{"id":69191,"date":"2019-02-13T05:29:31","date_gmt":"2019-02-13T12:29:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=69191"},"modified":"2019-02-13T08:24:37","modified_gmt":"2019-02-13T15:24:37","slug":"a-bird-in-flight-enigma-and-a-surgical-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2019\/02\/13\/a-bird-in-flight-enigma-and-a-surgical-update\/","title":{"rendered":"A Bird In Flight Enigma And A Surgical Update"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two unrelated post subjects this morning, one mysterious and one clinical. Clinical comes first so we can get it out of the way.<\/p>\n

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I had no idea how difficult taking a selfie of my lower back would be (and yes, I’m wearing pants). And to think I thought bird photography was tough.<\/em><\/p>\n

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My back surgery (a double laminectomy at L2 – L3 and L3 – L4 and a single laminotomy at L5 – L-6) took place very early in the morning two days ago at St. Mark’s Hospital. I ended up spending only about 26 hours in the hospital and arrived home yesterday morning feeling pretty good, all things considered. At this point the incision and surrounding area have become moderately painful but I have Percoset for that when I need it. The potentially good news is that most if not all of the worst pain caused by spinal stenosis I’ve had in my legs and especially my buttocks seems to be much relieved already (those friends worried about me losing my notorious “pain in the butt” factor need not worry…). But it’s too early to tell if the improvement is actually a result of the surgery because the pain normally waxes and wanes to some degree, or even if the improvement will last. I should know more about that soon.<\/p>\n

Since the surgery involved excision of parts of several vertebrae and detachment of muscles, full recovery is going to take some time. My activities are much restricted for six weeks as the bone and muscles heal and there’ll be no bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches allowed (Bending, Lifting or Twisting) for me during that time. I’ll have to get creative with my bird photography techniques because of some of the physical restrictions. After that first six weeks my recovery will continue but the worst of it should be behind me.<\/p>\n

Some or all of the nerve damage (neuropathy) in my feet will very likely be permanent but there’s at least some hope that I’ll eventually be able to go back to wearing shoes again. I haven’t worn shoes (only loose sandals) for the last 18 months. Even if the neuropathy persists I can live with it as long as I can walk free of major pain again and resume many of my normal activities. I’m sick to death of an unkept house and ratty yard and Mia and I very much look forward to resuming our camping\/photography trips that we’ve had to mostly forego for almost two years. My new camping trailer is a huge incentive to do my part in keeping my act together during recovery.<\/p>\n

So, I’m encouraged. But by nature I’m a pessimist so I don’t think my expectations are unreasonably high.<\/p>\n

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Ok, I’m tired of all these health-related blog posts so I’m including something I’m intrigued by but I’ve been hesitant to post about, partly because the documenting images are of mediocre quality and partly because the subject may seem inconsequential to many of my readers. But I keep coming back to it so here goes:<\/p>\n

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\"\"About three weeks ago I photographed this Canada Goose in flight over a local pond. It was backlit on an overcast afternoon but the feather it lost in flight added some small amount of interest so I opened a few of the images to look at them a little more carefully.<\/p>\n

Notice the distance from the bird to the feather in this photo, file #9456.<\/p>\n

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\"\"And then notice the distance from the goose to the feather in the next photo in the burst, 1\/10th of a second later, file #9457. Both images are cropped the same amount in an effort go give an accurate visual estimation of distance but in the second photo the feather has become almost 50% closer to the goose. Given the speed of the bird and the following conditions I can’t quite figure out how that could happen.<\/p>\n