** ** I am not a health professional. I do not play one on TV and I didn’t even stay at a Holiday Inn Express. Please consult your doctor or health professional before adding exercise routines to your lifestyle.
Arrrggghhh!!
I have made this exclamation on more that one occasion (OK maybe there were a few choice words of the not so nice variety thrown in for good measure, but this is a relatively G rated blog) when I felt a disc slip or back go way out leading to excruciating and sometime debilitating pain.
This happens because of improper care and feeding (and use of) your body.
We as photographers tend to use and abuse ourselves without even realizing it. We carry heavy gear. We support weights in unusual positions. We hold uncomfortable positions for long periods of time waiting for ‘The Moment’.
Back pain can strike at any time…. Less often if we prepare properly!
Some Back and Lifting Basics
OK let’s stop the wrong behavior and get things into prime working order. First let’s review how to lift and carry loads properly. Here’s a link to a slide show from the Mayo Clinic on proper lifting techniques. Essentially you want to plan your attack. Where are you going to put what you are picking up. Bend from one knee or squat using your legs to do the lifting, not bend from the waist. Engage your core. tighten those stomach and core muscles to steady your back. If an object is too heavy for you don’t ‘Superman’ it – find someone to help or lighten the load and make more trips. Trust me it’s worth making more trips that you think will take you too much time now than to tweak your back and end up in pain for days or weeks and possibly loosing lots of work time!
After a long day shooting how do you feel? Would it surprise you to know that you should feel fine? If you are using proper photography techniques you should not feel back pain even after a long day at a wedding or chasing toddlers around your studio. When I was having consistent visits with my Chiropractor he suggested I might be hurting myself while photographing and I poo-pooed the idea until he suggested I have someone video me while I worked. Upon review of the video I was shocked! I found myself in unneeded bent up and twisted positions. Instead of moving my feet to keep my body aligned and supported properly I was consistently leaning and twisting to get the camera into position putting unneeded stress on the back and spine.
Tip – Have someone video you while you work. Review then build new habits for proper body positioning for less hassle with your back health.
Prevention!
A great way to avoid severe pain is to prevent it in the first place. The tips above can help with that but to really protect yourself getting in shape and building stronger body muscles is key. Please work with a professional especially when you first start out in any exercise program. Doing exercises improperly can cause damage or create pain that will keep you from coming back to the exercise floor.
Here’s a solid, simple (with video instructions) exercise program with which to start. It’s the Johnson & Johnson Seven Minute Workout. Based on HIT – High Intensity Training techniques. Don’t let those words scare you! Basically it means you perform an exercise for 30 seconds followed by 10 seconds of recovery followed by the next exercise. The J&J team do a great job of instruction and keeping the workouts fresh. The nice part is it’s a free APP to download to your Smart devices like phone or tablet. In spite of the solid instruction in the videos I still recommend you get a trainer to coach you through the exercises the first time around to be sure your have good form.
There’s more but, this is a good start in protecting your back. Stay tuned for Parts two & three of ‘photographers health – back’ in future posts on Successful-Photographer.
Yours in Creative photography, Bob
** I am not a health professional. I do not play one on TV and I didn’t even stay at a Holiday Inn Express. Please consult your doctor or health professional before adding exercise routines.
Playing some more with the in-camera panorama stitching on the Lumix GX8 again… This time in the Village of Oak Creek with Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte as the stars of the show. I used the 20mm f1.7. This combo worked very well when keeping the lens pointed straight ahead. If you tilt the camera up there will be a bit of bending of the horizon.
Here’s the original capture SOOC with a minus 2/3rds of a stop exposure adjustment to bring down the sky to a deeper blue. One of the benefits of being able to see what you camera is capturing I could tell that it was going to be a bit overexposed before shooting.
Here’s the finished image with a bit of post production. Darkened the road. Removed a couple vehicles. Increased saturation a little. Added some contrast with Google’s NIK Detail Enhancer. The only place I ran into a stitching evidence was after applying the Detail Enhancer the blue portions of the sky showed the beginnings of unwanted lines. Using a Layer Mask took care of that problem.
This image could easily print to 14 X 42 inches and probably larger if I wanted to work at it a bit and depending on what material I was printing on.
The gift of Professional Family Portraiture to a family that is losing a child at birth… Is priceless.
