🦋 Wandering through October

Sharp-eyed readers might have noticed that even though this entry is dated for October 3rd, it was actually uploaded on the 4th. Yes, I am cheating with this one and backdating it, but only because I really had written most of this out before midnight, but then passed out due to migraines. So uh, please pretend that this went up yesterday, okay? This will be our little secret.

# Mini Photo Walk

# The walk

I had to go to town and run some errands this morning, and I brought along the Fujifilm to take photos instead of just using my phone. I had hoped to wake up much earlier and take my time, but I unfortunately overslept by a lot and ended up just heading straight to my destinations. I did at least manage to get a few practice shots in.

Passed through the park near our place and saw white spider lilies in bloom. Tried to get a photo with this swallowtail but it was very busy and not in the mood to sit still for a photo 😅 I need to practice holding the camera steady so that they don’t turn out all blurry…

It’s been rainy these past few days, especially further inland, so the river was swollen with water. I saw these four good cormorants just chilling out… they were actually sunning out their feathers but of course as soon as I held up my camera, they got shy and tucked in their wings 😔

This summer was so brutally hot that I didn’t really have much of a chance to go on very many photo walks. I am so glad the weather has cooled off considerably, so I need to get in all of my flower shots that I can before winter hits.

Passed by a little shrine with clusters of red spider lilies near the bottom of the entrance. Spider lilies are called higanbana, as in, the flowers of the Higan (transition into autumn, as well as the Other World). Very cool and spooky.

# Editing

Once I got back, I imported the raws to my office computer and edited them in RawTherapee. I’m trying to get used to it, but there is definitely a learning curve. I really miss when Lightroom was a standalone purchase and not bundled with Adobe’s horrible subscription…

I haven’t tried DarkTable yet, though I have heard good things about it. I am at this point sort of nervous to try and learn another environment after making so much progress with RawTherapee. I guess I need to go on more photo walks to and just get my practice in.

I’m completely self-taught and groping in the dark when I edit these photos. I’m sure if I knew anything about levels and such, I could do a better job. For now though, I just keep fiddling with contrast and saturation until it looks decent, and then throw them into the queue to export into my photos directory. Taking photography and photo editing courses is on my bucket list for sure.

# Stuff I’m playing

I picked up He is Coming in the Steam autumn sale and really enjoy it. It’s a simple and quick roguelite, with a full run often taking less than half an hour. Despite the simplicity, there is great synergy between the different items to allow for some fun builds, and the limitations on inventory make it pretty strategic rather than mindless. It fills the hole in my heart that Loop Hero left behind¹.

I clipped the Steam recording of a couple of my successful runs. I really like this new Steam recording feature that automatically records stuff in the background so I can clip and upload them later.

Beating the Swampland Hydra on Normal. I died so many times to the second that finally realized that was the head I needed to cut, and once I did it was easy peasy.

Beating the Woodland Abomination on Hard. This was much easier than the Hydra, honestly.

# Bandcamp Friday

And finally, it’s Bandcamp Friday! I picked up some great albums today. I’m in kind of a weird unmoored state of mind at the moment, and it turns out that means a lot of indie pop and shoegaze.

Serene Reminder by The Fur. This is the cure for what ails me. Definitely gonna check out their other albums before the next Bandcamp Friday rolls around.

Millions of Years Apart by The Dinosaur’s Skin: Very fun and poppy. Someone I follow on Mastodon recommended this and I am very sorry that I cannot remember who it was, but please know that you have incredible taste!!

Their music is great but honestly their music videos are even better:

Lazy Sun, Late Risers by Happypills: Sometimes you’re down in the dumps and just need some pleasant shoegaze to sink into. Happypills’ music is all PWYW and it’s very dreamy and soothing.

If you’ve got any good music recs, definitely send them my way so I can throw them onto my Bandcamp wishlist for the next time!

Anyway I think it is time to go lie down again, I shall be back tomorrow (editor’s note: later today) with another post!! Blogtober simply cannot be stopped!!

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