the boy

Charleston Spring

Monday 17 March 2025

We spent yesterday and today in Charleston -- a favorite destination when we have a bit of time, a bit of money, and an itch to travel. Only three hours away, it's a perfect weekend destination.

And even when it's too cold to go into the water, we have to spend some time on the beach.

We gave the new camera a bit of a workout. It's a steep learning curve: there are a lot more possibilities than our older cameras (focus modes, for instance), and it's taking us a while to get used to everything.

Still, the size, the image quality -- I think it was a good choice for us as are kids grow up. I won't be needing to take any more volleyball pictures, and for soccer, I'll still likely reach for the Nikon given the lens options we have.

Still, for our trip to Greece and Poland this summer, only one camera and one lens.

We took a couple of walks,

I took some pictures of the waves,

and then we headed downtown. The kids wanted to do a little shopping; K and I just split up with them and helped out. Afterward, there was only one place to go before heading back:

Hyman's -- probably the most famous seafood place in Charleston. I almost always order the same thing: there's only one variant. I'll always have mussels; I always take the deviled crab; after that, the third is the only variant. Today, I had the salmon croquette. All delicious.

K ate light -- too mush sushi the night before.

The Boy, being the Boy, decided to try something new: crawfish. He wasn't thrilled. He ate them, but decided it was too much work for too little return.

Landscaping Saturday

Saturday 15 March 2025

Monday

Tuesday 11 March 2025

Spring Sports Saturday

Saturday 08 March 2025

Friday 07 March 2025

New Camera

Wednesday 05 March 2025

The decision to leave my school and take a chance with at a new school teaching a new subject was in some ways difficult and in other ways easy. Seventeen years in a place can do that to you.

Changing camera systems is sort of the same. The first real camera I bought was in Poland: a Zenit I bought at the jarmark. After that, I bought a Nikon. When I returned to the States, I bought my first and last Canon, and a couple of years after that, I bought my first digital camera, a Sony. Finally, when we bought a DSLR, we went back to Nikon. First, a D70s. Then a D300. And seven years ago, almost to the day (6 March 2018), we bought a D500.

It was about time for an upgrade.

But to what? DSLRs are on the way out -- it's all mirrorless these days. And besides, we wanted something small: the D500 with the 2.8 lens weighs over 1600 grams, and it's huge. Not as big as a D6, but not as professionally expensive, either.

We'd been using our Fuji X100 almost exclusively over the last year or so, and we'd gotten spoiled with its size and simplicity. But it was nearing its end: released in 2011, our lovely little Fuji was 14 years old -- ancient by digital camera standards. So, again, it was time for an upgrade.

We wanted something small, but in the end, we wanted a bit more functionality than the X100 series would offer. While we love the camera, it does have its limitations. We thought briefly about the Fuji X-Pro 3, which is similar to the X100 series but with interchangeable lenses. But that price...

In the end, we decided to change camera systems entirely and go with the Sony a6700.

When the battery was charged up, E and I took the dog and the camera for a walk to see its low-light capabilities. The same walk, in fact, that we took with the D500...