It’s recruitment month at Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep and I encourage you to consider becoming an affiliated photographer. There is a tremendous need. When I first heard about the organization and it’s mission I thought, “There’s NO WAY I could ever do that!” Eventually after attending a seminar put on by Sandy Puc I decided to try. Over the years I’ve been with the organization in many roles, as a photographer, trainer, board member & image reviewer as I see this is an amazing way to give back to the community.
You can do it.
Is it easy? Nope
Is it rewarding? Yep
“Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep is one of those ways that I enjoy serving my community as a photographer. When a Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep call comes in, I remember why I love photography.”– Mike Fulton, NILMDTS Area Coordinator and Affiliated Photograph
Learn more from the videos below and the NILMDTS web site.
Last night I was at my local and the Lumix GX8 with a 20mm f1.7 lens was in my hand. Played with some presets. Shot RAW and jpeg.
And, since I wasn’t really thinking I never moved away from the 1.7 f stop. But, it’s pretty amazing what you can do in post to save an image. Just to make it a little tougher I used one of the saved jpegs with a deep BW setting to work with.
The first image is straight out of camera.
This is SOOC with a deep contrast BW setting from the camera
I opened the above jpeg in Adobe Camera Raw by highlighting the image in Adobe Bridge and pushing CMD R MAC, (CTRL R PC) This gives you all the controls or ACR although it doesn’t give you access to the RAW info of the file it allows you to use the adjustment tools.
In this case I added a good dose of clarity to add a bit of tooth to the image, opened up the shadows, knocked down the highlights and opened up the shadows just a bit with a curves bump. Both have an interesting feel but I feel the second one with just a touch more punch worked better.
I believe you need to look around before you can see. And, you need to spend time seeing before you can create a vision with your photography. This is a post about an exercise I did and ask people to do to expand their vision. There are many variations on forcing yourself to study an area until you’ve come close to exhausting the photographic possibilities. In this case the ‘assignment’ was to photograph this subject without moving more than 5 feet in any direction for a minimum of 30 minutes to an hour.
Having a capable camera with you at all times helps to define your vision. The low profile and light weight of the micro 4/3rds system makes it easy for me to be more creative. In this case various Lumix lenses and the Lumix GX8 were used in the capture…
Here are contact sheets from the shoot followed by some of my favorites from the shoot…
Contact sheet one images are SOOC (straight out of Camera)
Contact sheet 2
Contact sheet 3… There were about 4 plus contact sheets all together but you get the idea!
Below were a few of the images I worked up from the session followed by a Time-Lapse of the shoot.
Black and white turned this into a very graphic feel and tells the story of ‘Place’
Aerial view with fish eye lens
Mood piece with some NIK Color Pro 4 FX. Dreamy…
Then it was on to the story of the Knights.
Many other images were captured during the ‘assignment’ but these were the ones I thought I’d share.
Time-lapse showing the shoot shot with Lumix FZ1000 mounted on tripod capturing an image every three seconds. Processed in camera to MP4. Very cool feature!
W. Clement Stone added to the quote by Napoleon Hill to add in the information that essentially is Newton’s Law of Motion, and I believe, effects each of us every day. If we are not aware of the forces of our mind and nature we suffer the consequences.
“Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. That’s why many fail – they don’t get started – they don’t go. They don’t overcome inertia… They don’t begin.” W. Clement Stone (Napoleon Hill)
After Napoleon Hill’s book Think and Grow Rich he teamed up with W. Clement Stone to write Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude and added these words to the well known phrase, “That’s why many fail – they don’t get started – they don’t go. They don’t overcome inertia… They don’t begin.”
And there is the crux of the problem leading to success. They don’t get started. If you have an idea, act upon it. Get going. Apply Newton’s Law in Physics. Newton’s first law of motion is, “An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.” We human beings are the same way. Once we start on a project it is fairly easy to keep going. Getting started can be the hard part, excuses abound.
Get in motion.
If you have trouble with that get Hill’s Think and Grow Rich and read a chapter a night. Put the book up for a month and then read a chapter a night with a highlighter and note the passages that will help you. Put the book up for a month. Repeat with a different colored highlighter passages you didn’t note before but for which you are now ready. Now the book is ready to be reviewed on a regular basis and can be gone through in a very short period of time. We need reminders when we get off track and I’ve found this to be very handy (matter of fact, it’s time to break out my well worn copy…where did I put that??)
