Morning Perch (304/365) iPhone shot & processed Happy Halloween, everyone. Focus points are hard on the iPhone sometimes. You hope for the best, but you really need to tell the camera where to focus to be safe. Clearly, I didn’t. I wanted to catch this little one before it was off again and didn’t take the time; hence, this bird is wildly out of focus. It’s the weekend, so no insurance chasing today. Trying to relax about it all but not doing very well with it. A good swim this morning and been working on the blogs. Posted a book review and my October The Good Stuff. Both posts have new CSS tweaks to add a little style. We are not doing anything for Halloween this year. My wife is neck-deep in schoolwork for her bachelor’s degree, and I just don’t have the energy this year. I’d rather sit in my office and work on projects, I guess. I keep thinking this would be a fun night to go out with the camera… A friend (Hi Carol!) sent a letter and ended it with, “Remember to live your lives well”. A good reminder we can all use. Stay safe out there. Click for Stray Pixels https://365pixels.xyz/2026/10/31/morning-perch.html #happyhalloween #good #focus #iphone #goodstuff #straypixels #carol #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

Moody Horizon (303/365) iPhone shot & processed Welcome to Friday, everyone. My other half comes home today; all things (household) shall be right again. I think the dogs appreciate her consistency better than my chaos. Blog work is dying down, and home server work is picking up. I just can’t say how happy I am to play with this thing. Today is all about setting up a GitHub mirror using Forgejo. Have an outstanding weekend. https://365pixels.xyz/2026/10/30/moody-horizon.html #friday #welcome #forgejo #blog #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

Fronds & Friends (302/365) iPhone shot & processed I went on my walk today feeling a little depressed about getting a daily pic. I kept thinking, I’ve done this walk hundreds of times, I’ve shot everything from every angle, there’s nothing here… Many years back I took a photo class and one of the homework assignments was to capture a picture in a laundromat, no people allowed. I thought, thats impossible. I still have that picture today, and I still like it. I’ll try to find it. With that in mind, I said to myself, well, you’re not in a laundromat; you can certainly find something. If you can’t, just hang up your camera and stop calling your hobby photography. A little harsh, but I need that sometimes. I found a shot I really like; I only took two shots with the phone. I turned them into black and white, and I like em! The other version is down below; I struggled with which one should be the primary. The longer pole won out. I wanted the longer pole with more palm fronds, but this time it was either this or that. Cheers! Click for Stray Pixels https://365pixels.xyz/2026/10/29/fronds-friends.html #straypixels #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

Double Yellow (301/365) Nikon Z8 & LR One from the archive today; the shot is from a few weeks ago. No photos today, I’m sad to report. Another one of those crazy days. The better half is still out visiting the grandkids; more office work with insurance claims and figuring out what everyone wants. Stopped by the dentist today to look at a tooth. I’ve been so stressed with all of this; I’ve been grinding my teeth so bad it feels like I need 3 root canals. Night guard from now on. Got some Galleries up at Cliff538Pixels. Spent far too much time futzing with layouts. Speaking of galleries, you should check out Florian’s father, Peter Ziegler. His galleries are outstanding! I think I’ve looked at every one now. Just amazing photography. Worked on the new ASUS server and installed Home Assistant. Some things went really well, but I’m struggling with getting some lights to work. There is a lot going on between hubs, HomeKit, Matter, and all these other standards that I need to figure out, plus some of my bulbs and hubs are really old and don’t talk over the newer standards. But putting up my solar info went surprisingly easy. I didn’t even know this was a thing, but now my printers even show their ink levels. Some of this open-source software is just amazing. I also got a family web server up and running; I’m not exactly sure what the whole purpose is going to be, but it’s fun to make web pages and mess around with it. I have a House page with all the emergency numbers and numbers for plumbers, electricians, etc. Where to shut the water off. I hope you had a great Wednesday! Thanks for stopping by. https://365pixels.xyz/2026/10/28/double-yellow.html #galleries #peterziegler #homeassistant #got #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

Bird Condos (300/365) iPhone shot & processed More insurance forms, emails, calls, post office runs. My new life now… A good friend told me today to stop worrying about everything at once and focus on one thing at a time: starting with your health. Everything else can come later. It was good to hear. I’m hoping that once this paperwork/approval process is over, I can spend some time doing some photography projects. Some more tweaking on Cliff538Pixels footer. I may have found something I can live with. I’ve been futzing lately with an ASUS NUC 15 Pro mini computer. I installed Proxmox to host VMs; I set up Umbrel to check it out and installed Ubuntu, Docker, and Caddy to serve web pages. So, two different VMs running within Proxmox. I’m not sure I’m going about this the right way, but so far it’s working. I had to update the NUC’s BIOS, and I haven’t done that since the early 1980s. It was an adventure. I need to do a full write-up about Cliff538 about it. It’s a fun little home-lab experiment. I’m hoping to eventually have a live, current copy of Cliff538Pixels that I can test and experiment with without messing with the real website. I want to explore Pi-hole, Home Assistant, Forgejo, Jellyfin, Kiwix, and a small forum setup for friends, maybe Flarum or something; I’m still investigating that. Should keep me busy. I hope it was an outstanding day! Click for Stray Pixels https://365pixels.xyz/2026/10/27/bird-condos.html #proxmox #nuc #everything #homeassistant #straypixels #vms #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

