I revisited the garden store, home to resident emus, goats, and a llama, in April 2024. I experienced a lot of boredom this month. My career in North Carolina was not going well, and I felt like everything had stagnated more than in previous months, mainly because we had no planned travel in April. I believe that the back-to-back trips and adventures earlier in the year had numbed the boredom and dissatisfaction of my job.
In April, I spent some time outdoors wandering through the woods. I discovered some carnivorous plants, like pitcher plants and Venus flytraps, in a riverbed approximately five miles into the Holly Shelter game lands.
I was appointed to a work responsibility this month because I am one of the few Helicopter Ropes and Suspension Techniques Masters in my battalion. The task involved setting up and overseeing rappel tower training for multiple rotations of Bermudian reservists. They were quite pleasant, and this was the “cool” part of their summer training, so I enjoyed teaching them how to make a Swiss seat and rappel from a tower using the seats they tied.
I also bought a Prism Lens FX filter that creates a light streak effect. I attended a live music show with my wife and mother-in-law, using this filter with my Sony FE 85mm lens. Unfortunately, most of these photos turned out poorly; in hindsight, I realize I should have shot at a higher ISO and narrower aperture since many of the images were blurry. Hindsight is 20/20.
This month, I began experimenting with Photoshop and discovered how impressive its generative AI feature has become. I asked it to create a tiger behind me in a photo I took on a tripod while exploring the woods.
I took fewer digital photos this month because I started focusing on film as well. While in Tennessee, my grandfather gifted me his old Nikon FM, which he purchased while living in Jordan during the 1970s. The camera's build quality is immaculate, and it functions like new. I will post about this camera later and share some of the photos I've taken with it.
