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Many holiday photographs are taken with the greatest anticipation.
However, if you hang out at the pickup counters at processing labs, you might think that the Grinch and his siblings were doing all the processing and printing and deliberately adding red-eye, green-eye, blur, and chopping off the heads of beloved family members and precious pets.
They are.
The Grinch is poor preparation, composition and failure to know your camera.
As people leaf through envelope after envelope of prints they have puzzled and pitiful looks as if someone had eaten their only candy cane or gotten all the good pieces out of the Whitman's Sampler box and left fingerprints in the rest.
Slough off this potential failure and stand strong with your camera, memory card, film, tripod and flash.
There are many earlier posts that will be of help also. There will be fireworks on New Years so read the post on doing that well.
Here is some information and important suggestions that will slap the Grinch out of your images:
1. Batteries, batteries, batteries. Your feature-rich electronica eats battery power and the standard battery that comes with your little or big camera is not much. Get a High Capacity battery (probably from a Batteries Plus or comparable store) and keep the original and new one properly charged. That means reading instructions and following them. I'm a big fan of rechargeable batteries and have 60 AA and 30 AAAs. I also have rechargeable battery packs and a nice charging station. My backup is a big fresh pack of HD consumables. NICAD & L-ION batteries work best when drained and recharged regularly, just like us. Treadmill, rest, eat, treadmill, nap - work it. To whom it may concern.
2. Film, film, film, film. Memory cards, MC, MC. They are cheap so get big, fast ones (150x+). It doesn't take many 10 meg images to fill up a 1 or 2 gig card. You will be shooting RAW or BIG JPGS. Cards fail or maybe get misplaced - it's best to have backups - and download your images frequently. We KNOW people with film cameras that have 4 Christmases, 3 Easters, birthdays and a funeral or two still in their camera and the battery is corroding. Don't blush, rush to the lab right now and save those images! Download and backup your digital images according to my earlier posts. Just do it and don't whine. It will keep the HO in your HOlidays!
3. Flash. Read the manual and learn to adjust the flash output. Cutting back on the flash will reduce the red-eye. You can also increase the ISO. If your subjects are tired, excited or tippling, their pupils are going to be dilated. This causes red-eye. Shoot from an angle. Diffuse the flash and/or have your subjects look at each other. Or, just plan to fix red-eye for a month.
4. Flash ... part 2. Even on bright days, use the flash out of doors. This will put light on pink faces and put light under billed caps.
5. Image stabilization. Great idea. However, when using a tripod, turn it off. If you don't the camera will create motion. Don't confuse the camera.
6. Natural light. Most Christmas lights fall into the tungsten color. If you shoot them at daylight temperature they will look rich and warm and yellow. If you select tungsten in your camera menu, they will look just like your eyes see them. Shoot them both ways and play with the curves in PS. Babies and pets look very holidayish under the yellowish lights. This is the same deal when photographing a fire. It is yellow. If you are photographing tungsten, make sure that light from your kitchen's fluorescent lights don't leak into the image. Nasty. If people have light foundation on and get fluorescent light on that, we are back at Halloween.
7. Outdoor lights. There are some great decorations around. You will need to have an ISO of 200 or so and a fairly high f stop. Your shutter speed needs to be kind of fast. If you have a slow shutter speed the tracing lights will blend and you will get a muddle of an image. If that is what you want, go ahead.
You will probably do BEST with a tripod, but image stabilization is OK too.
8. Automatic. See what your camera thinks you want. This setting was created by a non-photographer engineer in Asia and is an average of everything. You are not average. After you are familiar with your camera, set the saturation, sharpness and everything else to suit YOU. Automatic is the Drive-through #1 on any fast food board in the US. How many times do YOU choose that? I have never said or heard anyone I was with say, "A number one, that's all." That's not why you bought your camera either.
9. People. Get closer, closer and closer. Get Horizontal images for 4 images or more and Vertical for 3 or less. That's not a RULE, since I don't LIKE rules, but break out of the bitty image in the middle of the frame habit.
