Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Where Have I Been?

In looking back at my blog, my last post was December 2016.  Today is March of 2020, quite a long time.  In short, I have been busy doing nothing.

I had a lot of back issues.  I went through a lot of misdiagnosis of my problem.  I finally went to a pain management doctor and he referred me to a spine specialist.  This spine specialist diagnosed me with a combination of scoliosis and stenosis.  Much of my back naturally fused itself over the years, but I was having trouble with the L series in my back. For those of you that are not familiar with what different parts of the back do, the L series of vertebrae in your back control your legs.  I ended up having surgery in January of 2019 and today, I am actually walking around without the use of a cane or any other device to help me walk. 

I am back to being able to carrying my camera in a backpack type camera bag and I have gotten into mirrorless cameras.  Specifically, I was able to get a Sony a7 camera and I have gotten two lenses to shoot with and am doing very well using that.  Of course, I ended selling my Nikon camera and gear so that I could acquire my Sony, but overall, it has helped me to get out and start shooting again.

I hope to start posting on my blog on a regular, consistent basis.  Of course this Coronavirus pandemic has happened and so like many others, I am staying in so that I don't come down with it.  I am and will always deal with chronic depression, that is part of why I am a photographer and do what I do. 

I have taken some pictures, but I want to work on some processing skills while being forced to stay at home.  One of the techniques I want to work on is sharpening my photographs.  I have gotten a lot of comments about how great my textures are in my photographs, but like the person that I am, I am my own worst critic and feel that they can be better.  I also have changed my post processing routing and use much more Photoshop than I was.  I still put frames around all of my work, but have seen some other people that use frames and want to incorporate some of their ideas into my frames as well.

Until next time.  Stay healthy, stay well, and most of all keep shooting.