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Archive 2015 · Physiological influences on your photography.

  
 
ben egbert
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Physiological influences on your photography.


I have curvature of the spine. If I stand in a normal relaxed position, my eyes are looking at the ground about 20 feet away. The other night, I tried to see the moon which was straight overhead. I had to find a place to lean so I could get tilted enough to see it. This also makes very low angle shots impossible because I cannot view the viewfinder straight on.

I am profoundly nearsighted, but have excellent near vision. I tend to get near stuff sharp at the expense of far stuff. But some visual acuity fault makes it nearly impossible for me to judge sharpness so I have great difficulty doing manual focus. I therefore rely on AF.

My color vision is ok but early onset cataracts give me a yellow filter. I need mechanical methods to get color balance.

I don’t know if this is correct, but I think my total light gathering ability is much lower than normal. Glasses can makes things sharp, but as far as I know cannot improve the human aperture. I think my eyes are about f8.

I am very sensitive to sunlight and in fact need to have carcinomas removed about 3-4 times a year. I avoid being outside in the hours when the sun is out.

I am an early morning person, and have no problem arising at 3:00 AM for a drive to a sunrise location. But I have trouble staying awake for the drive home after a sunset.

All of this affects the way I see the world and probably has an influence on my photography.

How about you?



Jan 31, 2015 at 01:27 PM
RustyBug
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Physiological influences on your photography.


Feet ... Plantar Fasciitis degrades desire to head out
Knees ... hard to get up, less eager to get down (but always willing).
Back / Neck ... damage from accident hard to use regular viewfinder. Use angle viewfinder ... waiting for articulating back on FF.
Eyes ... Astigmatism / bifocals makes challenging @ viewfinder manual focus. Requires double check, i.e. not quick to determine critical focus.
TBI ... challenging to think timely. Miss a lot of things because I don't think about it till after the fact. Most things are a "circle back" rather than an in the moment.
Pinched Nerve left arm / hand / index finger ... more challenging to hold / focus / adjust things.
Torn Bicep right arm ... limits @ lift / carry / hold steady.

But, while I refuse to let it stop me ... it does make me a bit more reticent / selective @ opportunity ... sometimes.


Kinda reminds me of a lyric @ "I might be broke, but I'm not broken."




Edited on Feb 01, 2015 at 12:22 PM · View previous versions



Jan 31, 2015 at 01:53 PM
ben egbert
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Physiological influences on your photography.


+1 on articulated back.

I can hike all day, but I am so slow that I refuse to go with others because I hold them back.



Jan 31, 2015 at 02:31 PM
AuntiPode
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Physiological influences on your photography.


Ankle - some stiffness, nerve, pain, and endurance issues from last July's breakage.
Knees - when walking down steep/had surfaces, greatly limiting hiking.
Otherwise, all-in-all, not too bad, considering.



Jan 31, 2015 at 04:27 PM
Camperjim
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Physiological influences on your photography.


At this time of year, my hands are my biggest limitation. I have pretty severe Raynauds and my hands just do not work in cold weather. I blame too many years of trying to surf fish with wet hands and cold temperatures.


Jan 31, 2015 at 06:28 PM
lighthound
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Physiological influences on your photography.


Back injury - caused by motorcycle accident when young has left me somewhat stiff. I can not turn my head side to side without a little pain. The worst part is that I can easily put my back out doing simple tasks.

Eyesight - Near sighted and must wear glasses to clearly see anything more than 10 feet away. I don't feel that this hinders my photography very much though. Just another obstacle to get around is all.

By far the worst Physiological issue I have is my partial color blindness. There isn't a day or photo that goes by that I'm not utterly shocked and depressed about the things I can't see like normal people do.
Simple things like correcting chromatic aberrations or correcting WB is a huge challenge for me because much of the time I can not see any issue. I'm always afraid to do any in-depth edits to my photo's because of this, and when I do, well... you've all seen where that gets me.

Heck, my first car I bought was to hottest Candy apple red Chevy Chevette you ever laid eyes on. It wasn't until I sold it that I noticed the registration said ORGANGE!

Sadly, this might be the one thing that keeps me from perusing my passion of photography.
But until then.... prepare for much visual carnage.



Jan 31, 2015 at 06:49 PM
AuntiPode
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Physiological influences on your photography.


Well, there is the glory of black and white!


Jan 31, 2015 at 07:21 PM
sbeme
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Physiological influences on your photography.


Main limitations are shoulder, wrist pain, brachial plexus stretch injury. Mostly limits my comfort carrying the Tammy or Canon 100-400 for long times. And forget about hand-held!
Lately I am less sure if an image is sharp on my high quality monitor. I resisted reading glasses. Then got a pair. Then misplaced them. Now I have three pairs so I have a chance in several rooms!


http://www.eve-tal.com/homework/jewish_folktales.html
Scroll down to "Lost and Found"

Scott



Jan 31, 2015 at 07:54 PM
ben egbert
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Physiological influences on your photography.


sbeme wrote:
Main limitations are shoulder, wrist pain, brachial plexus stretch injury. Mostly limits my comfort carrying the Tammy or Canon 100-400 for long times. And forget about hand-held!
Lately I am less sure if an image is sharp on my high quality monitor. I resisted reading glasses. Then got a pair. Then misplaced them. Now I have three pairs so I have a chance in several rooms!

http://www.eve-tal.com/homework/jewish_folktales.html
Scroll down to "Lost and Found"

Scott


Thats a great story Scott. I never lose my glasses, they never leave my eyes unless sleeping or in the shower.