Rolling Green (299/365) iPhone shot & processed Mondays are hard. https://365pixels.xyz/2026/10/26/rolling-green.html #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

Headed South (298/365) iPhone shot & processed Out on a walk today, I grabbed these with the iPhone as they flew overhead. Canadian Geese headed South. My first swim today after surgery, so thats some progress. I posted my Silent Sunday picture over on Cliff538Pixels. I spent some time over coffee with this recent book purchase. Way Beyond Monochrome. It’s a very large, heavy book with great paper quality. It’s a very technical but approachable deep dive into everything Monochrome. I wanted to refresh my knowledge on a few topics and see what the film development chapters had to say. It has some really good info and all the technical knowledge you could ever want. Some topics include Fundamental Print Control, Presentation, Tone Reproduction, Image Capture, Negative Control, Advanced Print Control, Equipment, and Tools, Tips, and Tricks. The second edition is from 2011 and may seem dated, but most of this stuff doesn’t change. I’m glad I purchased it; it should be a good resource. Note: If you’re interested in a photography book, especially an older one, be sure to search the Internet Archive first; they have an incredible number of books that you can look at, most with a few sample pages, or sometimes the whole book is available. On the blog front, the makeovers are just about complete. New logos, headers and footers, dark, light, and paper themes, nav links, pages, custom 404 pages, and tons of small CSS tweaks and hidden gems. Three blogs, and I don’t know which one or ones to get rid of, so they all live on with their respective duties until one drops away naturally. I put a blog-family logo in the footer that links all three blogs together. It will be interesting to me to see which one gets left behind, if any. At this point, I have no idea. The ultimate goal was to have everything on one blog, but I just cannot come up with a design that works like that. Maybe someday, but for now, it’s three blogs that make up the Cliff538 family. Survival of the fittest: the weak blog(s) will wither away naturally… I hope your Sunday was peaceful and rejuvenating. Click for Stray Pixels https://365pixels.xyz/2026/10/25/headed-south.html #headedsouth #printcontrol #monochrome #silentsunday #advancedprint #fundamentalprint #imagecapture #tonereproduction #iphone #canadiangeese #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

A Good Day (297/365) A pleasant walk this morning. Trying to unwind after three days of wading through unfamiliar territory. Buying a lottery ticket this afternoon because of this Canadian island for sale. Stopped by a farmers market and had a looksee. Working on a new soft paper theme for two of the blogs. I have light and dark, and I wanted something soft and in the middle. Added a footer logo with links to the three blogs, something to tie them all together. Still not sure about Cliff538Pixels placement, but mulling it over. Trying to convince myself to go out at sunset for some pictures. I hope you’re having a great weekend. https://365pixels.xyz/2026/10/24/a-good-day.html #trying #buying #stopped #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

Siren Song (296/365) iPhone shot & processed Or, “Monochrome Mermaid” In the office all day: paperwork, emails, phone calls, faxing, scanning, more office fun than anyone should have! Why are we still faxing stuff in 2026? It seems to be only in the medical field still. Curious minds want to know. Lots of blog work in between office duties. Added a search page, investigated lazy loading of media, added a new logo style, and added blog family links in the footer, and I think I will do the same on the other two blogs. Seems like it ties everything together. I’m looking forward to this paperwork phase being over. Getting two different insurance companies to approve your claim is no small feat. Not great news today about getting back to flying quickly. After talking to the doctors who handle sending things to the FAA, I’ll need to see a new doctor, get established, and do more testing to prove everything is stable. That will take a while. Then, and only then, can we send the file to the FAA for their review, and that currently is 3+ months. My jaw dropped when I heard that. I think I’m honestly looking at 4 months minimum. Hearing the whine and beeps of the fax always reminds me of a dial-up modem. It just doesn’t feel like that long ago when I was dialing into my AOL account. Those were the days, huh. Thanks for stopping by. https://365pixels.xyz/2026/10/23/siren-song.html #monochromemermaid #added #faa #seems #getting #aol #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

Contemplation (295/365) iPhone shot & processed Another day getting used to my new job of emailing, calling, texting, and form submissions in this newfound world of medical disability. Thats what they call it. I can’t hold a medical, so thats the name. Everything changes: how you’re paid, what you can do and can’t do, benefits; it’s a whole new world. One that I’d rather not get to know, if I’m being honest. But I’m getting a lot done on the blog side as well. If you’re here, you see the new 365Pixels design. One that complements the new Cliff538 and Cliff538Pixels. I’m going for some cohesion between the three. How am I doing? More changes are coming, but for now, this is what I have. It’s a fun process; I really enjoy it, and it takes my mind off my current situation. Along with some cohesion between the blogs, I’ve tried to be brutal in simplifying the layouts, removing nav links, putting more on the about page, and cutting almost everything out of the footer. Not long ago, I liked the footer filled with fun stuff, badges, stats, etc but now, to my eye, it’s just cluttered and busy. Simple and clean is the new motto! https://365pixels.xyz/2026/10/22/contemplation.html #thats #everything #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit