New Edition

Meet our second! Ethan Alexander, born May 30, and weighing in at 7 lbs 5 oz at 21 in. long. I know, I know, he's cute, right? Notsofast. This is the 26th of 28 photos taken of him over his first two days on earth. And the only cute one of the bunch :) Hey, it's true. I just don't think newborns are especially cute looking until about two to three weeks into life. My suspicion is most people secretly feel the same, but wouldn't ever admit to it. It's okay. We still love him.

Dust Furniture

This is too cool. My wife found Dust Furniture on etsy, and when she showed me, my whole insides smiled. I felt a twinge of envy, as the woodworker in me oggled over their work. Give them a look and see if you don't come away smiling inside and out.

Dust Furniture website
Dust furniture on etsy

Your pain, gone.

The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook: Your Self-Treatment Guide for Pain Relief, Second Edition

I can't say enough good things about this book. It's not perfect, and it isn't a cure all, but the application of its precepts does wonders on a great many types of pain. Now, if you're bleeding, or have a purple lump the size of a melon, or some other clearly identifiable injury, that's a different story. But otherwise, this book stands a great chance of getting rid of your pain by getting to the source of it. With well over 200 positive reviews on Amazon.com, I got past my initial skepticism, and bought the book. I've never made a better purchase.


The Gist of Trigger Point Therapy

A trigger point is a small, persistent contraction within a muscle, commonly called a knot. Often times these knots, or trigger points, cause pain, sometimes disabling pain, at the point of the trigger point, or more commonly, at points away from the trigger point. Consider a headache. It can be caused by trigger points, or knots, in the neck. So, to get rid of the pain, the point of pain is identified, which leads to a search of probable locations of the culpable trigger point. One trigger point may be the cause, or multiple trigger points may be contributing. Then self-applied massage is applied to the trigger point, each session lasting for about twelve short strokes. Five or six such sessions a day and soon enough the trigger point will release and the pain will be relieved. Sometimes one session will be enough to do the trick, sometimes it can take a few days or weeks. That's it. Simple. From headaches, to a frozen shoulder, to an inexplicably painful toe, all of these and more can often be relieved with self-applied trigger point therapy. It's inexpensive, and easy to do, and so may often be the best first thing to try to rid yourself of most any pain you might have.

The book goes in more depth on what I've said here, and provides diagrams aplenty, so within a short time you can be seeking out your own possible trigger points and finally ridding yourself of some unnecessary pain.

Knee Pain, Be Gone

During a season/semester of ultimate (frisbee) I developed knee pain early on in the season. I didn't have the pain to start the season, and didn't have it after the first couple days of tryouts and practice. But the pain came on by the end of the first week.

It wasn't getting worse over the course of the season, but stayed about the same. I did curtail my efforts at practice, in an effort to heal, but for me it was an odd pain being that it didn't seem to get better with rest, and giving an all-out effort in games didn't seem to make it worse. Throughout the season the pain was sometimes more, sometimes less, but the increase or decrease wasn't obviously connected to more or less activity. Strange.

I chalked the pain up to having spent about six months prior to the season doing little more than sitting in a chair for about 6-8 hours a day, with little to no exercise, and then suddenly practicing and playing hard once the season began. Ultimate (frisbee) requires lots of running.

Yet, this didn't explain the actual source of the pain, but just described the circumstances in which the pain developed. Although, these circumstances of prolonged inactivity followed by intense activity later helped me understand exactly what had been happening with my knees, once I got a hold of The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook.

At mid-season I bought two books, The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook, and Treat Your Own Knees: Simple Exercises to Build Strength, Flexibility, Responsiveness and Endurance. This second book wasn't the answer for me, but the exercises in it would have helped prior to the season, and might have been useful in conjunction with trigger point therapy, but I never did much with the book once I found that my pain was really due to the trigger points. I also tried knee straps like the one shown in the photo at left, which seemed to provide some relief, but in the end they weren't the answer for me, and I ditched them by season's end once the trigger point therapy proved to be helpful at easing my pain.

