Fisheye!

It's been years, maybe decades, since I bought a new lens. But this month I decided I would like to have a fisheye lens for my new D500.

I did a brief survey of what's available and finally settled on a Rokinon 8mm f/3.5 fisheye lens for about $220.

It arrived yesterday and I did my first shoot with it for publication today in The Lebanon Reporter - a photo of the county jail to accompany a story about an outbreak of Covid among the jail's population.

I'm still learning the new lens - I find I need to under-expose by about 1 f-stop to avoid blowing out the image. I'm puzzled by that, but I'll figure out why over time.

The lens is kind of a one-trick pony and should be used sparingly, but it's a fun toy.

Tucker is visiting

Tucker, our granddog, is spending a few days with us while his family is on vacation.

He's a red heeler, a kind of Australian Cattle Dog. He's stand-offish with strangers and came from an abusive owner when my stepdaughter rescued him six years ago. It took him awhile to warm up to his new extended family, but now he likes to cuddle. He seems especially happy to see me and jumped up onto the couch to be petted shortly after arriving last night.

Rain jacket and Lexus problem solved

My Duluth Trading Co. No Rainer rain jacket arrived today, just in time for a lengthy dry spell.

But that's not what I want to write about on this, Skip Hess's 83rd birthday.

Our 2004 Lexus RX330 looks older than it is because of a crappy clear-coat application. The peeling clear-coat makes the car look like it has feathers and is molting.

A newish battery refused to hold a charge. Since it was under warranty, the shop replaced it for free.

Fast forward. It sits idle a lot because we prefer to drive our 2017 Subaru Forester. Lately, whenever I go to start it, the new battery is dead. I jump start it and drive around a lot, but come the next morning, the battery is dead again.

The odds of getting two faulty batteries in the space of a few months are pretty long, so I figured something else must be at play.

I came to the conclusion that some circuit in the car is draining the battery, even when the car is idle. Especially when it's idle.

So I jump started it and took it to the shop where it sat for 3-4 days until it finally refused to start. I asked the technicians to trouble shoot the wiring system with an eye to finding a current drain.

They did and that's what they found - a ground wire with worn insulation. They fixed it for $59 and the problem appears to be solved.

I'm pleasantly surprised that I could intuit the problem.

Changing the fridge water filter

One of my least favorite household chores involves replacing the water filter in our refrigerator.

The installation is easy, but then the manufacturer advises to run 4 gallons of water through it before you use it.

The water pressure is low enough that it takes about 20 minutes to run that much water, making it a mind-numbingly tedious process.

Never mind, is has to be done, so I pulled up a kitchen chair and did it this morning.

Back in the saddle again

 Photos from my new Nikon D500 dominate the front page of today's Lebanon Reporter.

I did the pictures and Maria did the words. The A-Team is back!