10. Photograph some little things. Candles, a greeting card, some fruit, some frost-covered plant. A bow and ribbon. A cat with a bow and ribbon. Then photograph some big things. There are some beautiful stained glass windows that tell the Christmas Story. There are also some live Nativity scenes around.
11. Get your camera and yourself into the holiday mix. The city of Raleigh has an ice-skating rink this season. I hope people are using it. There are people going wild with decorations, there is the Capitol and there are commercial decorations. That's in the area of Oakwood and Krispi Kreme. BTW, neon is also in the tungsten color range.
12. Be snappy (take pictures) this holiday season. It is so easy to set imaging aside and not take pictures. Make yourself an assignment with specific images you would like to have.
After the season passes and the ornaments and symbols and things are packed away, you could have a trove of great pictures that could tell a story that could connect you to the joy of this great time of the year. © Tim tim@timjohnsonphoto.com www.timjohnsonphoto.com
Premium days and nights.
Indeed, the last big hoorah of the hurricane season has brought a lot of rain to the RTP region of North Carolina. We need the rain without the pain. The rain is accompanied by leaves ready to make their exit.
Leaves are wrongly named. They don't. They grow and flutter, do their photochemical duty and then they fall. They congregate. They must be evacuated, shooed and sent away - or mulched. Left to their own they would be left to their own.
The rain is a lot more welcome than the H1N1 or any other seasonal crud.
Despite even the fact that wet roads make people slow down and punish the ones that don't it helps create auto accidents and pain and aggravation.
The plus of the weather is that for the arena of creatives, excuses to put off projects reflect off the closed windows.
In previous weeks it may have been too pretty to write, gild or illustrate. This wet weather has removed that line of faulty thinking.
Distractions aside, the increased humidity makes some art applications easier to do.
Watercolor, gouache and gilding gesso remain more workable for a bit longer.
Papers are a bit more malleable and are more responsive to the bone folder and embossing tools.
Raymond Foss caught some of the feeling of this in this poem:
Alone in the Rain
I am alone on my porch, in the rain.
Nightfall is closing in.
Now, the island is lonely.
The world is muffled.
The rain falls on the porch roof.
Two mourning doves twitter as
They go from tree to tree,
Branch to branch.
Now they coo and call
To their mate.
The water shimmers
As sheets of rain
Disturb its surface.
A small yellow warbler alights
On a branch before me,
Ready to add its cheerful song to the mix.
Rain now falls from the roof
The staccato of the heavy
Drops on the hard ground below.
A lone boat courses across the water,
Eager for home.
It leaves but a wake, lost on the rocks.
Mist obscures the shoreline.
Loons steer by me.
I am still, writing these lines.
But I am anxious.
How I long for the sun
For the warmth to join me again
In my rustic cabin in the lake.
Written 6/18/2000 - same day as Dew in the Morning and Ten Feet Overhead
HE knew what to do with a rainy day. tim www.timjohnsonphoto.com
There are just a few of us who write on goats.
Whether the movie currently out, "Men Who Stare At Goats", is a success or not, makes no never mind. George Clooney can bust a blood vessel just thinking about making a goat pass out - but he won't approach the anxiety and joy of beginning a writing project on a nice piece of parchment or vellum.
The skins are two different animals. Parchment comes from goats and vellum is calfskin.
Many centuries ago, other writing materials existed, but were unavailable.
Papyrus was invented in Egypt, but was prohibited from export or even ownership by non-Egyptian holy folk. That cartel was busted up with the demise of the Egyptian empire, but writing on papyrus remains a challenge (fun) to this day. Papyrus is thinly split slices of the papyrus reed interlaced at perpendicular angles and sanded smooth (sort-of). We can do our own pumicing and sandaracing and then be very careful with our lettering. The problem comes when we try to use a too sharp broad-edge writing tool with too much pressure. I love writing on papyrus - there is something about working with such an ancient material - just like I did when playing with little Moses before his Momma made the little boat out of the papyrus and pitch and you know the rest of the story.
