Single In Single in January (SiJ) 2021: discussion

If the rain keeps up, I may have to switch my gear to my Pentax WR stuff. I can do the GR and a brolly, and I can do the GR and a walking stick, but I can’t do the GR, a brolly and a walking stick all at once. But... its only day 1 and early on Day 1 at that. Anything could happen :)
Well we’ve got snow and ice in England, and the roads around here are really treacherous, so I may be shooting around the house. I may be part-titanium now but I don’t want any more!
 
At the last minute, packing my gear for my first photowalk of the month, I switched to another setup. There is something satisfying about using the larger EM1.3 that I just don’t get from a GX9. Somehow the GX9 is mostly used for quick snaps and the larger camera leads to more thoughtful image taking. Now I just hope that lugging that larger camera around everyday for a month won’t make me regret my choice. But at least it is weather sealed!
 
The lens I'm using is everything I expected it to be, this is going to be (or is) a hard month in terms of the challenge, I'll be doing well to even get images into the outtakes section. This Nikkor 35-70 F3.3-4.5 sort of reminds me of those first moody m43 lenses (not the Oly 75 or Lunix 25 f1.4/ 14mm F2.5 etc, more so those first edition zooms). Very rarely did I ever get an m43 file from one of those lenses to jpeg without some PS time, and through the years I've luckily got myself to the position where most times, the quality of lens and camera is enough. I think most of my time for the challenge is going to be spent in PS trying to turn S*+t into Jam. I won't give up though, you just never know what could be produced over the coming month. But it's going to be hard!
 
This is probably going to be a lot of things around the house for me. I started working retail back in April thanks in part to the pandemic. It means 4 days a week I'm on my feet and working a really physical position after 30 odd years of mostly sitting on my @$$ for work. It means I'm tired and sore more than half the time. But on the plus side I've built some muscle I haven't had in a while and lost 15-20 pounds so......
 
I have to say that I have been fighting the GX9 these first three days - it's way fiddlier than I'd like it to be for shooting with manual lenses. If there's an upside to this, it has made me use zone focusing most of the time, something I should get more familiar and more comfortable with (and which is easy to do with a 7.5mm lens!).

I've reconfigured the function buttons now to offer better support, but the fiddliness won't go away, at least not when used with (thin!) gloves. I'll persevere, of course (I've been through worse as far as this is concerned), but if I want the images to be as sharp as possible, it's a bit of a chore. That said, I do like the lens and the experience it offers - I could get used to this, even :)

M.
 
Rain has paused briefly. Other areas of the region are flooding. I’ll reserve the right to switch to the Pentax as needed :) But I’d rather use the GRII.

I had no idea that the X100V was WR! Now I am more interested in it than I was!
Everything except the front of the lens. You need an adaptor ring and filter to finish the deal, which adds maybe 4 mm to the lens.
 
I have difficulties with the clock (and calendar). My inner clock is messed up because of free time during the festive season and dark winter. The snow helps a bit, it's lighter out there even at the nights (street-lamps). But I believe the Covid19 lockdown is also starting to affect heavily my daily routines and sense of time. It's difficult to keep up the pace of days, my wife says the same, and that's got to be with the staying all days at home, for working and the rest.

(Or it might be also because of watching junior ice hockey world championship from Canada all the nights :rolleyes-74:)

How about you? Any challenges to remember to take a picture on the right day?
 
Any challenges to remember to take a picture on the right day?
Not really, my friends and family have told me about the light in your part of the world but only in the context of it being light all of the time in summer with curtains drawn from 9pm to 6am, even though there's daylight outside the whole time during those hours. It is interesting to see you losing track of the days throughout the winter darkness.
 
During the summer here it is true that light is overwhelming and can make troubles to people who are not used to it, in e.g. sleeping. Daylight almost around the clock and for example birds roaring outside the window. Life is hectic during the summer and the season is short.

But the dark months are more troublesome. It has been studied and it shows that the symptoms might get even worse when one gets older. I've found that to be true for myself and the people near me. This lockdown to homes is making things worse, I believe. No routines to commute to work and back, no places to go for sport, art or other activities. And digital world being active 24/7 is not helping. Streaming ice hockey from North America, being -7 hours GMT and we being +2 GMT timezone doesn't help either. But luckily at least the work and school are continuing next week and that gives some short of schedules to our life 👍
 
The one sunny day of yesterday has gone again, but thats fine. Here’s something interesting (to me anyway). I fully expected to be champing at the bit to switch cameras, I’ve not been a single focal length person for decades although I do use primes with my Pentax gear from time to time. This time, I am enjoying getting to grips with using the GR2 on manual, and simply adjusting as needed. Its quick and easy on this camera and I really like it. Could be I’ll be eyeing off the GR3 before long.
 
Today was difficult - but in spite of the marginal weather, in the end, it was all my own fault: I left the cameras at home in the morning because I had slept very, very badly and did feel rather under the weather as a result. Exactly when I was driving home at noon (something I rarely do), the sun came out in the still falling snow - and me without a camera (or rather, *the* camera for the challenge) ... Bottomline: Don't be negligent, especially not out of self-pity (something I usually rather dislike anyway) or because you're despirited. You'll miss good opportunities and make things potentially worse. Oh, by the way: This has *nothing* to do with photography, it only extends to it ...

M.
 
This Single In has been the most difficult yet for me. Mostly bogged down with work (from home) while finding Covid striking closer into a circle of both friends and family. Keeping up with both the Single In and the Day to Day is feeling more a chore rather than the challenge it usually is. Looking at the output from each of you from your parts of the world does bring a highlight to each day! Keep it up!
 
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