{"id":125705,"date":"2026-01-05T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.b-vong.com\/journal\/?p=125705"},"modified":"2026-01-05T10:09:02","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T15:09:02","slug":"new-year-hang-out-good-old-fashioned-blog-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.b-vong.com\/journal\/new-year-hang-out-good-old-fashioned-blog-post\/","title":{"rendered":"New Year Hang Out + Good Old Fashioned Blog Post ;)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Thanks to Chalita @chalitanata for coming out! It’s like the olden days!<\/p><\/div>\n

Hello everyone, Happy New Year.\u00a0 Once again, I know fortunes and habits rarely change with just the simple upping of a digit in a calendar but I hope everyone has a restful and productive start to the new year (and the rest of the various new years coming up later) ;).<\/p>\n

As you can see from my previous posts it was a surprise and a delight to have the venerable monks who are on the Walk for Peace movement visit our community in metro Atlanta.\u00a0 So many visitors to see a small glimpse of our culture and customs in Snellville the past few days.\u00a0 If you follow my work you know we’ve had a ton of events, parties and festivals at that temple.\u00a0 I have been going there for over 20 years after all.<\/p>\n

I opted to just post my photo story without captions or descriptions, just the photos from my perspective to best show our multicultural community.\u00a0 As with everything these days there are so many different points of view and the whole social media bandwagon surrounding the walk is just wild.\u00a0 Drilling down into the comments section anywhere can be an exercise in frustration for sure.\u00a0 But thanks everyone for the reposts and kind words on my work.\u00a0 For important and historic works I generally have no problem fulfilling my role as the “unknown” photojournalist.\u00a0 However I know I was in most people’s shots. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

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(I used 3 cameras that day, a Nikon and 70-200mm, Canon with a 50mm, a GFX with 35-70mm, and an Instax.\u00a0 The shots above are with the 70-200mm.)<\/p>\n

Definitely a historic experience for all involved.<\/p>\n

So to also start off this year, here’s a good old fashioned blog post with food and photos.\u00a0 This fun hangout is about us browsing used book stores and me practicing with my random cameras.<\/p>\n

SPOT #1: Book Nook Decatur<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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I can’t believe I ran into this American compilation of Manga that I originally owned back in the day.\u00a0 I got rid of my all comics, manga, games, etc years ago and this was definitely a blast from the past.\u00a0 I think I bought it in Athens and I remember really enjoying Parasyte (which was made into a show?).\u00a0 However I’m not paying $20 to recapture some of my youth.<\/p>\n

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I did however spend $10 and got this amazing Alice in Wonderland (the live movie) photo\/art\/bts book.\u00a0 The images inside are amazing and would be well at home in D&D\/Dark Souls.\u00a0 I’ll have to rewatch the move to see if my opinions on it have changed.\u00a0 And did they just have to put the price tag there?<\/p>\n

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Finally, another lovely subject for the lo res Kodak Charmera camera!\u00a0 The animated GIF above is from a converted Charmera video clip.<\/p>\n

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Kodak Charmera<\/p><\/div>\n

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Kodak Charmera<\/p><\/div>\n

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Kodak Charmera | Chalita’s Selfie! @chalitanata<\/p><\/div>\n

As far as the Charmera, in decent lighting it’s okay.\u00a0 In other scenes the auto exposure is just a bit too bright, and the mushy noise reduction is just a bit much in many scenes.\u00a0 Obviously it really does depend on the subject.\u00a0 In a future post I’ll compare it with the various old iPhones\/iPads that I have here.<\/p>\n

SPOT #2: Half Price Books<\/span><\/p>\n

We didn’t buy anything here, just browsed.\u00a0 I got lucky here a few times with some dirt cheap Star Log magazines.\u00a0 Even one with Seven of Nine on the cover!<\/span><\/p>\n

SPOT #3: Decatur<\/span><\/p>\n

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Downtown Decatur has a neat book store with so many cool visuals everywhere.\u00a0 Sometimes it’s a big sensory overload as I tend to want all the books.\u00a0 Instead though I got the chance to put in some practice time with some of my odd and unique gear:<\/p>\n

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Loreo 3D lens on a Canon R8<\/p><\/div>\n