So, like I've been telling ya, it was trigger points, or more commonly called "knots" in the muscle, that caused my pain. While sitting for hours on end for several months, my muscles lost their luster, so to speak, and when I started running hard, they didn't react kindly, and these knots, or trigger points developed in the muscles that supported and operated my knees. A common attribute of trigger point pain is that the pain is often (but not always) experienced in a location other than where the trigger points are. So, a headache can be caused by trigger points in the neck, and my own knee pain was caused by trigger points along the front and sides of my thighs.

Conclusion

I've got two other stories about pain I relieved with trigger point therapy. One for so-called plantar fasciitis, or foot pain, the other being a pain in my neck. As this is running long already, I'll share them in future posts.

Until then, you may want to consider getting the book, and I expect you'll be glad you did, if not for your current hope to cure pain, then for other pain you're sure to experience due to trigger points.
-------
Here's a list of tools that are suggested for treatment of some of the trigger points, although many can be treated effectively with supported fingers or sometimes even a knee or elbow:

A lacrosse ball
A tennis ball
Knobble
Backnobber
TheraCane

The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook: Your Self-Treatment Guide for Pain Relief, Second Edition

Goooooaaal! Renewed.

So, it's been about two and half months since I last posted. My goal of weekly posting, which I almost did for a while there, got set on hold as I set aside not only blogging, but my photography as well. The time that had gone to these activities was swallowed up by my recent efforts at illustration. The thing is, I had to learn how to illustrate. And also to learn the software that I use to finalize those illustrations. So, amidst learning the software, studying other illustrator's work, and working through the tedious process of picking up drawing when I've never done much of it before, all kind of took up lots and lots and lots of my time of late.

And then I went and decided I needed to increase the complexity of my illustrations, which required my developing my own technique so as to emulate to some degree the texturing technique of one of my current favorite illustrators. The thing is, he's hush-hush about his process of adding texture to his work, a process which is unique amongst illustrators insofar as I have seen (and I've been seeing a lot lately), and so I had to go out and figure out a means of emulating what he's doing. I've fairly well got it figured, somewhat, I think, albeit my development of the technique as well as how it relates to my own style is a work in progress that I'm polishing up and likely will continue to evolve for... well, indefinitely if it's to hold my interest for long.

More about all this later. But now, I want to talk about your pain. Coming in the next post. Off to write it now...

Senior Portaits: Part Two

A couple weeks ago I stumbled across a couple John Michael Cooper videos about one of his shoot's and his post-production for that shoot. It was a new idea for me, and one I wanted to try asap. Take a look if you'd like to see him walk through his shoot. Or, you can continue on and get the ten peso version (I don't have a cameraman just yet) of my own first effort at this lighting technique.

The photo above (click it to see it larger) is the big idea we went out with when we headed to shoot Haleigh's senior portraits. I knew we'd shoot something more conventional afterwards (see previous post), and would probably even shoot again the next day (just for fun), but I wanted to shoot this idea whether or not she decided to use it. She was excited about it too.

And she had a great location in mind. Several old concrete and steel buildings, or what was left of their tumbled remains, largely hidden from view in a narrow span of trees tucked between one city and the next. After we arrived I wanted to stop and shoot everywhere along our way as we walked to the place we ultimately decided to shoot. The place isn't great because it's pretty. Because it's ugly. But cool ugly.

Here's the quick rundown of the shot. Camera set two stops under the ambient during a cloudless mid-afternoon (in the photo above you can see that it was actually bright and sunny outside). Lit using only one strobe. Twenty frames, put together in post with Photoshop. If you're a quick study, the picture, and the previous three sentences are all you need to know to go and try it out yourself. If you're still not quite sure, read on.

