Prime.

A couple of shots with the Nikon 1 J1 and the 1 Nikkor 18.5mm f/1.8 prime lens. Thanks to the crop factor of the 1" sensor on the CX-format Nikon, this has the field-of-view of a 50mm lens on a full-frame camera.

 It handles daytime indoor available light shooting pretty nicely if it's not super dark.

I love the tap handle for Fountain Square Brewing's "Hop for Teacher" IPA. It's the one that looks like a paper airplane.
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Frustrating.

The P365 test is, of necessity, on a short schedule. I normally have bunches of range visits spread out over a couple months, instead of a couple very high round count ones sandwiched into a week.

I'm hoarding my remaining pain pills for really bad nights or weather fronts, and I don't want to take them on days I'm planning on going to the range, so it looks like I'll just be gutting out some pain this week.

Even if I weren't shooting, I'd need to be parsimonious with them because all the drug-seeking yahoos who can't hold their dope are making it hard for people in legit pain to find relief. ("I don't have 'overactive nerves', Doc, I have a fractured clavicle. Are broken bones common drug-seeking behavior?")

And if institutional paranoia about opioids wasn't bad enough, well, there's hardly anything you can't make worse by getting the government involved...
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Back to work...

Yesterday saw me at the range for the first time since the accident.  Gonna be doing some shooting with a new test gun for a Shooting Illustrated article...

Interface...

Earlier I made this comment about the Nikon 1 J1:

There’s a decent camera buried under that weird interface... #nikon1j1

A post shared by Tamara Keel (@tamarakeel) on Jun 29, 2018 at 6:14am PDT

Which in turn spurred this...

Zero Context Quote of the Day: "'PASM' is like 'PRNDL' but for cameras."#NationalCameraDay #photography pic.twitter.com/mVg7gsDin1

— Tamara K. (@TamSlick) June 30, 2018

For those who haven't been bitten by the shutterbug, "PASM" (or an anagram thereof) has become a quasi-standard array of settings on the control dials of cameras that offer the photographer control over some of the basic camera functions.

• "P" = Program: The camera analyzes the scene through the lens, references the current light sensitivity setting of the sensor (or film speed, in the old days) and sets what it thinks is the best combination of shutter speed and aperture diameter to get a good image.
• "A" = Aperture Priority: The photographer sets the aperture diameter, which gives them control over the depth-of-field (how much is in focus) and the camera then adjusts the shutter speed to get a good image.
• "S" = Shutter Priority: The photographer sets the shutter speed, most likely because they're worried about freezing motion, and the camera adjusts the aperture to let in enough light for the shot.
• "M" = Manual: The photographer takes full manual control over shutter speed and aperture diameter.

There's also a setting, usually colored green, that's labeled "auto" or has a little green icon of a camera or similar. In that setting, the camera takes control of pretty much everything, including ISO (light sensitivity) and turns your DSLR into a two-pound Point & Shoot the size of a shoebox but with the potential for really good image quality if you accidentally point it the right direction when you press the button.

It's generally an indicator that a camera has pretentions to being used by serious hobbyists when these settings are easily accessible via a control dial on the camera and it was one of the things for which Sony's higher-end NEX series of mirrorless cameras caught some flak. They had well-laid out controls and all the technical chops to be serious hobbyist cameras, but switching back and forth between, say, Program mode and Aperture Priority mode required a dive into a menu.

This was understandable with Sony because maybe the guy who did the camera interface had just gotten transferred over from the DVR remote control or car stereo head unit division the week before and only knew cameras as an added feature of his cell phone.

But the "PASM" dial on Nikon's 1 series was initially buried one layer deep in the menus, too. And Nikon doesn't have an excuse, since they practically invented the modern serious camera interface, or at least stole its various components and integrated them.
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Telephoto zoom & fast prime...

I've been trying out a couple of different lenses on the Nikon 1 J1 to see how they handle.

The above shot was taken with the Nikkor 30-110mm f/3.8-5.6 run all the way out to 110mm. These are flowers in the neighbor's garden photographed from probably 15 or 20 yards.

