I'll be back tomorrow to respond and catch up on threads.
Day 7
Another day failing to find what I was looking for, so fallback again to tabletop. This took a while to setup and shoot - the concept seemed much easier than the actual execution. The colored balls are glass marbles 1/2" (about 1.25cm) in size. It was a chore to get them to rest in a line and spaced correctly. Lighting was again the two reflectors, one bounced off the ceiling, the other directly lighting the marbles subject right. No diffuser. This is a heavy crop, as the 135/3.5 has a close focus of approximately 5 feet (1.5 meters). Processed to whiten the background, dulled the excess glare from the reflections of the light, some noise reduction, slight image rotation to correct the orientation, cropped and re-sized.
Taken with the 135/3.5 at 1/160s, f/11, iso2500
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Spent some time this morning watching the US Army 1st Cavalry Division's Horse Cavalry Detachment perform a Mounted Weapons Demonstration. The HCD is a heritage and ceremonial unit, acting as a living history museum and performing at military events, parades, rodeos, etc... All volunteers, difficult to get into. They make and maintain/ repair their own boots and saddles and other equipment, use period weapons (cannon, pistol, carbine, and saber), ceremonial uniforms are period authentic down to the colors and materials and hand-sewn rank insignia. They drill from the US Army's Cavalry manuals from the 1870's, and appear as a Cavalry unit would have in the 1880's. The mounted drills are mostly performed at a trot or full gallop. Other images will be here as I get finished culling and processing.
Ugly backgrounds, fast movement, light approaching mid-day - not ideal. I ended up opening the aperture to f/11 and f/16 to try and increase my keeper rate. Rough shoot with much culling of images.
Troopers getting their carbines ready for the demonstration.
Taken with the 135/3.5 at 1/4000s, f/4, iso280
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I won't go into much detail of most of my health matters on a website. In a nutshell - the stress of dealing with an aging and increasingly ailing mother over a 6-year period, the events with her hospitalization and death over the Christmas/ New Year holidays, the resulting cleanup and picking up of pieces, my shoulder surgery and lengthy rehab time, have caught up with me. Trying to get back into "normal" with O'fest and using manual focus glass have brought some issues to a point where I have to make some changes. I'm not in danger, not dying, nothing OMG - yet. Just need to take a breather, re-evaluate, and make some course corrections in my life.
As per my doctor's suggestion, for this weekend I'm putting the camera down. Spending little time on the computer, or reading, or doing any detail work that can cause eye strain. I'm to relax and do some activity outside. I'll be on the interweb for very short periods once or twice a day. I'll be chatting with my doc again on Tuesday, and we'll see where things go from there.
I'll follow everyone's threads, and will comment when I have time.
Will miss your shots, Gordon, but can understand your situation. Rest and a "time-out" are often the cure, and you deserve to take care of yourself. My very best to you.
I'll be back tomorrow to respond and catch up on threads.
Day 7
Another day failing to find what I was looking for, so fallback again to tabletop. This took a while to setup and shoot - the concept seemed much easier than the actual execution. The colored balls are glass marbles 1/2" (about 1.25cm) in size. It was a chore to get them to rest in a line and spaced correctly. Lighting was again the two reflectors, one bounced off the ceiling, the other directly lighting the marbles subject right. No diffuser. This is a heavy crop, as the 135/3.5 has a close focus of approximately 5 feet (1.5 meters). Processed to whiten the background, dulled the excess glare from the reflections of the light, some noise reduction, slight image rotation to correct the orientation, cropped and re-sized.
Taken with the 135/3.5 at 1/160s, f/11, iso2500
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
Spent some time this morning watching the US Army 1st Cavalry Division's Horse Cavalry Detachment perform a Mounted Weapons Demonstration. The HCD is a heritage and ceremonial unit, acting as a living history museum and performing at military events, parades, rodeos, etc... All volunteers, difficult to get into. They make and maintain/ repair their own boots and saddles and other equipment, use period weapons (cannon, pistol, carbine, and saber), ceremonial uniforms are period authentic down to the colors and materials and hand-sewn rank insignia. They drill from the US Army's Cavalry manuals from the 1870's, and appear as a Cavalry unit would have in the 1880's. The mounted drills are mostly performed at a trot or full gallop. Other images will be here as I get finished culling and processing.
Ugly backgrounds, fast movement, light approaching mid-day - not ideal. I ended up opening the aperture to f/11 and f/16 to try and increase my keeper rate. Rough shoot with much culling of images.
Troopers getting their carbines ready for the demonstration.
Taken with the 135/3.5 at 1/4000s, f/4, iso280
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
I won't go into much detail of most of my health matters on a website. In a nutshell - the stress of dealing with an aging and increasingly ailing mother over a 6-year period, the events with her hospitalization and death over the Christmas/ New Year holidays, the resulting cleanup and picking up of pieces, my shoulder surgery and lengthy rehab time, have caught up with me. Trying to get back into "normal" with O'fest and using manual focus glass have brought some issues to a point where I have to make some changes. I'm not in danger, not dying, nothing OMG - yet. Just need to take a breather, re-evaluate, and make some course corrections in my life.