Composition
Once we picked a specific location, I spent a few minutes composing the scene precisely. Which was different than my usual perpetual exploration of the composition throughout a shoot, as I explore the interaction of the subject and his or her surroundings, getting different angles and looking for something that works. But this particular shot required sticking the camera on a tripod and sticking with the one composition.

Pose
Next we decided on a pose. Important to get this right too, since we were essentially taking one shot. In a way this is restricting, but also refreshing to be able to make the choice, and be done with it, and focus on other things besides choosing different poses throughout a shoot.

Light the Face
Then we took several different shots of Haleigh as I held a speedlight to light her face. I was in frame, but that would be taken care of easily in post. Dang it if she couldn't sit still! She did maintain the same general pose, but she's so animated that she kept leaning forward and back up again as we tried getting several different expressions to choose from for the final image. I was concerned that her movement would make it a pain to blend her face into the final image, but it was cake, largely thanks to the darkness of much of the image, which made it easy to hide slight shifts in her overall posture.

Light the Scene
After that, she maintained her pose as I went throughout the scene and popped the strobe wherever I felt like would be a good place. Note in the photo above that I was actually in frame as I did this, but I'd be easily removed in post because I only used the flashlit portion of each frame. We took about 35 shots (some redundant it turns out), but didn't like all of them and ended up with nineteen or twenty frames that went into the final composite. As we shot, I came back and checked the camera screen after I took several shots, then shot some more.

Composite
In post, I selected the images to put into the scene, and with layers in Photoshop combined the flash lit portions of each image all into one composite image. Some of the flash pops were too bright, so I didn't layer them all in at 100% opacity. I also darkened the sky some, to help keep the high contrast of that area from being a distraction. Although I went for a low-key image, this technique could very well be used to create an image full of light.

Some notes
You can do this any time of day. Noon, sunny, whatever. Just manually set the camera under one or two stops, then an unmodified speedlight is more than powerful enough at close range to overpower the sunlight. You'll need something to wirelessly trigger your strobes (click here to learn more about speedlights, how to trigger them, and to learn a great deal more than you bargained for).

We shot again the next day, without any strobes. I think I may talk briefly about that in another post.

John Michael Cooper's site

His how-to videos

Senior Portraits: Part One

Haleigh wasn't interested in what is typical for senior portraits in the area she lives (often cheesy). So I presented her some photo ideas that weren't the norm, and we went and played with a few of them. In the end, she did choose to have her guitar in some of them so as to appease mom with a symbol of her talents without cheesily holding a paintbrush.

These photos here are actually not one of the original ideas I presented to Haleigh. But, after the first part of the shoot, which was more involved, I quickly scouted out this location to make a lighter and cleaner portrait from the more dramatic and moody image we shot first, thinking these would be more to the taste of Haleigh's mom (in my next post I'll cover the first part of our shoot, which I think turned out pretty cool). The series of photos in this post were shot pretty quickly, only a handful really, and we stopped when we had something that worked since she had an appointment to keep.

For both series of photos we were at an old abandoned building, what was left of it, and the wall-less second level is raised up on concrete slabs and covered in dirt and soot. Nature was reclaiming the place, and I used the upraised level of the building to get a shot of tree, sky and mountain in the background, so as to avoid the grungier post-earthquake-rubble-fifty-years-later look that surrounded us.

Being mid-afternoon without any clouds, I tamed the hard light by bringing the ambient down with my exposure settings, and filling from the opposite direction with flash. Because I was using flash, my shutter speed maxed out at 250 (the max sync speed of my camera), so I took the exposure down the rest of the way by closing down my aperture. The trick was to stop down far enough to prevent blowing out of the mountain behind, while still being able to have enough strobe power to get through my smaller aperture. To offset the sunlight coming down from camera right, I stuck three speedlights in a silver umbrella, each at half power, coming in from camera left. (I ended up at about f/11 at 1/250 sec.) Since the strobes were close to Haleigh, they were a close match to the intensity of the sunlight.

