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Pretty Good Hat

Tag: Photos

I’m impressed by Iris, an elegant and clever Mac app that does a bunch of delightful things.

I have an array of photos sources: Two Photos libraries from different eras of Mac and pre-Mac computers; more than a decade of flat file storage that make up my Lightroom libraries; and a big file tree of imported mobile phone photos from prior to when I began syncing everything through iCloud Photos.

Until using Iris, these have been separate catalogs, technically unifiable by dumping absolutely everything into a single Photos library, but I really don’t want to do that. Iris gives me this nimble application layered over all those existing sources, so for the first time I have this entire digital photos history viewable in one place. It’s marvelous and transformative as a way to have access in a unified way to such a span of time and places.

Iris has a lot more to dig into, like entirely on-device machine learning to identify faces and associate them with named people. I can add people details and then Iris will show me things like photos from a person’s birthday over the years. I’m just scratching the surface but I’m really excited by what it can do.

A wide concrete pier extends into the Puget Sound. In the distance under a mostly clear blue sky — just some whisps of light clouds — are the Olympics, with snow at the highest elevations.

A big golden brown croissant sits on a plate beside a cappuccino in an angled, tinted glass cup.

I got out to ride the 2 Line to downtown today, where I had a croissant and a cappuccino at the beautiful Boon Boona cafe that sits above the waterfront. What a beautiful spring day!

A pair of old bolts on a rusty, painted railing

There are some casual clubs in town that organize periodic group ferry rides – what a treat! Taking photos with other people who dig ferries! They look like fun and I’d like to join sometime. And it reminds me of the time I got severely scolded by a ferry crew for taking too many photos. Times have changed.

A restaurant store-front lit up in early morning dimness. It has brightly lit windows set in the concrete facade of the building.

This small corner shop would become the place where I got the most delicious and satisfying meal of my trip — a luxurious katsu curry.

A pile of photos in the Journal app.

The MacOS Journal app feels so half-baked. I thought I’d try it for a travelogue of my past week, dragged some photos to it, and it just dumps them in a pile. There’s no arranging, scaling for layout of landscape and portrait, nothing. C’mon, Apple, I’m trying to not shell out for Day One again, here.

I love being able to walk to the coffee shops. This morning was chilly, still in the 30s when I made my way after my morning spins and grocery stop.

The back of a Fujifilm X100VI, a pair of lightweight dark gray gloves, and a cappuccino cup and saucer site on a wooden counter be∏hind a shop window. Outside is a bit of leafy autumn street lightly lit by morning sun.

Checking in on the sunbeam puppy this day after Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Day was wet, very wet, so the sun coming out warm and full today was a real pleasure for, well, the entire neighborhood.

A black dog reclines on a wooden floor in a streak of sunbeam