In Pergamos (from which the word parchment is derived), a city in Asia Minor, the art of splitting and curing goat hides as a writing material was truly clever. Cured hides could be bound into scrolls and they have lasted through the centuries.
Vellum, made from calfskin (veal-skin), is another science, makes a less oily writing material. It is the favorite of most serious scribes.
As you can imagine, the skin of an animal is not cheap and this is before the art is applied.
NOTE: at this point please do not confuse vegetable parchment or vegetable vellum or vellum surfaced papers with the real thing.
When a skin arrives, it is not ready for writing. It needs to be flattened, pumiced (true volcanic ash) and thoroughly smoothed.
If there is a STARING at the goat or calfskin, this is the time. The art or commission will find its place and the general outline will be made. Then the work begins.
I use only 7-9H pencils or my hard silverpoint pen or a steel stylus to make marks on the precious skins. I do not want carbon residue on my skins.
The lettering is applied and the the versals and then the illustration and finally, the gilding.
I stare at the goat or calf at every level of work. The goat or calf stares back.
We are in this together. The animal gave themselves and I have put myself into the project. The finished goatskin or calfskin will be around a lot longer than me.
The goat who stares at Tim.
The goat wins. © tim www.timjohnsonphoto.com
Videos complete! Completed videos are now posted on my website and You Tube. Thanks for the encouragement!
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I've added a couple of new videos to these sites for your viewing pleasure and information about making broad-edge pen letters.
The latest has to do with capital letters.
Capital letters - used only 2% of the time in normal writing - ought to be done well. (If you are a teacher or parent or just interested in checking this out, PLEASE get a straight-edge, a few pages of non-illustrated, non-technical text and start counting. LC vs. CAPS You choose caps. Let your students choose the lc. Count, total and do the percentages. Good for reading, good for math. Good for YOU.)
Just IN CASE you were wondering, we hardly use the terms upper and lower case in the scribal world. Until movable type came along, there were no such terms regarding letters. The names came along because the lc letters were used 98% of the time and type was set on the floor in huge type holders - less to lug. 2% of the time the typesetters could grab the caps and set them. Less to lug. In that day, leading, kerning and eventually casting was done by hand.
Any of you who has ever endured watching me type must realize that I learned typing on a Linotype machine - not a typewriter. Google THAT and love ME and my fingers and know why the keys sometimes hop around when I get excited timtyping.
Technically these letters are majuscules (major letters). They are monumental, since they are carved on monuments and they are versals, since they began verses. Most of them existed in a form familiar to us since 2 BC, when I was a feral child in the mountains of Virginia.
8 years of Latin studies will not be repeated here or in my classes. I use it only to torture people hanging from chains who keep muttering something about the death of handwriting.
In most cases italic capitals are 2 pen widths or so shorter than the ascenders in the body of writing in which they are used. Their pen angle is flatter. 35-40 degrees instead of 45 - 30-35 if you are using a 35-40 degree italic hand.
The angle has to be less to make the verticals more stout.
Flourishes are nice - but control them. It is wisely said that under every flourished letter is a simple, strong letter trying to stay in. (You know, the old too much make-up and overblown yah-dah, and so on.)
The capital letter exemplars I have created do not pretend to be perfect. They do come with my high-tech angleometer attached to the back of the Sakura marker. It reveals how and when I change pen angles while making the letters, crosses and flourishes.
I have also made punctuation marks even included the little-used interrobang.
No one will watch the whole thing at a sitting. You might look at a particular letter or two.
I was writing out of my writing window and comfort zone. If I had been writing where I could have seen my marker point, all you could have seen was my very thin hair and the finished work.
There are some other new videos and others are coming.
I plan to cover the 4 major hands: Uncial, Blackletter, Foundation. I will add the final italic numbers and a few missing miniscule letters.