I could also have gone a bit faster with my shutter speed, which would have the flash taking no effect on the edge of the frame where Haleigh was not standing, but that's a trick I have yet to try and it wasn't on my mind at the time.

I used three light stands, one for each light. The tri-legs of the lightsands were closed up, and they were all clustered together and held by my lovely assistant, as they fired into the umbrella. If I had one, I'd have used a TriFlash bracket, just to un-clumsy the set-up.


Time for a confession. The original images were darker than these, but I pushed up the exposure in post. The slight darkness was a mistake on my part, but fortunately a small one which shooting in raw helped to be amendable. My error was in not shooting either my hand or the subject or a stand-in up close, which would have allowed me to get an accurate meter reading for the light that reflected off only her skin. Instead, I mistakenly metered from far back, thus metering for the whole scene. My histogram gave me a good read, but the mild nagging unease about whether or not the exposure on her face was bright enough didn't get through to the part of my brain that should have told me to go meter up close on her face and use that histogram to tell me how to adjust my camera and/or lights. Later, when I got the images on the computer screen, I saw I had a good exposure for the background (having taken the mid-afternoon light down to an early evening level of light), but her face was a touch underlit from what I wanted. I had adequately balanced the strength of the ambient light with the strength of my strobes, but what I really needed was to either have the strobes be a touch brighter, or to have the whole scene brighter (by opening up my aperture to allow more light in from both sources, or by increasing the ISO). A wider aperture or higher ISO would have threatened to blow out the lightest parts of the mountain, which I'd prefer to avoid. So, increasing my strobes to full power, or adding another light would have been my preferred first option at bringing up the light on her face.

In the end, with the top photo, we got something fun and that showed a bit of Haleigh's personality, while being a bit different than what she normally thought of as a senior photo. In the next post I'll talk about the first photo we made just prior to this series. It's a bigger idea that was even further from typical, and I think looks pretty cool.

Slideshow

Active-Isolated Stretching: Better than you might think

The Whartons' Stretch Book

You've been stretching all wrong. That is, if you've been stretching at all. And stretching's not just for old guys, either. The more flexible you can be at any age, the less often you'll be injured. You'll play better, run faster, sleep sounder, and sit more comfortably, all thanks to active-isolated stretching (AIS).

Who Benefits?

Most anyone, really. My brother runs marathons. These stretching exercises do wonders for his legs before a run, and especially if he does them again after a run.

My dad, in his mid-fifties, performs physical labor on his feet all day. Just this week he began AIS in the mornings, and it has been a stark difference of increased energy and feel-goodness for him throughout the day. Now, instead of slugging out the end of the day, he feels like he could work longer if need be.

Me, I recently trained for an ultimate (frisbee) tournament (seven games in two days), and the key part of my training program were these stretches. I did the upper and lower leg stretches, and sometimes the feet. Yep, the feet. Ankles, down to the toes. Compared to last years tournament (only six games), this year I felt some stiffness and sluggishness by the beginning of the end game, but not the rigor mortis stiffness in my legs by last years final game. This year, by the time the last game was over I was ready to play more.

Sleeping Restless?

As people get older, the authors note, they become less active. So when bedtime comes, they may be mentally ready for sleep, but physically they have not had enough activity to be fully ready for sleep. So a tossing and turning throughout the night often ensues. Performing these exercises in bed before sleep can be light enough exercise to prepare the body for rest without being overly stimulating so as to make getting to sleep difficult.

Active Means Active

These are not the static, reach-and-touch-your-toes for thirty seconds kinds of stretching. But it isn't so active as aerobics, either. As for activity level, it's on par with some of the milder exercises of a pilates or yoga routine. When I first began doing these exercises, being a bit inactive in the months preceeding, I would work up a light sweat. But, that's a good thing. As noted by the authors, warming up before stretching is a misnomer. Stretching is the warm up. At least when you do the active isolated kind.