You ask, “Bob what does all this have to do with photography??” Personal photography projects are one of the best ways to refresh you. To change your business in the direction you want to go. But we often don’t get started on them because we “don’t have time.” I disagree and I think you’ll find the motivation you need following some of the ideas above.
During the rainy season here in Arizona it pays to keep a camera nearby and one eye peeled for the ever-changing weather conditions. I was at dinner and noticed a rain shower passing by and thought I’d better go scope it out. I had the Lumix FZ1000 with me when I checked outside to find this rainbow (trying to double-up) from the deck at Sound Bites Grill.
Working on a double rainbow over the red rocks of Sedona
I used the Panorama Mode to capture the entire rainbow. With the FZ1000 I had to make a few passes for this scene because there was nt a lot of detail in the sky for the software to see and stitch. I was wishing for the Lumix GX8 or the G7 as they have new stitching that does a better job in situations like this. The FZ1000 has so many easy options it’s hard not to make it your carry around camera. Next time I’ll grab one of the others and my small Think Tank Mirrorless Mover 20 bag with a couple lenses to add a few more options…
I should also have captured a series of RAW images for later stitching in Photoshop or Autopano Pro. Next time.
Insight from another photographer who has excellent skills.
And, some pretty darn nice photography all wrapped up in a beautiful package.
I’m talking about Bruce Barnbaum’s book The Essence of Photography – Seeing and Creativity published by rockynook. Bruce starts with a narrative that in the beginning I felt was a little too ‘I’ centric. But, he was sharing information as he saw and experienced it trough his career and I actually enjoy seeing through his eyes this way.
Bruce’s book cover.
Bruce gives lots of information on creativity and getting out of your own way. Suggestions on how to be a great photographer are there for the picking. This is not light reading but get you gets you to examine your photography and creativity in-depth.
Here’s a quick sample paragraph from the book…
The Importance of Defining Your Expressive Goals
“Sometimes a photographer has an idea of what he wants to accomplish, but he doesn’t really know how to achieve that goal. Mapping out that pathway can be the most difficult part of the process. Prior to that, figuring out exactly what you want to say about about your subject matter – whether it’s the character of the person you want to bring out in a portrait, the forces in nature found in the sandstone walls of a slit canyon, or anything else -can also be challenging. This is where the combination of drawing upon your deepest interests and fully understanding the technical aspects of photography – digital or traditional – gives you the tools you need to accomplish your goals.”
• Defining your own unique rhythm and approach as a photographer
• How to translate the scene in front of you to the final photograph
• The differences and similarities between how an amateur and a professional approach photography
• The differences between realism and abstraction, and the possibilities and limitations of each
• Learning to expand your own seeing and creativity through classes, workshops, and associating with other photographers
• Why the rules of composition should be ignored
• How to follow your passion
• When to listen to the critics and when to ignore them Here’s one particular passage I want to share with you…
Lots of inspiration for creativity. This will be a book I return to for a refresher on an ongoing basis.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – You can get Bruce’s The Essence of Photography on Amazon
For infrared conversion of my cameras I use LifePixel. Infrared allows you to put an older camera to use and opens up a new time time of day for productive image creation.
Fotopro tripods are well worth checking out. You can learn about the ones I use and recommend by clicking on the Fotopro Tripods link at the top of this page. If you want to see what other tripods might fit your needs check out the Fotopro.com website. Check back with me before you buy as a Fotopro Ambassador I’m able to get you discounted pricing including complementary continental USA shipping for my followers that you won’t find through retail outlets.
Learn Photoshop in a fun environment. Aaron Nace applies the right amount of fun with easy to understand and follow tutorials. Actions and brushes are included with lessons!
Lightning, waterdroplets, sound, time-lapse, HDR sequences, smiles and much more control for your camera!
Cameras Get Smarter -
A High Speed Smart Camera Remote
Best embroidery ever. Give Queensboro a try, get a $20 instant credit to get started by clicking on the logo! They specialize in great quality custom logo apparel and promotional products with the best customer service.
Platypod has become a great resource for being creative in getting your camera gear easily into unusual places. As an Platypod Pro I get to work/play with the gear even before it comes out. Head over to Platypod, subscribe to the newsletter and you will get special discounts reserved only for subscribers.