Classes through Wake Tech begin in January and are being moved to Reedy Creek Middle School, near Harrison and I-40 in Cary. I hope to see you there. © tim www.timjohnsonphoto.com
Traditional Gilding Techniques
Tim Johnson, Th D
RTP, North Carolina
www.timjohnsonphoto.com
tim@timjohnsonphoto.com
919.345.4615
In the most basic terms, the purpose of adding gold to a document is to bring light or "illuminate" it. Gilding on objects has been practiced for centuries but applied most commonly to documents after the 3rd century.
Because the media, commonly vellum (calfskin) or parchment (goatskin), is flexible and changes dimensions with changes in heat, humidity and use, the gesso or other materials must be sticky, firm and flexible in just the right amounts.
Gum Ammoniac
Gum ammoniac is an exudate similar to frankincense and myrrh. It does not have the pleasant, exotic odors of the other gums, but perfectly earns its name - ammoniac. A deep inhalation will choke many people. DON'T BREATHE DEEPLY. This gum is harvested from wounded branches in small clusters and air-dried and stored until ready for application.
Because of the presence of debris and dust, the ammoniac must be filtered after it is soaked. Distilled water and time will break down the gum. Straining the gum through cheesecloth has been a favorite filter for many years. However, cotton and linen fibers can migrate through the process of straining and hang in the quill or pen. A superior material is women's hose or stockings. Make several layers and gather the corner so that no liquid escapes being filtered. Keep the mix covered. Note:To my olfactory sense, it stinks.
Aside: Glair is the part of the egg white (albumen) that will not whip into meringue. It is a very small portion of the egg white (albumen). A dozen eggs will produce about a teaspoon. It is very, very sticky and is a treasure for the calligrapher. Store it in a separate jar in the refrigerator. Occasionally pick out any parts that become stringy. Glair can be added to gouache, watercolor, tempera and is essential in the making of gum ammoniac and raised gilding gesso.
Back to the ammoniac.
When the exudate is dissolved and filtered, a very small amount of Armenian Bole (highly graded and ground ferrous oxide) is added to the ammoniac. This turns the white gum into a slightly pink gum. Add the bole when you are using gold - not when you are using silver, palladium or platinum.
This gum can be carefully thinned so that it will flow through a quill.
Another name for gilding using this gum is "flat" gilding.
The real issue is that the gum can hold the gold, but cannot be burnished. You can make various passes with the ammoniac, just don't exceed the first lines you made.
PVA
NO. Just no.
Raised Gilding
The classic, Cennini recipe is the basis for successful raised gilding. You can find it and variations in Latin texts and in Edward Johnston's Writing, Illuminating and Lettering as well as Donald Jackson's Story Of Handwriting. The recipe creates a hard, yet workable gesso for use of vellum, parchment and fine papers.
I agree with Jerry Tresser, who has been doing this for as many years as I, that there is no true substitute for the traditional ingredients.
Gesso may be made in fairly large quantities and stored for quite some time. Samples of raised illumination are centuries old and are still brilliant. Many pieces are in the Vatican library and are in climate controlled conditions. Other precious documents have been ravaged and destroyed to be framed as individual pieces.
Most destruction was done as scribes recycled older documents to provide writing material for their current projects. Parchment and vellum are quite tough and the ink, decoration and gold were scraped off and the skins were cut into new dimensions and new text and smaller writing was added to the older pages.
Fire, theft, hatred, ignorance, neglect and a horrible soup can account for a lot more of the missing, precious documents.
Back to the gesso recipe:
7.5 or 8 parts slaked plaster (rotted and biologically inactive gypsum)
3 parts white lead (toxic and cumulative -WEAR MASK AND GLOVES)
1 part rock candy (it is pure sugar)
1 part Secotine (fish glue, Asian) or mucilage (hide glue, European)
Armenian Bole (very slight touch) [not to be used when working white metals]
Distilled water and glair in the proportions you like the best
2 frosted glass mixing surfaces.
In a room with perfectly still air and little hand and body movements, mix dry ingredients on one side of the frosted glass. A high humidity day is also helpful.
The reason? It cuts down on static electricity and particle movement.
Mix thoroughly and spread the mixture into a thin layer on the glass. cover with a glassine tent and allow to dry thoroughly.
