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Seaside in Bretagne
We visited the coast twice this trip. The first time, we picnicked at a beautiful spot that we had not been before, and then on another day, we walked GR34 again; same section, still as beautiful. The picnic day was pretty cool, but it still was so nice eating our baguettes with prosciutto and cheese, and the walk was on a simply stunning day, full sun, just gorgeous. I really could have walked for hours. It’s just so invigorating and special there. I tried to get photos of the waves crashing into the rocky coast, and got a few with some spray. That was kind of fun. I just really love this place. I was so happy to be back!
All photos taken with Nikon Z50ii and Z 18-50 2.8 lens.
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Quimper, France
The last of the Brittany cities we visited, but it’s a favorite. And SO MANY creperies! But we enjoyed walking around, visiting the Quimper Cathedral. So many old (like 1400s to 1800s) saints, I guess, there. Also we stumbled across a tropical botanical garden, Jardin exotique de la Retraite right in downtown Quimper. Very interesting and fun place!
All photos taken with Nikon Z50ii and Z 18-50 2.8 lens.
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Lorient, France
We went to Lorient this trip so it was our first time there. It was a typical city but had a nice waterfront area where we walked and came across le Tour de la Découverte, a lighthouse that was reconstructed between 1785-1786. While we were walking by, a man was playing bagpipes outside of it; it sounded like he was warming up for something. It was pretty fun to see and hear. We had lunch and walked around. A nice, seaside city.
All photos taken with Nikon Z50ii and Z 18-50 2.8 lens.
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Concarneau, France
We really enjoy visiting Concarneau. It is a city with two distinct areas, and also with a lot of interesting things. I’m sure we just scratched the surface but we visited the Ville Close, which is a walled town on an island in the centre of the harbor. This area was a shipbuilding area and parts date back to the 14th century; but now, it’s set aside for tourists mostly with restaurants and gift shops, along with the walls that you can climb stairs to get to the top of and see some really nice views of the harbor and all the boats.
The modern part of Concarneau is a nice smaller sized city but with everything you need. We tried to go to an excellent local restaurant that we went to previously, but now that it’s March, reservations were required and we did not have one. So we found something else, and it was great, too. We also went to a few shops, saw some Pug beer in this really nice shop, and went to a bookstore, coffee store, and friperie (vintage thrift store).
We also saw a fisherman dragging his giant nets from one boat to a van. We never did see the fish though!
All photos taken with Nikon Z50ii and Z 18-50 2.8 lens.
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France Feb/Mar 2026
Way too many photos to post all of the ones I like, but it’s been fun going through them all. I just love it in this area. There’s so much green, you have coastline, nice smaller cities, and spring is definitely springing there now. I think I will have to make several posts over the next few days or so. LOL.
Anyway, here are a few for today. These are from Pont-Aven, which is just this magical little place that has so much going on for a small place. And the best croissants in the land. Or possibly the world.
All photos taken with Nikon Z50ii with 18-50 2.8 DX lens.
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More Pugs with Nikon Z 50 1.8
After the pug pictures with the old 50mm 1.4 AFD lens, which made me actually feel things, I decided I want to do more of that, but with a lens that I can actually use the autofocus with. So on Sunday, I got out my Nikon 50mm 1.8 Z lens, which has just been sitting patiently in my camera bag. I don’t use it much because I have been using the 16-50mm 2.8 DX lens a lot; it’s really good for photos that I do at church of the kids, and a lot of the time, that’s the only time I use this camera. So all that to say, I put that lens on and tried to recreate the photos I took the other day with the 50 1.4 AFD. And…I like them! I don’t think I need to get a 50 1.4 at all. However, I’m still looking at 35mm focal length, and I don’t know…I may end up with one of those. The seed has been planted. But I want to do a little more research. Until then, I have some good tools to make some nice pug pictures and that makes me happy.