Why It Works

Each exercise focuses on stretching one muscle area by contracting the muscles that work in the opposite direction. This contracting of the opposing muscle, allows the muscle we want to stretch to relax, and therefore stretch it without forcing it to do so. Example: I flex my quads (thighs), and the hamstrings (back of thighs) relax.

Each exercise is performed in reps of 10, and held for 2 seconds each rep. The 2 seconds allows for a healthy stretching of the muscle before the stretched muscle kicks in it's natural protective response to contract, at which point further holding of the stretch would just fight against the muscle we are trying to stretch, and that's not so effective.

Sample Stretch

The book has easy to follow illustrations, as well as written instruction. But following are my own words on how to do one of the exercises:

Lie on your back, both legs bent so your feet rest on the floor. Lift one leg so it is in the air, but bent at a 90 degree angle, your lower leg parallel to the floor. Your upper leg will be perpendicular to the floor. Now extend your lower your leg upward, bending at the knee until your whole leg is straight. Depending on your flexibility, you may not be able to raise your leg fully upright, or you may be able to extend your leg past upright as you stretch it in the direction of your head. Hold for 2 seconds, then return your lower leg to be parallel with the floor, keeping your upper leg perpendicular to the floor (your leg bent at the knee, forming a right angle). Repeat 10 times.

Rope and Variations

The authors do suggest the use of a rope (see cover) to lightly assist with some of the stretches, but it is possible to do them with out it. I do the exercises both ways, with and without the rope. It's a little faster without it (not having to re-secure the rope on my foot for each exercise), and sometimes I just don't have the rope with me. A thicker rope is better, as it's easier to hold. Try a rope approximately 1/2" to 1" in diameter.

If you're not so flexible, you can vary the form of stretches to make them easier. For example, one of the quad (thigh) stretches asks you to hold one foot forward, while bringing the other foot backward as you lie on your side (if that isn't clear, it will be when you see the illustration and read the books description). If that's too hard, just don't hold the one foot forward, and the exercise becomes easier.

Disclaimer: Before beginning any exercise program, talk to your doctor, yada yada. There, I'm legally safe. But if you ask me, if you don't have a broken bone, or a torn ligament, AIS is as safe for anyone as is walking up the stairs. And perhaps safer because when you're done with the routine, your looser and stronger, and more prepared to do what you gotta do.

The Whartons' Stretch Book

Arches National Park, and parts round about

This weekend we went to Moab, visiting my brother and his family who live there.

We hiked, talked late into the night, saw beautiful country, and had a good time. I had forgotten my wide angle lens at home, and so I had to make do with my 70-200 (on a camera with a 1.6x sensor, if you now what that means). Not having a wider angle lens worked out better than I thought it would, and in a way, was better, at least for the above panoramic shot and similar ones I took. Otherwise, I likely would have focused on shooting stuff that was closer, and missed these panoramic opportunities.

Hiking outside Arches National Park

The panoramic at top is in Arches National Park, 10-15 minutes from my brother's house. It's a four shot panoramic of the ancient sand dunes there. I'll soon be making a polished final image, as well as of some others I took from the same vantage point. For now, you may see the large version (width: over 10,000 pixels) of the top image by clicking on it.

Hiking outside Arches National Park

Bouldering in Arches National Park

Double Happiness

That's what this weekend was. Yes, you astute ultimate players will have recognized the title of this post means a defensive knockdown, back to back with running to the goal and receiving a pass for a score. But that is not the double happiness I speak of. But my weekend of double happiness does include ultimate. I went to the Trouble in Vegas tournament, otherwise known as "The best and worst idea ever." Three days of frisbee, back to back to back. Our team, not one's to play on Sunday, played only on Friday and Saturday. A total of seven games. Great and glorious fun.

The second part of double happiness was eating at In-N-Out Burger. 'Nuff said.

Moving

It's the pits. Especially when you don't have a place to move into just yet. Finished school, so we're moving to be near family, but for now we're staying with family, until we find a place. Here's hopin' we find a place soon. Very soon.