Again, while wearing mask and gloves, collect in a dedicated jar.
Use glair and distilled water to reconstitute for use.
Your gilding tools will include:
A pair of scissors for cutting ONLY gold (all traces of oil removed)
Pure silk cloth (It does not carry a static charge.)
A gold cutting board made of padded chamois
A gold knife
Several agate burnishers (agate is a cold stone)
Sharp awls, punches, scrapers and knives deciated to this work
Tweezers and hemostats
A hematite burnisher (hematite is a warm stone)
Various jeweler's polishes impressed into chamois
A heavy paper breathing tube
Latex or nitrile gloves and filter mask to prevent inhaling white lead
Several small (0000, 000, 00, 0) pointed sable brushes
Large sable brush for wasting excess gold
I also suggest using a roll if industrial shelf liner to keep materials stable.
WASTING
When shaping and cleaning the gesso, please use your gloves and mask. You are dealing with white lead. m
When cleaning excess gold from letters, make sure you are in a room where the air is still. You might want to have a large fan with an air filter mounted on it or use a vacuum with a very fine filter. DO NOT do your gilding in a room with electronics. Gold is the perfect electrical conductor and if it gets into your electronic equipment it may cause shorts, fires and other preventable damage. If you have gilded dust bunnies in your PCs or TVs, just go ahead and call 911. You have been told.
The amount of gold waste is miniscule. Some people try to save it. You can try to gather it up into a jar with sand. Then you can pan for it at a later date.
Types Of Leaf
Single thickness leaf is 1/300,000 of an inch thick.
Purest and Best - 24 karat Double English Gold
OK - Patent Gold - 22 or 23 karat (copper or silver) loose or on a sheet
Palladium - A malleable silvery white metal, softer than silver
Platinum
White gold - 12 karat gold - 12 karat silver, fairly brittle
Silver
Rolled inferior metals: Bronze, copper, aluminum, etc.
Application Of Gold Leaf
With tweezers attach a leaf of gold to your gold pad. Cut the gold into 1/2 inch squares.
Your letter or decoration should be formed, smoothed and polished before the gold is applied. Rarely do you need to apply pressure heavier than the weight of the burnisher you are using.
With a breathing tube, moisten the target area with your breath. The rock candy in the gesso will attract and hold the moisture momentarily. While the gesso is damp place the gold onto the gesso. Press the gold into the gesso. Smooth the gold into the gesso using your fingers first and then your agate burnishers. I generally start with the hound's tooth. Use your various tools until all the surface is covered with gold. Continue to smooth and cover. When the surface is completely covered, smooth until all surface flaws have disappeared. Small indentations can be added and small repairs can be fixed through this time. Allow ample time for repaired areas to dry. Make sure wasted gold does not get on gouache or ink in your document.
Final polishing can be performed with your hematite burnisher.
Many documents were literally "for show" by candlelight.
Do your work by the best light you can get, enjoy it by the soft light of a candle.
copyright © 2009 Tim Johnson USA and International
Both of my school-age granddaughters are complaining about recent school events. This is a great sign that they are alert and aware of what is going on.
There is the little rumble about their homework that must be done 4 days a week.
It must be done, so it is.
There are the standardized tests that are beginning to make their appearance. That's OK too, since there has to be baseline for understanding who knows what – no matter how irrelevant it is to objectively gauge a person's intelligence, genius or overall usefulness, not to mention that a test could never measure the depth of kindness or potential for courage for sacrifice they may be able to make.
There are also the disturbing reports they bring home about other things going on like the HVAC units and vents being sanitized to keep them from getting H1N1 but that same day their deskmate was in class 30 minutes after a visit to a physician had confirmed they had pneumonia and they had been given an antibiotic with assurances that the strain of pneumonia they were carrying was probably not contagious to most children. Of course that raises the questions as to what to do about the 3-12% that might be sensitive to the bacterial strain?!?
So, with lungs irritated by chlorine bleach and the stress of school in general, we stir in a child who is a walking petri dish.
