Kelly and I went to Golden Gate Park in the city today. At 1000 acres, we only managed to see one small corner of the place. I also learned three useful lessons:
- Use the image preview feature
- Check the white balance
- A shutter speed of 1/30 is way too slow for full daylight
Mistake number one: Thinking I would be frugal with my battery, even though I had fully charged spare, I turned off the image preview feature. An unfortunate choice, that, because by not reviewing my shots I didn't notice most were overexposed. I would have noticed that they sucked and done something to resolve at least the technical problems.
Mistake number two: It was overcast when we left home and when we got there, so I set the white balance on my camera for a cloudy day. It remained on that setting the rest of the day, notably after the cloud cover and fog burnt off and the sun came out. As a result, most of my shots were overexposed. If I'd been reviewing the images, I might have noticed sooner than when we got home. The white balance can be corrected because I shoot in RAW, but there was a third problem.
Mistake number three: A shutter speed of 1/30 is much too slow, especially in full sun. Insert curse-laden temper tantrum here. To make matters worse, a large percentage of my shots were taken with an aperture at or less than f/16, which further contributed to badly blown out shots.
The result of these three photographic blunders is approximately 300 photos will simply be deleted. The visit to the park was not a waste because, well, we saw lots of flora and fauna and in general enjoyed the visit. Moreover, I learned the hard way that image preview is my friend, that lighting conditions change, and that I have much more to learn about shutter speed, aperture, and ISO before I go to full manual mode on my camera.
Posted by Kurt Wall at 21:38 2009-06-13 | Trackbacks (0) | Comments (0)
The All-Seeing Eye (Tirades)
Or, not so much lately. I have a marked recurrent corneal erosion.
I saw the cornea specialist on Wednesday. After an exam, she discontinued all the medication I've been on except for the Vigamox. She also put in a new “bandage contact” and said I would need to wear it for a least a week. We'll reevaluate the contact after a follow-up on June 17th.
So, in the short term at least, no corneal debriding. However, the specialist also said that if the erosion re-opens between the time she sees me next and a period of about three months afterward, she will debride the cornea in an office procedure. If that doesn't work, the next step is to smooth out my entire cornea using a laser technique. She wouldn't perform the latter procedure. I don't even want to contemplate where we'd go if that didn't resolve the problem.
I'm not going to take chances with my eyes, of course, but there is an element of the absurd in all of this effort going into what began as a tiny scratch.
Meanwhile, happy Friday. Tomorrow (well, later this morning, actually) Kelly and I are are going to Golden Gate Park in the city. We'll be taking lots of pictures with which to bore you. :-)
Posted by Kurt Wall at 00:30 2009-06-13 | Trackbacks (0) | Comments (0)
And if thine eye offends thee… (General)
…pluck it out and cast it from thee (Matthew 18:9, KJV).
However, I don't think this is what Jesus had in mind. I whined yesterday about my scratched right cornea. After two months, it continues to cause me grief. At today's follow-up with the ophthalmologist, he said that the scratch had cut through all of the layers of the cornea. Healing of the top (“epithelial”) layer was being inhibited by slower healing of the lower (“basement”) layer. He also thinks there might be some necrotic (dead) tissue that won't heal.
In the short term, he put a clear, unmagnified contact lens in my right eye to act as a bandaid protecting the healing cut, prescribed yet another antibiotic, and signed me up for a visit with a corneal specialist day after tomorrow. Her job is to evaluate debriding the cornea — nothing about that sounds pleasant.
Posted by Kurt Wall at 12:08 2009-06-08 | Trackbacks (0) | Comments (0)
Cat Scratch Fever (General)
Back on April 11th, my 18-pound Maine Coon, Charlie, accidentally scratched my cornea with his left rear foot. I'd like to go on record to say that scratching your cornea is not a recommended practice. The net result of the experience was:
- One tetanus shot
- One tube of erythomycin antibiotic ointment
- One bottle of ciproflox antibiotic eye drops
- Eight oxycodone tablets for pain
The scratch healed pretty quickly and I completed the course of antibiotics. Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of it. For the next two weeks about once/week I'd wake up in the morning and the same eye would feel just like it had when I initially scratched it: stabbing pain, red, watery. Following up with my GP, he recommended eye drops with a mild anthistamine to help lubricate my eye and suppress the irritation. Net result:
- One bottle of Naphcon A eye drops
Alas, the saga still wasn't over. After about a week, I woke up one morning with the same stabbing pain and red, watery eye. After a second incident a week later, I went to see my optometrist. I described what happened and my current symptoms. After an extensive exam, he diagnosed a recurrent corneal erosion — the original scratch had healed, but the bonds between the healing tissues was weak. As I slept, my eyes dried out, the inside of my eyelid adhered to the weakly bonded tissue, and would tear the bonds when I opened them in the morning. The solution was to use a lubricating ointment at night before I go to bed for two week and to use a different kind of lubricating eye drops every two hours for two weeks.
- One tube Refresh Lacri-Lube moisturizing eye ointment
- One bottle Refresh Tears lubricating eye drops
Still no love. After another week or so, I had another jag of pain. Last week, starting on Tuesday, the pain, redness, and watering started happening every morning. Growing frustrated, I saw an ophthalmologist on Thursday. He confirmed the recurrent corneal erosion diagnosis and prescribed another kind of eye drop to encourage healing of the weakened tissue bonds.
- One bottle, Muro 128 sodium chloride hypertonicity 5% opthalmic solution
Yes, high-tech saline. If I'd known that, I would have sprinkled salt in my eye weeks ago.
But, you guessed it, still no love. Friday and Saturday I woke up with the same symptoms. This time, though, they lasted longer. On Friday, they lasted until late morning, which made the morning commute to work, um, an interesting experience. Saturday, likewise, the pain and watery eyes finally dissipated by late-morning. However, a new symptom had developed, sensitivity to light.
This morning, the stabbing pain woke me up at 8:30 (yes, I sleep late on the weekends). When it persisted, I went to an urgent care clinic affiliated with Thursday's ophthalmologist's medical practice. After numbing eye drops (Thank you, Lord!) and a flourescein exam, the attending internist diagnosed “post-traumatic anterior uveitis,” pending follow-up with the ophthalmologist tomorrow. In the meantime, more eye drops, one to dilate the pupil and the other to treat the inflammation:
- Cyclopentolate hydrochloride to dilate the pupil
- Prednisolone acetate, a/k/a Pred Forté, a topical steroid for the inflammation
There is some concern about possible infection, considering the source of the initial scratch, but it's an outside possibility considering the amount of time that's elapsed.
So, an ultimately inconsequential little nick from Charlie's claw resulted in ten, count 'em, ten prescriptions, eight of which I memorialize here with a photo taken in my home-built light box.
Posted by Kurt Wall at 22:19 2009-06-07 | Trackbacks (0) | Comments (0)