As per my doctor's suggestion, for this weekend I'm putting the camera down. Spending little time on the computer, or reading, or doing any detail work that can cause eye strain. I'm to relax and do some activity outside. I'll be on the interweb for very short periods once or twice a day. I'll be chatting with my doc again on Tuesday, and we'll see where things go from there.
I'll follow everyone's threads, and will comment when I have time.
I won't go into much detail of most of my health matters on a website. In a nutshell - the stress of dealing with an aging and increasingly ailing mother over a 6-year period, the events with her hospitalization and death over the Christmas/ New Year holidays, the resulting cleanup and picking up of pieces, my shoulder surgery and lengthy rehab time, have caught up with me. Trying to get back into "normal" with O'fest and using manual focus glass have brought some issues to a point where I have to make some changes. I'm not in danger, not dying, nothing OMG - yet. Just need to take a breather, re-evaluate, and make some course corrections in my life.
As per my doctor's suggestion, for this weekend I'm putting the camera down. Spending little time on the computer, or reading, or doing any detail work that can cause eye strain. I'm to relax and do some activity outside. I'll be on the interweb for very short periods once or twice a day. I'll be chatting with my doc again on Tuesday, and we'll see where things go from there.
I'll follow everyone's threads, and will comment when I have time.
I won't go into much detail of most of my health matters on a website. In a nutshell - the stress of dealing with an aging and increasingly ailing mother over a 6-year period, the events with her hospitalization and death over the Christmas/ New Year holidays, the resulting cleanup and picking up of pieces, my shoulder surgery and lengthy rehab time, have caught up with me. Trying to get back into "normal" with O'fest and using manual focus glass have brought some issues to a point where I have to make some changes. I'm not in danger, not dying, nothing OMG - yet. Just need to take a breather, re-evaluate, and make some course corrections in my life.
As per my doctor's suggestion, for this weekend I'm putting the camera down. Spending little time on the computer, or reading, or doing any detail work that can cause eye strain. I'm to relax and do some activity outside. I'll be on the interweb for very short periods once or twice a day. I'll be chatting with my doc again on Tuesday, and we'll see where things go from there.
I'll follow everyone's threads, and will comment when I have time.
I won't go into much detail of most of my health matters on a website. In a nutshell - the stress of dealing with an aging and increasingly ailing mother over a 6-year period, the events with her hospitalization and death over the Christmas/ New Year holidays, the resulting cleanup and picking up of pieces, my shoulder surgery and lengthy rehab time, have caught up with me. Trying to get back into "normal" with O'fest and using manual focus glass have brought some issues to a point where I have to make some changes. I'm not in danger, not dying, nothing OMG - yet. Just need to take a breather, re-evaluate, and make some course corrections in my life.
As per my doctor's suggestion, for this weekend I'm putting the camera down. Spending little time on the computer, or reading, or doing any detail work that can cause eye strain. I'm to relax and do some activity outside. I'll be on the interweb for very short periods once or twice a day. I'll be chatting with my doc again on Tuesday, and we'll see where things go from there.
I'll follow everyone's threads, and will comment when I have time.
The only thing you are to do is to take care of yourself, Gordon - everything else is secondary. Rest up, relax and rejuvenate. When you're ready; come back and visit us. In the meantime, all my positive thoughts are with you!
Long story short - I have been having increasing issues with eye strain and headaches. Stress, computer usage, use of manual focus glass, and use of magnified optics for detail work (like long range target shooting) all tend to be the largest contributors. The eye strain and headaches usually clear up within a short period of time after stopping what was causing it. Last Thursday was the first time the eye strain got to a point where my vision was almost double, and lasted most of the rest of the day. Also the first time a headache had gotten to migraine-level and stayed there, even over night. Those two things were a concern, hence the call to the doc.
Suggestions from the doc this morning... There's a few things she'll be checking over the next few weeks just to rule out some possibilities. And I need to adjust my lifestyle again. I need to spend less time on the computer (and I need to force myself to use my computer glasses when I am on the computer), more time at the gym once the heat breaks, and more down time doing the relaxation thing - which will continue to include photography, just not with manual focus glass. The other aspects of stress will not go away until I can get all of the clutter and things from multiple people's lives sorted and dealt with, necessary work completed on the house, the house sold, and move to a location with a climate more conducive to my health. I'll be looking at other methods of stress reduction, stop the long range target shooting, and stop using those beautiful pieces of metal and glass ... and we'll see how things go as I progress down this path.
I'd ask that anyone interested in what's going to be going on with me direct any further discussion to my 12-month project thread. I'll be continuing on with that project, and probably another for 2016, and will be making updates there.
Again, thanks for the support and understanding. I'll be checking out your threads a bit here and there over the rest of the month. I hope you all have a wonderful time for the remainder of the O'fest.
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