Beautiful day, by the way. Not much sleep last night for some reason. I got home around six from San Francisco, futzed with the pictures, ate some dinner and got to bed around ten, ten-thirty. I say not much sleep because I kept half dozing off, but then found myself looking over at the clock, watching it tick off the hours: one - two - three. To see and comprehend three o'clock in the morning is not to get enough sleep I'm thinking, but what do I know anymore? Feel pretty good now that it's approaching noon, I'll take it as it comes and cop a nap if the body tells me to slow down. I guess. Should work.

It was interesting to look at my earlier Chinese New Year Parade pictures, interesting in how screwed up the section was, how many pictures seem to be missing, how long I've allowed it to remain in this condition. I spent time correcting some of the more glaring errors, but still have to correct parade dates, find and re-scan half a dozen or so old negatives. I'm always a little surprised at the low quality of many of these earlier photographs. Some of them good, yes, taking them kept me taking them year after year, but my eye has changed quite a bit, not to mention the equipment.

I have a new camera and a new telephoto zoom, nice stuff, but I've also started using a UV-IR filter, Ultra-violet - Infra-red. Everybody pretty much adds a UV filter when they buy a lens, both to block UV and protect it from damage. If glass has to break, better to lose a filter. I first saw the UV-IR blurb when I was shopping for the lens, thought about it and gave it a try. I've since bought another for a second lens used in my daily shooting and will probably (dear god) order more. They're expensive, but I really like the color. Really really like the color. Depressing. I have a lot of UV filters.

You don't have to replace them all.

Thank god. An advantage of shooting now for years is I've tried most of the lens options to see if they make sense and figured out what I can actually use and what I can live without. There's all kinds of neat stuff out there - snap! crackle! pop! - but if it doesn't fit your personal bent you find you can live without it. Probably what half the used equipment business is about. I use maybe four or five lenses anymore. Two or three probably account for ninety percent of my shooting. I'll get those five shod with this swell new UV-IR thing, no need to rush. I did mention the color? That I like the color?

Later. Lunch with Ms. M at Scott's, back now in the mid afternoon. Ms. M is out here on the left coast putting a gig together in Reno later this week, so it was nice to get a chance to see her and catch up on events. We've been friends now for thirty-five years, a lot of water under the bridge in thirty-five years, so we took our time out on the patio overlooking the boats drinking gin. Well, that's not true. Rude of me to be so gauche. Something we may have done from time to time back in the old days, through an afternoon. Into an evening. And a morning. My, my. Couldn't do that now even if we were crazy enough to try.