when the sun is not backlighting my subject (when the sun is in the frame, no lens hood will help). I also needed to add a lens adapter so I could mount this Konica AR mount lens to my Sony full frame camera. This is a small but very solid lens... built exceptionally well... and I'm liking the image quality! This old lens shows some character flaws in certain shooting conditions which you don't often find in today's digital lenses. I went back through the few photos I shot this morning while testing this lens and I found a couple of photos which I'm really liking... showing these flaws... the film-like flare of decades ago can't go unnoticed yet, even with this film-like flare, the images stil

Konica Hexanon 40mm, f1.8 lens As I wrote in a blog entry a few days ago, I found a beautiful old lens for sale after searching for almost a year. I quickly ordered this old but 'like-new' lens as well as a lens hood and a lens mount adapter to allow this lens to work with my particular camera. In total, this beautiful old lens was dirt cheap. I attempted to head outdoors yesterday morning to get some shots but between some very lousy health and very windy conditions, I captured nothing but blurred photos because of shakey hands and everything blowing violently in the wind. This morning, however, was a completely different story... There was no wind this morning... it was cold and crisp   (still below freezing when I headed outdoors)  with no wind whatsoever... my health had stabilized within the past 24 hours so my hands had steadied up to a normal level (which comes in handy when shooting a manual focus lens)... This was the time to put this new lens to the test.

Even considering I had some poor health this morning (Sunday morning), I managed to get quite a bit accomplished on the dollhouse this weekend.  Let's start with the poor health... I spent far too much time in the bathroom late last night, sick as a dog... I was dying to sleep and was having difficulty keeping my eyes open but I was still sick and stuck in the bathroom... I thought I would be napping in the bathroom for a bit there. This morning, although a bit worn out and weak, I thought I was doing considerably better but I had more serious problems come on very suddenly while Sheila and I were at the grocery store.  I was worn out from the previous night's poor health spent in the bathroom but I thought that would be the extent of my problems. While we were passing the frozen food aisle, I started seeing 'sparklies' in my eyes... I was feeling weaker and more worn out... and my breathing was beginning to become shallow... I knew the process of anaphylaxis ha

Today is a perfect example of how just one small errand can put a quick end to my day. I awoke feeling halfway decent... I decided to tackle some small tasks around the house this morning since I was feeling well but first I needed to run a quick errand. I needed to run to the local grocery store this morning to pick up something for lunch and a few other odds and ends. On the short drive down to the store, I actually felt much better than I have in recent memory. As a result, my thoughts were filled with all the wonderful things I could accomplish today... even thoughts of activities I used to be able to do when I was healthy.  I knew this errand wouldn't take long and I was looking forward to having a very productive day for a change.  I had so few things to purchase that I was in and out of the store within a few minutes but, unfortunately, this simple errand required more energy than I had in me to expend today despite how great I felt only a few short minutes earlier.

Konica Hexanon 40mm f1.8 lens... 40-something years old and in excellent condition. I've been searching for a low-priced, yet high quality 35mm or 40mm lens on the used market for about a year. (I'm disabled with no income other than my ridiculously small disability insurance pension through Social Security so all my photography gear is acquired used at bargain basement prices.) I have been in no hurry so I just patiently waited until I found the right lens for my needs. Late last week, I found a beautiful 40mm lens that fits the bill and instantly ordered it. I also ordered a lens hood and the appropriate mount adapter so I could mount it on my best camera. Now, I was excited about getting this lens and playing with it! The lens arrived quickly...  delivered by Fedex  only two days later. As I removed it from the box, I immediately noticed that this lens is in excellent condition for a 40-something year old lens. Now I was really excited to get to mount this on my came

As one might expect, according to Liza, the kids awoke on Halloween morning and wanted to jump right into their costumes and all the Halloween festivities. Needless to say, by the time evening had arrived and time for 'trick or treating' with the rest of the little ghosts and ghouls in our neck of the woods, the kids were having difficulty keeping their eyes open... actually, they were even having difficulty holding their heads up!  Liza and the kids arrived at our house at 5pm to get ready for their night of festivities in downtown Waterbury... asleep, groggy and even a bit cranky (which I should mention that Sheila and I rarely see!) . They had fallen asleep in the car on their way to our house and now needed to catch a second wind. Little by little, costumes were put together again and put on the kids. Makeup was applied... well, re-applied... they had been wearing makeup all day but most of it was smeared under eyes and rubbed off... onto their couch as well as c

My health always seems to be teetering on disaster.  I actually had a "relatively good" day on Sunday...  possibly the best day of health I've had in the past four months of consistently lousy health... contrasting that "good" health on Sunday, all of that quickly changed today. The crazy thing is that I think my health has crashed today not because of something completely out of my control but because I had to spread out today's four doses of medications over a significant longer period of time and, frankly,... I did not manage my medications effectively. Typically, my first dose of a cocktail of medications for Systemic Mastocytosis each day is at around 8am before breakfast.... then noon before lunch... then 4pm before dinner...  and then around 9pm before bed (I always must take these medications on an empty stomach). So, as you can see from this normal schedule, I only spread out my medications up to about five hours apart. History has proven that

Homemade cranberry sauce... the white chunks are pears... I'm definitely  no fan of Thanksgiving dinner... I never have been... too much food... not even all that satisfying yet far too much work... even more work to clean up... and, as far as I'm concerned, turkey is really only good for a club sandwich paired with tons of bacon.  Every now and then, however, I do get a craving for mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, stuffing, corn and some chicken breasts. Earlier today I had one of these cravings. The grandchildren are coming over for dinner with us tomorrow night so I decided we should have this pre-Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow evening. In order to ease the cooking burden tomorrow while the kids are here (and so I can play with them for a bit), I decided to make the homemade cranberry sauce this evening.  One of my sisters sent me a recipe for cranberry sauce a few years ago and it was pretty good... a little too 'orangy' for me, but it was good. As

I've spent some time painting the doll townhouse the past few days. What I've been envisioning in my mind has been taking form in real life... and now, in color! I'm really liking this paint scheme and I think it favors the Georgetown Townhouse style I was envisioning.  The traditional yellow walls with a nice (but non-traditional) stucco texture... the clean lines of white trim... contrasting black window shutters... and a welcoming red front entry door... this is all coming together very nicely and is very reminiscent of the traditional Georgetown style. I'm actually getting excited as this homemade dollhouse comes together. The yellow exterior paint has been a major problem though... I think I now have about six or seven coats of yellow paint on this dollhouse due to some errors in choosing the correct shade of yellow. The first shade of yellow I chose was a bit dull. The second shade of yellow I chose was so bright that it had a bit of a fluorescent tint