November 2025
November 11th
Went to watch Die My Love featuring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson after work last night. I was deciding between this and Bugonia and thought Die My Love would be the better choice. A little more than halfway through, I stood up and left. The movie is loud throughout: crying baby, non-stop barking dog, loud music blasting throughout the couple’s house. One funny comment I saw on Letterboxd.com was that it was a 2-hour long anti-pregnancy campaign. The chemistry and dynamic between the two actors was there, it just wasn’t my kind of film.
This morning as I was making coffee I was thinking about what to do this upcoming winter. There’s going to be a lot of free time in my schedule so that means I have the time to do more street photography and find more work for myself.
One of the things that came to my mind was to a guide for new people on how to use DxO photolab as an alternative to Adobe Lightroom. It’s been almost four something years since un-installing Adobe from my computer(s) and have been happy with DxO ever since.
A lot of people are stuck in the Adobe suite because they think it’s the only thing out there. So with this possible tutorial I’m going to work on, it might help people realize that alternatives are not inferior to what’s considered the industry standard. I also fell into the trap of using Adobe Ps + Lr thinking I won’t be taken seriously if I don’t use it.
There’s also a huge learning curve to learn the ins and outs of the Adobe suite. For me, I want to take as many pictures as possible and the last thing I want to do is spend several hours inside learning a software. I do my best to get the composition and the decisive moment aligned and when you have those two, you need very little computer editing.
November 10th
Haven’t posted here in a couple of days. But I’m feeling a little more consistent writing on my blog than before. Usually it would be a week or more in between writing.
Just came back from Charlotte, NC 1AM last to visit some friends over the weekend. That was the first weekend trying out the OM-5 Mark II. Still trying to learn the new menu system. I turned off AF assist, sound and the auto noise reduction off.
I uploaded the ORF (Olympus’ RAW file system) onto Photolab but they are not compatible with PL Version 7 and had to upgrade to Version 9…
While I was in Charlotte, we went to the IKEA there and bought myself the BILLY bookshelf (small version) and a new night lamp. Finally I was able to put all the books that were scattered everywhere around my room.
Also one thing that I’m deciding on is the blog format. Do I want every topic to be its own individual post or every blog post represent the month we’re currently in and write small posts every day on it like journal entries.
I kind of like it like this now. It’s low stress and by the end of the week I feel like I’m writing more cause I’m not tethered to one topic. You can see I have several blog posts that are uncomplete because I have lost interest or don’t have the time.
I’m editing some photos from the previous month with PhotoLabs Version 9 and it is a lot faster. On version 7 when I wanted to make even the tiniest adjustment there would be a slight delay and the loading icon would always pop up in the bottom right corner. With version 9, the adjustments are immediate as soon as I move the slider.
Last night I watched the first episode of this mini series called The Trip on criterionchannel.com. That was the first time in a while laughing that hard. I don’t want to spoil it but you’ll know it when you watch this particular scene.
Aside from this blog, the best places to follow me are in this order:
If you click on those links, the direct you to my page. Yes, instagram is last on my list. How long will IG last. The algorithm and their focus on video-based content has screwed over many creative people.
I was surprised by how much I use X. If you share a photo from Flickr.com, X will show the preview of the photo which will re-direct anyone to my Flickr page to see the rest of my street photography work.
People refuse to see what’s on X because it’s associated with right-wing stuff, Elon but it’s all about how you curate your feed. I’ve become a movie fanatic recently and there’s a great film community where I discover new facts about a film and able to meet users who have seen a film I thought many disliked.
At least on X I can find great ideas and I stay on X because I feel like I’m always learning something new. Whereas on Instagram, I spend time there to kill time and my brain feels fried and I feel guilty when I see how much time I spent on it.