This one was walking home from lunch yesterday in the gaps between thunderstorms. I was using the Nikkor 18.5mm f/1.8 prime, which is compact and very light.
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I don't know what it was...

...maybe the front that came through yesterday, skidding a line of thunderstorms ahead of it and dropping the temperature by twenty degrees in a couple hours, but my collarbone hurt bad yesterday. As bad as at any time since the first week after; not the dull ache I've grown accustomed to, but the jagged stab of broken glass.

It's been enough to make me wonder if somehow the fracture hadn't become mobile again.

It was better today, but only by comparison. If it's still sharp & stabbing on Monday, I may see about getting an X-ray someplace for a second opinion on just how well this thing is knitting.
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Sorry...

In rather a lot of pain today. Yelling at the cats when they bother me and then immediately feeling badly about it.

I'm not concentrating well enough to follow the complicated plot twists of the Dr. Phil show, let alone write anything coherent.
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Punny.

Sometimes Alexa doesn't heed Bobbi's soft-spoken commands.
Bobbi thinks she's just not paying attention.
I explained that our robot servant has her head in the cloud.

— Tamara K. (@TamSlick) July 4, 2018

Hey, look!

There's a column I wrote up at Shooting Illustrated.

It's got some tidbits I picked up from Claude Werner's snubbie classes at TacCon '17. Claude's one of the best thinkers in the training industry. If you get a chance to take a class from him, you should.

Happy Independence Day!

I hope all y'all have fantastic and very 'Murrican day on this Fourth of July.

Go and tell some royalty to piss up a rope.
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Pocket knives...

I have a bunch of pocket knives, and I used to rotate through them but for the past several years now I'd pretty much settled on a plain ol' Spyderco Delica, albeit one with the Emerson wave opener on it.

At some point in the last few days, though, I lost it, either at the movie theater on Saturday or at Fat Dan's for lunch on Monday.

So I spent some time this morning pawing through my knife roll, trying to decide what to put in my pocket to replace it.

There were some unexpected memories in there, too...

I've had this CRKT K.I.S.S. longer than any other. Back when I first got a job in a gun store, I bought a Spyderco Delica Clipit that I wore around the store hanging from a belt loop and used for opening & breaking down boxes and such. When I started commuting on a motorcycle, I traded the Clipit for the K.I.S.S., because the Clipit would scratch the tank on my GPz.

That means I've had this knife something like twenty years or more.

Those scratches on the pocket clip are from the asphalt of Peachtree Street, when I had my catastrophic wreck in the summer of '00.

I was carrying this knife at my very first Blade Show, and I met Ed Halligan and chatted with him for a while. He was a kindly old dude, and we compared wreck stories. He rode his bicycle some sick distance every day, like thirty miles or more. One day, a couple years before our meeting, a hit-and-run driver knocked him off his bike and he rode home, a dozen miles or so, with a busted clavicle. Guy must have been tough as nails.

Marko got me this Kershaw Blackout as a "welcome to Tennessee" present when I moved up to Knoxville, late in 2000. I think having the K.I.S.S. and the Blackout at the same time was the first time in my life I'd ever owned more than one half-decent pocket knife at the same time.

I've got knives that are a lot fancier these days, but these have seniority.

As far as what knife to carry now, however? Well, I might as well just carry the waved Spyderco Endura. I'd only switched to the Delica from it because when I put on all that weight, the bigger Endura was uncomfortable in my pocket. Having lost the weight, I can carry it comfortably again.
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Deselection...

It happened as I was taking a picture of a flower. The picture above, as a matter of fact.

The photo below shows the location, although it was taken a month or two earlier. I was down near that stop sign you can see in the photo, just past the parked car. The flower was in the landscaping of the house on the corner, to my right.

Now, this was literally two or three days after the daytime armed robbery I referred to in an earlier post. That armed robbery occurred two blocks south and one block west of the the flower in the photo...

Anyway, while the neighborhood we live in is on the northern edge of what could be described as "Midtown Indianapolis", the side streets are quiet enough that you hear cars rolling up. Even Teslas and Leafs.

