I started playing around with an older lens from the film camera, meaning I had to manually focus it. And since thinking “film”, I cropped this one into a 3:2 format and used Color Efex Pro (on Windows) to simulate a Fujichrome Provia 400F film:
On this one – also with same same OM Zuiko 50mm/1.8 lens manually focused at f/1.8, she seems to see me as prey:
I also took this one using my phone yesterday evening while we’ve had a visitor:
And finally, one from today – back to my Panasonic Leica DG 25mm/1.4 “normal” lens (and with autofocus):
Wow, how time is flying – it’s Tuesday evening, and tomorrow at 13:00 (1pm) Bella will be with us since 2 weeks already. She continues to be a constant joy, is interested in the neighbours’ cats (but they are not so amused to find a cat who lives here), and she loves to play and purrs like a kitten…
Took this photo on Sunday short before sunset:
Bella, Mörfelden-Walldorf 2023
And like always, thanks for viewing, and for reading.
One week and some 5 hours ago, Wilma moved in with us. And it has been a constant joy to have her around. By now she trusts us enough to let me get close with my noisy macro lens while she is having a nap, like this:
Bella, Mörfelden-Walldorf 2023
Okay, she got some chicken today, I guess it can’t get much better 😉 So let’s hush, and let her zzzzzzz…
Today I took two photos, with the same camera and lens, but with slightly different settings, and also cropped differently.
The first one was of Wilma, in 3:2. She was very alert because of the always love-sick Cookie who was also around, so there was a lot of hissing and warning to keep him at a safe enough distance. Understandably, she had no eyes for me:
Wilma, Mörfelden-Walldorf 2023
Later – long after the two cats were gone – I took a self portrait, with having my camera on a (microphone) table stand, remote-controlled by a mobile phone. I cropped this one into a 5:4 format and used a Kodak Tri-X film simulation in Silver Efex to achieve this:
Selfie at the computer desk, Mörfelden-Walldorf 2023
The camera was my Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mk2, and the lens was the 17mm/1.8 from Olympus, with f/4 for the cat, and with f/1.8 for myself (it was getting dark already). And like always, thanks for watching.
I can’t reuse my deceased brother’s mobile phone. He set up a secure code and/or fingerprint, and that cannot be removed except by himself – which is of course a problem.
I have written to Google about it, because although I’m really not a beginner in putting other operating systems on a phone, to do so you still have to unlock the bootloader first, which cannot be done if you can’t log in into the device. No way, and I’ve tried several times to factory reset it – still the security wants Willi’s secret number and/or credentials after rebooting it. And Google wrote back that they are sorry for our loss, but cannot help – they don’t store copies of your device passwords and/or fingerprints.
So for me/us, my brother Willi’s device – a Google Pixel 3a which he got from us (I bought it for my wife originally) – is what you call a ‘landfill’, which is too bad considering the hardware being not even 4 years old. Maybe we could trade it in with our next purchase, let’s see. But hats off to Google as it really seems to be practically impossible (read: 4.5 man years worth only 75k$) to hack these devices.
What does that mean for me and for you? Well our data – at least the one on our phones – is pretty secure indeed (assumed you’re not too sloppy with security yourself). But if you want to have your relatives backed up in case of your own demise, you should probably consider to set up Google’s ‘Inactive Account Manager’, and probably send your secret code to your family if you don’t want your phone buried together with you… (this is a joke of course, these devices should at least be recycled).
Like always, thanks for reading.
Edit/update, from 3 days later:
[x] done. Guessed the right number, installed LineageOS 20 which is Android 13. Cool – this is a much better device than my old Nexus 5 which I still had in reserve and/or for development.
It’s astonishing by the way how close the look and feel can be to Google’s interpretation of Android on their Pixel phones – even the Easter eggs work in LineageOS as well, like the one simply called “13”. And once you have that, you can hold one of these bubbles to change that look. Funny:
13. Or, better said, LOS20’s view of it.
Edit/update, from 5 days later:
That Pixel 3a is still a wonderful device, especially with that inofficial LineageOS 20 image I have on it right now. That even came with the Pixel Launcher, so it almost looks like my 4a with Google’s version of Android on it. The only difference is that I didn’t set up an account on that 3a, so I also don’t have Google’s weather applet but a free one from OpenWeather instead. Look at them side by side:
Pixel 3a with LineageOS 20 left, Pixel 4a with stock ROM right