This is one Papa pretty angry at a parent treating a teacher, class of children and a school like a sick-child clinic.
It is sad the child is sick but worse that the parents are so callous.
Just where is that test for stupid parental behavior?
Speaking of test and bringing up tests throughout the ages ... in the latter stages of Middle Ages, which is technically pre-second Renaissance, our modern university system was developing and scholars who wanted the recognition of their masters and their institutions went through rigorous examinations which lasted for long periods of time. So difficult were the tests that bodyguards were assigned to the examiners to protect them from assault.
We've come a long way haven't we?
Plague and security problems in school. Imagine.
Now, if the 14th Century University Of Paris had buses, what color would they have been painted? © tim tim@timjohnsonphoto.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domesday_Book
A recent newspaper article cited the demise and near death of handwriting. This is not the first time that writing and, essentially, any handcraft has been "lost".
Sure, there is Tupperware and cheap stoneware - but the gifted and determined Seagrove potters that turn out beautiful art in clay and porcelain in NC will continue to do so. So nobody tell THEM that their art is dead.
I see people stitching and sewing and see announcements about shows of quilts. THEY don't know that you can buy a Snuggie and look like a fool watching TV and getting your guacamole and cheese dip all over yourself. Of course you can clean your Snuggie with a Sham-WOW and have at your chili-cheese dog and other slap-it-on-your-thighs and stick-it-in-your-heart snacks. I see the next BIG 800 number seller is going to be a BIBBIE for your SNUGGIE. Some of you might have a lap dog, not for sitting in you lap, but for lapping up all the stuff you've dropped.
Cloth can come from just about anywhere, but some pretty special stuff is still being made in England in a place called the Cotswolds. They might make a very special wool $3000 Camelot Snug-A-Lot.
There is a plethora of books and they are in print and online - but I am waiting for more good writing. Great writers abound. Good books are still being written and people are discovering why classics are called classics.
Well, back to handwriting.
Just Google IAMPETH and decide the real condition of handwriting. You can also look on YouTube and find thousands of examples of calligraphy. (Even my videos have a small following and have had a few thousand views.)
People still buy "calligraphy" kits and, sadly, because they make little progress on their own, they put the kits away and stop trying to write beautifully. Classes are offered - mine through Wake Tech and, of course, privately. Don King and Tim Havey also offer classes. So, the Triangle is not without opportunities to learn good handwriting and decorative lettering techniques.
In reality, there are tens of thousands of people who write legibly and well.
The reference at the top of this post is a link to information about The Domesday (Doomsday) Book. Richard the Conqueror wanted to know just what he had conquered in 1066. He had everything in Great Britain counted that could be counted down to the last pig and duck. That way he could tax them. By the time the books (there were actually 2 of them and the little book was bigger than the other) were done, England was truly Norman - Germanic and very little was left of the Angles or Celts. The book is still in existence and can be accessed online. It was handwritten and was one of the very first documents ever to be photographed - in the mid 1860s. More history, imagine that. The book is a testament to the power of having things written down.
Palmer and Zaner-Bloser students like myself abound. Plus, there are many people who passed through the Catholic school systems where good handwriting was expected.
My classes through Wake Tech crank up again in January. You bring your Snuggie, I'll have the exemplars, ink and share the enthusiasm for well-made letters. © tim www.timjohnsonphoto.com
I recently looked through my collection of things in cans. Mostly this is now film. It is mostly professional roll film and some bulk film. I also have some cans of dry pigments and I keep some rare nibs and leads (real lead and some silver and gold) in small tins.
When I was a feral young one in the Appalachians, things in cans were everywhere. Canning was just part of every annual cycle. Every season had its harvest, preparation and storage. Every home had pantries and cupboards full of Ball and Mason jars.
My Mom, grandmothers, aunts and great aunts and neighbors - and all the grand neighborhood - county-wide - was involved. Vegetables, fruits and even meats were preserved. Some canning was done on a family basis and some was done by church, club or community.