So I spent last week being really productive.\u00a0 I organized all my camera gear and junk in boxes.\u00a0 Misc cords and wires were all sorted, and it also gave me an opportunity to dust off gear I totally forgot about or haven’t used in ages.\u00a0 One of them is the lens above, a somewhat rare plastic “3D lens in a cap” made by Loreo.\u00a0 I bought it back in 2011 I think and you can no longer find the FF version.\u00a0 It’s quite an oddity and the resulting pictures have made an appearance a few times here on my site.\u00a0 One aspect I never thought about just using it for (besides the neat 3D effect) is that with this lens, the photos are naturally portrait\/vertical oriented.\u00a0 This is a cool way to somewhat get a knockoff version of the new Fuji X Half or a digital version of an Instax Mini.\u00a0 Especially with the insanely small f\/11 and f\/22 apertures on this lens.<\/p>\n

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On this adventure I also brought along my Instax 210, which I dropped onto the concrete at the temple a day before.\u00a0 The body split a bit, but I put gaff tape on it and it somewhat works as normal.\u00a0 It’s a shame as these are also somewhat rare, with the 300 costing way too much on the used market.\u00a0 All because the new 400 series Instax Wides, you have no control over the exposure or the flash.\u00a0 The Instax 41 had too low of a battery so I didn’t get any shots on it sadly.<\/p>\n

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So the 210 did survive the fall on to the concrete! But it’s definitely going back on the retired camera bench.<\/p>\n

I’m not the only one on the internet that wants to know how to mimic the look of the Instax film on digital.\u00a0 There’s just something so nice about the “incorrect” cooler white balance and low dynamic range of all Instax.\u00a0 I think the setup below might get somewhat close.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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It’s my original X100 with an amazing cheap Godox iM22 manual flash.\u00a0 That thing is tiny and has a built in rechargeable battery and 5 power levels.\u00a0 The X100 obviously has its own flash, but the recycle times can really KO the small battery in cold weather.<\/p>\n

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X100 and Godox iM22<\/p><\/div>\n

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Fuji X100 and Godox iM22<\/p><\/div>\n

I think the randomness of the manual power settings of the flash, combined with cooler temp leanings of Fuji digital are a decent starting point.\u00a0 Turning off the sharpness when you are editing the raw files helps with the Instax look too.<\/p>\n

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So here are example images shot with the Loreo 3D lens.\u00a0 It’s split screen because when you use a proper viewer at the right distance, your left and right eye pretty much sends the images to be blended in your mind.\u00a0 It’s the same effect of a Viewmaster and Stereoprints.<\/p>\n

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Again the coolness of the Loreo 3D lens is that I can crop the left or right shot and get a nice vertical image with a lo fi vibe.\u00a0 I used a small Canon flash to help out the f\/11 aperture, which is crazy tiny.<\/p>\n

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Back to some more Fuji X100 shots:<\/p>\n

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Fuji X100 and tiny iM22 manual flash, I think it was like $25?!<\/p><\/div>\n

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SPOT #4: Thrift Store<\/span><\/p>\n

I got an Apple mouse and a 58mm UV filter.\u00a0 The mouse was $1.50 and the filter was oddly more at $2.60. \u00af\\_(\u30c4)_\/\u00af<\/span><\/p>\n

SPOT #5: Clarkston<\/span><\/p>\n

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Thai Fried Rice w\/Chicken: \u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605<\/p><\/div>\n

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Drunken Noodle w\/Shrimp: \u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605<\/p><\/div>\n

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“Dessert” was Guava drink from one of the local Asian grocery stores.\u00a0 Where I live I enjoy having Assi and Super H down the street, but man would it be nice to have some of these smaller groceries without all the traffic.\u00a0 Being able to pop in and buy a drink or pack of ramen is next level.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The sunset was really lovely, making Clarkston look like a movie scene.<\/p>\n

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Since it gets cold and dark at like 5pm still it was time to go home.\u00a0 It was a fun few hours in Atlanta browsing books and testing gear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hello everyone, Happy New Year.\u00a0 Once again, I know fortunes and habits rarely change with just the simple upping of a digit in a calendar but I hope everyone has a restful and productive start to the new year (and the rest of the various new years coming up later) ;). As you can see […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":125620,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[370,373,272,262,235,170,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-125705","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-photos","8":"tag-50mm-f-1-2","9":"tag-charmera","10":"tag-fujifilm-instax","11":"tag-fujifilm-x100","12":"tag-loreo-3d-lens","13":"tag-portraits","14":"tag-strobist","16":"post-with-thumbnail","17":"post-with-thumbnail-large"},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t