Jan 31, 2015 at 08:44 PM
AuntiPode
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Physiological influences on your photography.


I have many reading glasses and my primary ones are retained by a cord so I can hang them from my neck. Dowdy but practical.


Jan 31, 2015 at 09:17 PM
RustyBug
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Physiological influences on your photography.


ben egbert wrote:


I never lose my glasses, they never leave my eyes unless sleeping or in the shower.


+1

I lose my glasses most when body surfing ... 4 pair over the years. Makes driving back from the beach an interesting proposition @ blobs & blurs akin to Mr. Magoo.




Jan 31, 2015 at 10:17 PM
eeneryma
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Physiological influences on your photography.


Given all the "aches and pains", some of the best photographers I know.


Feb 01, 2015 at 09:03 AM
oldrattler
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Physiological influences on your photography.


Wow, where to start. Asthma, Bad eyes, vertigo, partial loss of use left arm, bad knees, bad back, speech difficulty, cancer survivor, & PTSD. I am a screwed up mess that God has allowed to enjoy photography, not to the fullest but to the fullest I am capable of. Jim


Feb 01, 2015 at 11:22 AM
ben egbert
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Physiological influences on your photography.


oldrattler wrote:
Wow, where to start. Asthma, Bad eyes, vertigo, partial loss of use left arm, bad knees, bad back, speech difficulty, cancer survivor, & PTSD. I am a screwed up mess that God has allowed to enjoy photography, not to the fullest but to the fullest I am capable of. Jim


Jim we met once and I am very impressed with your pure gumption. Keep it up.



Feb 01, 2015 at 12:01 PM
oldrattler
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Physiological influences on your photography.


ben egbert wrote:
Jim we met once and I am very impressed with your pure gumption. Keep it up.


Ben; I remember our meeting well and enjoy following your post. Continue striving to persevere. Jim



Feb 01, 2015 at 12:24 PM
beanpkk
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Physiological influences on your photography.


Wow.....from all of the above, I am almost forced to the conclusion that great photography ONLY results from great physical difficulty! You all do tremendous stuff, and what a list of ailments! My only problem is that I'm somewhat far-sighted (not enough to wear glasses in general except for reading/computer) but far enough that I can't focus on an LCD screen and I'm never, so far at least, wearing glasses (other than darks) outside.

Having said all of that, my biggest ailments are not physical but mental: laziness, depression, "everybody else's stuff is better than mine", "nothing I ever say has any meaning", "I'm always wrong" kinds of things. Oh, and "I have no eye for photography". They say that mental problems often arise from physiological sources so I don't think I'm going too far off subject.

I want to repeat: you all really do good stuff! My hat is off to you.
keith



Feb 06, 2015 at 07:51 PM
sbeme
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Physiological influences on your photography.


ben egbert wrote:
Thats a great story Scott. I never lose my glasses, they never leave my eyes unless sleeping or in the shower.

Glad you enjoyed, Ben. It still gives me a chuckle.

Scott



Feb 06, 2015 at 08:31 PM
bryanlindsey
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Physiological influences on your photography.


I am 6'6" tall. After shooting weddings my quads would be burning because I would squat down about 12 inches to shoot portraits so as not to have high-camera-angle shots. Worked great for shooting over people during the reception/dancing tho. FWIW


Feb 09, 2015 at 09:10 AM
PikkerTaker
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · Physiological influences on your photography.


I've been in a wheelchair all my life (birth defect--legs). Severe scoliosis (I give the phrase curved spine a whole new meaning!) that even surgery won't fix--refuse to take painkillers so I'm almost always dealing with terrible back pain. Severe osteoporosis in the hips region (worse than what my 90-year-old grandma had), so I can very easily fracture my hips... My hands and eyes work, so I do what I can. Oh and the brain also does its job... well most of the time anyway

I think perseverance is the keyword here. It's so easy to quit in face of challenges. I see other photographers' works, and each and every time I want to quit even trying, which is natural. But I can quit today and I've achieved nothing... or I can continue trying to get better at what I do, and even if I later fail, at least I can say I tried. Oh I'm 36. I just had my first official "photo shoot" a few weeks ago. Posted some of my work here and received some great, positive feedback on a couple of my shots which is way more than I had anticipated.

Keep on shootin', folks...

PS. If you haven't watched the movie Theory of Everything, watch it.



Feb 09, 2015 at 01:07 PM
ben egbert
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · Physiological influences on your photography.


PikkerTaker wrote:
I've been in a wheelchair all my life (birth defect--legs). Severe scoliosis (I give the phrase curved spine a whole new meaning!) that even surgery won't fix--refuse to take painkillers so I'm almost always dealing with terrible back pain. Severe osteoporosis in the hips region (worse than what my 90-year-old grandma had), so I can very easily fracture my hips... My hands and eyes work, so I do what I can. Oh and the brain also does its job... well most of the time anyway

I think perseverance is the keyword here. It's so easy to quit in face
...Show more

Thanks for sharing your story. I guess I started this thread just to explain how these problems effect my photography and to see how it effected others.

We each have to make the best with what we have, and live with the consequences. But in an on line forum where we are probably not aware of other people limits, it requires something like this to make them aware.



Feb 09, 2015 at 01:58 PM
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