Taking the Good with the Bad (Some New Photos for the Gallery)…

(Just a quick note: due to the high volume of e-mail generated by this blog, and the increasing challenges posed by my illness, I will regretfully no longer be able to answer every e-mail sent to me via the "e-mail me" button on the left-hand column of this page. I deeply appreciate e-mail contact from the readers of Wheelchair Kamikaze, and will continue to read everything sent my way, but the realities of my situation (being sick takes up way too much time) have made directly answering each e-mail extremely difficult. I'll still try to answer as many as I can, though. I hope y'all understand…)

In my last post (click here) I recounted the details of my most recent wheelchair trip to the Conservatory Gardens in Central Park, when the progression of my disease crept up and bit me on the ass, making my "new normal" abundantly clear. I had gone to The Gardens to do some photography, and despite the day not going quite as I had planned, I did manage to take some photos of the springtime glory that was my reason for setting out for that spot in the first place. About half of the below photos were taken on that day. I think some of them turned out pretty well, so I'm happy to share them with you here, and also have them represent a big "fuck you" to Multiple Sclerosis (or Solitary Sclerosis (click here) or whatever it is the hell I have). All of the photos of flowers and cherry blossoms were taken at The Gardens, but so too was the image of the chained iron fence, so I guess a bit of symbolism could be extracted from this collection, for those inclined to look for such things. Beauty and the beast, so to speak…

The remainder of the photos were all taken with my handy dandy iPhone camera on the streets of NYC and along the Hudson River. I purchased a neato clip on lens thingy for the iPhone, called an Olloclip (click here). The Olloclip slides right onto the iPhone, and includes three lenses in one gadget: a wide-angle lens, a macro lens (for taking close-ups), and a fisheye lens. The fisheye lens takes extreme wide-angle shots, covering an almost 180° field of view, making for some very interesting visuals. Fisheye lenses generally cost many hundreds of dollars, and the Olloclip was well under 100 bucks, so the quality of the lens has some "personality" that is lacking (hopefully) in its much more expensive cousins. Still, it's a hell of a lot of fun to play with, and the images it produces are, I think, quite passable. You'll be able to identify the fisheye shots immediately, as they're the ones featuring circular frames and wildly distorted objects. If you have an iPhone 4 or 4S, and want to have some fun with the surprisingly high-quality camera included in the gizmo (which is why I got mine), I give the Olloclip a big thumbs-up. I would give it two thumbs up, but MS has staked a claim on one of my thumbs, along with the other fingers on that hand. I still have one functional middle finger with which to salute the disease, though, so here's looking at you, kid……

As always, your critiques and comments are not only welcomed but desired. No need to hold back or be polite, if you think some of these are pure crap just let loose and say so. Conversely, if any of them truly tickle your fancy, well, flattery will get you everywhere. Click on the thumbnail to view a larger image…