Photographer Down and Still Capturing Photos

A week ago I had a surgery that has rendered me immobile for the next 5 weeks or more. The day of the surgery was an event in itself. For starters the nurse hit an artery in my arm when attempting to administer an IV, luckily I have no issue with the site of blood, because there was a lot of it. After the surgery when I was being driven home, I felt like I was going to pass out. I lost my hearing and the only thing I could think about was breathing.

The pain was so bad at home, even the almighty Vicodin did nothing for me. My 14 year old dog almost passed away on Saturday after having a severe seizure. I was expecting the worst. On Sunday morning, miraculously she was back to her normal self. Well days later, Im finally starting to feel better. Now that the pain has subsided, the inevitable wave of boredom is washing over me. I currently have explored every inch of the recliner that I’m confined to. I have a stack of books to read and have been playing hours upon hours of Battlefield.  Something was still missing, photography.

I started watching some photography reviews and tutorials via my chromecast (a $35 TV streaming device I highly recommend even though there is little support for Mac and iPhone) but that only increased my desire to get out and shoot, which when you are confined to limited walking even on crutches is next to impossible. So the past couple of days I have been shooting with my x100s from the recliner.

My challenge has become taking photos from one location, in a room where nothing really changes except for the lighting, the occasion bird at the window, and every so often when the dogs stop and say hi. To add to the difficulty, the x100s has a fixed lens (if you have read my x20 post and are wondering why Im not shooting with that, there will be a dedicated post for that later). I could go get one of my Canon’s and have all my lenses with me but I really don’t have room for all that equipment. Who knows? I will probably resort to that as the weeks progress.

This challenge has helped diminish my boredom and has also reminded me of how important taking multiple shots with different angles of your subject is. ( See the last set of photos )

All ready for maximum entertainment

The importance of taking multiple shots is demonstrated below:

Good however her front paw is cut off

Better but there is a distracting white blur in the right hand corner

Almost there, Im just not liking the angle

There it is…. Also the exposure was increased

The Three Realms

The Three Realms is a  composite that I made from 8 photos. It is a depiction of Heaven and Hell with the Earth in the middle hence the title: The Three Realms. Originally, I was exploring the option of making a scene of Heaven with images from the clouds and the buildings. However, I was struck by inspiration and continued to add more and more to the composite until I was satisfied.  I really enjoyed working on this for a couple hours and then stepping away from the computer to contemplate my next move with the composite.

What makes this composite so special is that the images were taken with three different cameras (Canon Rebel XT, Canon 7D, and The Canon 5D Mark II) over the span of five years. Starting with the Heavenly Stars- taken from my backyard, The Heavenly buildings- The San Giorgio Monastery in Venice, Italia, Heavenly clouds, Earthly mountains – from a local mountain peak, and Hell- from local 2008 and 2009 wildfires.

My interpretation of the image moving from bottom to the top of the image:

Hell- the small specs of light represent the unknown…. they could be demons or eyes of monsters.  The fire and smoke represent heat and suffering. Fire is beginning to ignite the bottom part of the earth indicatiing where the world might be headed.

Earth- Life represent by lush greens. The large separated houses represent the desire for individuality and freedom.

Heaven- The dense clouds are my idea of the unknown location and difficult path to get to Heaven. Once above the clouds, everything is clean, simple, and clear. The buildings could represent the house of God or maybe a personal castle away from the evils of the Earth and Hell. The stars represent the vast size of what Heaven could be.

My interpretation and inspiration to apply meaning behind everything in the Three Realms comes from Dr. Fred Levine and his Art History lectures.