During the less productive months or in times of crisis, people would draw on what they had preserved.
Everyone helped. However, I speak for myself here. I have not planted a damn green bean in 40 years and I have not snapped nor canned one either. Rarely do I eat one. The memory of a large lap full of green beans and the prospect of having to sort, clean and snap them makes the current green bean swell and sour in my mouth and hang in my throat.
But, back to the cellars and the marvel of canned things: preserves, jellies and myriad treats.
Rows of canned GREEN BEANS. Tons of tomatoes, corn, okrawful, beets, limas, spinach and a bit of everything that had been taken out of the gardens and from the tree throughout the year. My great aunts even canned cakes and they were the best treats of all.
There were also canned, pickled eggs, pickles (pickled cucumbers), and pickled things that didn’t need pickling. Pickling seemed natural for the folks. They had the ideal brandies for candies, rum for very flammable Christmas rum balls and some extra dangerous fruit cake that was not safe to have near a Yule Log.
It is not hard for me to imagine that some of that fruit cake is still around and is just dangerous as an unexploded civil war cannonball.
There were also canned meats that might have tasted good, but looked somewhat like things I had seen in the science lab at school - COOL.
There were also freezers - after freezers came along.
We had dried things hanging - beans and fruit and jerky- and my folks smoked and salt and sugar-cured meats.
We once sent a sugar and pepper cured ham to a friend in Pittsburgh. Today that ham would easily cost about $100. We got a note back thanking us for the thoughtful gift, but they threw the ham away because it had some mold on it. Dumb Yankee, stupid, know-nothing ... Ack!
Jars, salt, vinegar, sugar, pepper, spices, herbs and sweat.
I do treasure my cans of film and frozen boxes of printing papers ... but I think I have talked myself into a trip to the State Farmer’s Market. However, the green beans can rest in peace.
I do love okra now that I know how to cook it myself ... to my taste. © tim tim@timjohnsonphoto.com
Anyone who knows me knows that my weakest link is the chunk of metal between my ears. Most of the time I do quite well - with the list of caveats ... for a man of your age, considering what you've been through ... with your health issues, etc.
All that aside, I do pretty well and do manage do get Papa tasks done, work on images and writing tasks, the occasional tutoring session and photo or calligraphic projects.
The one thing that totally slams the door on any useful and productive work is the appearance of a migraine headache. Mine are the cluster variety.
I do have a TEAM of caring health-care professionals that help me manage these things. They have provided me with a TENS unit, a super-big cold pack, a moist-heat heating pad and some medication that helps dull the pain. I also get trigger point injections - but now they are two days away.
My eyes, pitiful as they are anyhow, go awry. My face, mouth and two fingers on each hand go numb.
There is no comfortable position to be had. Dark and quiet are my only allies. Presently, no one can reach in to help.
The problem is that nothing helps with the anger and frustration of being incapacitated.
I don't like this feeling and I certainly don't like to be away from my loved one.
However, it is not safe for me to drive, handle sharp objects or power tools. Precise writing and working in Photoshop is out of the question because the monitor is just too much and I don't want to do a slice-o-matic on my fingers.
Managing this kind of pain is difficult, but I will feel better on Thursday. I will get about 30-36 injections in my skull, neck and back and the pain will go away.
I will rest and on Friday I will be taking pictures of 250 or so United Way volunteers. Saturday I am going to see a niece married off.
Since I was not otherwise occupied, I pulled out my trusty tennis racquet a couple of weeks ago. I stretched and hit a few balls to see if I could get back into tournament shape to add a trophy or two to the ones I have already.
That experiment lasted only an hour. Trifocals and tennis balls are a poor mix. My brain had to sort out which ball to hit and which of the several lines were in and out of bounds. I also was playing 3-5 people at a time. That process took time and too much thought.
So, the next time I hit the court it will be with single vision glasses and fresh trigger-point injections.
No migraine.
The strokes are still there - muscle memory. Now to make a little racquet on the courts, or at least groan loudly to sympathetic ears.
© tim www.timjohnsonphoto.com