While I don't know the folks that live in the corner house, we've nodded at each other plenty over the years, I know they have a son about high school age, and they've patronized Indy Arms Company while I was working there.

So when I heard the car rolling up behind me, I turned in that direction not only out of simple curiosity, but also to see if it was my neighbor pulling into their normal on-street parking spot.

It wasn't.

The car that was slowing and swerving toward the curb wasn't the older 3-series coupe or the new Honda compact SUV driven by the residents of the house, but a white Dodge Cirrus or Plymouth Breeze hoopty that had been hit everyplace but the ashtray. Driver and passenger were neck-tattooed dudes dressed like extras from the "Worst Part of Indianapolis" video and both were looking right at me. Meanwhile, I'd unconsciously (and not necessarily smartly) exhibited a classic "picking" motion, with my camera now cradled in my left hand and my right thumb coming to rest on the OC canister in my front right jeans pocket, elbow pushing back my gun burkha just a little bit.

The car stopped its arc toward the curb and returned to the center of the lane, made a rolling stop at the sign, and turned right.

Were they slowing down so dude in the passenger seat could bail and snatch a camera quickly?

Were they the guys from the previous day's robbery?

I'll never know.
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Weights and measures...

All the Pentax Q stuff is so tiny and light. In the Event Messenger 100 (a small, purse-sized bag) I'd carry the 01 standard, 03 fisheye, and 06 telephoto zoom lens, with the 02 standard zoom mounted on the camera. If the camera wasn't in the bag, it felt empty, the lenses are so light.

The Q7 and the four lens kit weighed barely an ounce over the one pound mark. I have full-frame autofocus zooms that weigh more than all of that combined.

The Nikon 1 J1 is small and light, but the bigger 1" sensor means it needs bigger lenses. It all still stows in the Lowepro bag with ease, but just ten ounces makes a noticeable difference in the weight of the bag.
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Sorry.

I didn't blog yesterday or this morning because, frankly, I didn't want to subject y'all to another several paragraphs of whining about how my shoulder hurt all the time and it was crazy stupid boring being stuck in the house all day every day.

Eighteen summers ago I spent the summer in a wheelchair with three out of four flippers deadlined for repair with less whiny angst than I've managed a busted collarbone this year.

Saturday I went downtown with Shootin' Buddy and watched Sicario: Day of the Soldado. That was fun, but an achey shoulder cut into staying downtown for the Taco & Tequila Festival. Sunday I ran errands with Bobbi, but what started out as a pleasant afternoon out was soon turned grim and complain-y by shoulder pain. I'm about over this.

"The Freemasons are poisoning the wells!"

As a collector of conspiracy theories, I have to confess that the vast majority of the Grand Unified Conspiracy Theories with which I'm familiar tend to have a rightward or at least libertarianish bent. So it was with some fascination that I read one from the other pole, one where the Vietnam War caused the modern White Nationalist underground.

I suppose I should have expected no less from The Nation. Watching The Nation and The New American get into it would be like watching Spock fight Spock-with-a-beard.
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Andrea Mitchell needs to shut up and sit down.

Yes, you most certainly do need to aim a #shotgun. Here are the actual facts: https://t.co/glUz08Gxrx#stayinyourlane pic.twitter.com/TFpzquxMYB

— Tamara K. (@TamSlick) June 29, 2018

It's funny 'cause it's true...

Sale!

Tau Development Group has a discount code good only today for 20% off: "TAUDAY2018".

I finally got around to ordering my Glock 43 Striker Control Device. Yay!
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Automotif CXLVII...

International Harvester Scout II, spotted in the parking lot at The Gallery Pastry Shop during Sunday's brunch excursion with Bobbi.

Apparently the grille and headlight rings, much like the Dead Sea Scrolls or all those lines on the ice in hockey, convey a bunch of information if you know how to read them. I think they say this one's a '73, but it's hard to tell for sure.

Bonus picture of giant outdoor chess set from the same parking lot:

Ow.

The collarbone is only just sore if it somehow gets jostled, but the left elbow and shoulder have been held nearly immobile for over a month and are just fountains of colorful pain as I try and gradually get some range-of-motion back into them.
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