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Fun Little Lens: Nikon 50 1.4 AFD
My 52 Frames challenge this week was Shallow Depth of Field, and extra credit was use 1.4 aperture. Well, this one was one of my favorites! I fell in love with shallow DOF back when I first started really getting into photography, about 25 years ago. (How is that even possible?)
I don’t have any lenses with a 1.4 aperture, except for an old Nikon 50 1.4 AFD lens that I keep on my Nikon F100 film camera, that hasn’t been used in years. I have an FTZ converter so I can use the older lenses with the newer Z system, so I thought I’d give it a try. I did not realize that that lens will not autofocus with the FTZ/Z50ii combination, but honestly, the Z50ii is such a great camera, it made manually focusing easy. I got the camera ready, got a couple of treats for the pugs, and headed outside before work. The light was nice, and the pugs did an amazing job modeling. There’s hope for Hazel yet! Gary was just awesome. And while I was taking these photos, which may or may not be that great, I felt something. And that’s significant because it’s been a long time since that’s happened. It was almost like euphoria and it carried on throughout the day. I was reminded what I love so much about photography. I love that shallow DOF. I love dog photos using it. I love easy, soft light. I love looking through the camera and seeing something, then looking at the photos on the computer and realizing I actually captured them just like I wanted to. It was good. It was so good that now I’m contemplating how I can do that more often, but with a modern autofocus lens, because let’s face it – I don’t have the greatest vision these days (or ever). New prime lens? New full frame camera? Both? I don’t know. But now that I’ve felt that feeling again, I want to keep on feeling it.
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Thomasville Clay Road Classic
This weekend we went to South Georgia to ride some red clay dirt roads at the Thomasville Clay Road Classic. I’ve done this ride before, but only the 25-mile route because in 2024, it was raining, and rain and dirt roads make messes. But the weather was amazing for this year, except for the rain the day before. So it got messy, but so much fun! This year we did the 50-mile route, and even dipped into Florida. I think we hit the Florida line in a mud pit section, and I thanked Florida for their hospitality at that point. But besides a couple of sketchy mud sections, the roads were actually great. The rain kept the dust down and tamped them down some, too. It was 80 degrees and sunny for a large part of the ride, and then some periods of clouds, too, so it didn’t get too hot. This is a self-supported ride, but some people in Metcalf actually did a rest stop for us, and it was a welcome sight. We needed water, and there they were! And there was even a porta-potty! I mean, I felt like we were on a civilized ride! The area near Hubs and Hops, the sponsoring bike shop/brewpub was so nice. They have a little amphitheater, a nice outdoor area to hang out in, and they were generous with the beer and food. We really had a fantastic day from the beautiful (and challenging) ride to the fun afterparty. If you get a chance to do this ride, you should! Highly recommend! All photos shot on my Ricoh GRIIIX.
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Saturday Gravel Ride
We rode out to some new-ish roads which were pretty remote. It was a pretty cloudy day – sun didn’t break out until we were home from the ride. The Graffiti Bridge we found was a lot of fun, with interesting graffiti messages, baby piglets, really pretty roads and a couch in the river. All in all, a good day. All images taken with my iPhone 17 Pro, mostly shot in RAW.
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Saturday in Atlanta
I had a chance to walk around a little in downtown Atlanta after I finished shopping at the Blick store. (Yep, bought a pen…) Atlanta is kind of a weird city to me. I was on Peachtree Street and there are like no people out walking. Plenty in cars. And the Waymo autonomous cars all over the place and those little autonomous boxes on wheels…it’s a strange world we live in. But it gave me a chance to get the Ricoh out, so it was all good. I might have taken more photos, but it was COLD and I apparently touched some button on the Ricoh and turned the display off. I thought I had a dead battery, so I changed it, and of course, it still didn’t have a display. Once I got back to the car and had a chance to look at it, I figured out what I did. So live and learn, I guess!
The pond and ducks are NOT Atlanta – they’re in our neighborhood. These little ducks have taken over the pond. They’re pretty fun to watch. Seems like the males just follow the female around. LOL.
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