Some New Photos, Some Shot with a New Toy

The camera in the iPhone 4S (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It's been a while since I added new photos to the gallery (featured in the sidebar on the left), so here's another batch. The first seven were shot with my usual wheelchair mounted camera rig (click here for info). I recently upgraded my camera to a Panasonic Lumix GH2 (click here), for which I am quickly developing an affection, but that's not the new toy I'm talking about in the title of this post…

My newest gadget is (drumroll please)… an iPhone! The remaining 11 photos posted down below were all taken with my new iPhone 4S, a device I resisted buying for several years because I just didn't want to join the cult of Apple. I know, I know, people love Apple gizmos and will line up for days to get the latest and greatest (I have an Apple Store on the corner of my block), but I've always found the whole Apple thing to be more than a little annoying. Maybe it's just the contrarian in me, but I generally don't like "smug", and Apple as a social phenomenon is nothing if not smug. Yes, their design studios turn out physically beautiful products, and they did reinvent the way we interact with our computers (remember the days of Microsoft DOS, blech), revolutionize the way we purchase and listen to music (and in the process destroy the monolithic music industry, which, even though it employed me, might not be a bad thing) and even change the whole concept of what a phone should be, but I always resisted the Apple siren song because of the smugfest that enveloped it.

What finally won me over was the inclusion of a relatively high-quality eight megapixel camera in the newest iPhone, and all the fun photography apps designed for it that I kept reading about on the various photo websites I like to poke around in. The Siri feature, which lets you talk to the phone and access many of its functions by voice command was also a selling point, as it’s a very disability friendly option, but the big draw for me was the photo potential.

Despite my initial reticence, I have to admit that the iPhone is a pretty neat device. I have gone a little nuts with the photo apps, but hey, at the cost of one or two bucks each I can afford to splurge, and many of them do some impressive tricks. Though I've always used Photoshop to process my photos, I generally try not to tinker with them too much, preferring to stick with traditional in camera photography and the digital version of old-school darkroom techniques. With the iPhone and all of its many photo apps, though, I just can't help myself but mess around with the photos in a zillion different ways, as you can probably see from the examples below. It's easy to overdo it with some of the effects because the apps make it so terribly easy and some self-control is definitely required, but there's something about making pictures with the iPhone that is tremendously addictive. The quality of the photos it produces is nowhere near that of a dedicated high-end interchangeable lens digital camera, but for a phone - zowie!

An unexpected benefit that I really didn't anticipate before getting the iPhone is that it allows me to handhold the camera, which is very liberating after years of taking photos with a camera firmly mounted to the arm of my wheelchair. The iPhone camera can be operated with one hand (which is a good thing for someone who only has one gimpy but for the time being still working hand), and the photos I take with it are much more like my photos of old, prior to MS (or whatever the hell I have) forcing a very disciplined style of shooting on me. Before MS stole the use of my right arm, I used lots of toy and/or antique cameras, because I loved the dreamy, seemingly haphazard, and often surreal images they captured. Well, the combination of the small footprint of the iPhone and its many available photo apps has allowed me to digitally re-create what I used to do organically. Naturally, I'd give my right arm (snicker) to be able to go back to doing things as I did in my healthy days, but, as they say, any port in a storm…

Okay, enough with my endless blatherings. Presented for your perusal are the following 18 photos (click thumbnail for larger image), on which I'd love to get your feedback. Feel free to critique at will, as I'd like to know which ones you hate as well as which you like, so please don't be shy about leaving your impressions in the comments section at the bottom of the post.

Oh, I almost forgot, since a bunch of readers have inquired if and where they might buy some of my photos, I'm looking into setting up a website that would allow folks to do so. I don't want to generate any income from selling them, but I would like to further MS research, so any profits realized would be donated to various MS charities. More details to follow, as they become available…



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A Patient's Perspective on CCSVI, in Words and Pictures (Part Four)

On July 15, 2011 it was my honor to give a presentation at the Patient Information Day of the Second Annual CCSVI Update Symposium, held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Times Sq., New York City. The organizer of the symposium, Dr. Salvatore Sclafani, asked me to write an essay for oral presentation on "A Patient's Perspective on CCSVI", using some of the photographs I've taken from my wheelchair mounted camera to illustrate my talk. I've posted the resulting essay here in four parts, spaced a few days apart. Here's the finale, part four (click here for part one, part two, or part three):

This is one of my favorite photos that I've taken from my wheelchair. It was taken in Central Park, in an especially beautiful section called The Conservatory Gardens. The gardens are truly spectacular, and I'd urge anyone who has the chance to visit them to do so, especially in spring or autumn, when they are bursting with color.

For me, this photo embodies two key elements, freedom and patience. While the element of freedom may be easy to discern, the patience involved in taking the photo is probably harder to detect. When I first discovered this fountain, adorned with sculpted sparrows, I also saw real-life sparrows utilizing it as a birdbath, just as the artist intended. I found the juxtaposition of the inanimate and live birds striking, and hoped to capture a moment that would illustrate the coming together of nature and such a graceful example of the power of the human imagination. In order to capture the fleeting moment caught in this frame, I sat in one spot for about an hour and a half, taking literally hundreds of photos, systematically shooting pictures in rapid-fire mode every time a bird took off or landed. Luckily for me, one of those hundreds of photos turned out to be this one. Patience does have its rewards.

When it comes to the pace of CCSVI research and treatment, I completely understand how difficult it can be to be patient. Those of us suffering from chronic, progressively disabling disease know all too well that the clock is ticking. Any youthful notions of immortality or indestructibility were demolished the moment we were shown MRI images depicting holes in our brains and spinal cords. Stripped of such illusions, a certain desperation can set in, and the desire to do something, anything, to stave off a calamitous future takes hold. This desire can manifest in many forms, from outright panic to steely determination, but every self-empowered MS patient has their radar set to scan the horizon for any new development that might save them from a dreadful end.

CCSVI certainly holds the promise of potential salvation. This radical new approach to looking at MS, offering fundamentally new ideas about how to treat the disease, gives the afflicted a life ring to grab onto, a ring plainly inscribed with the word Hope. But we are yet in the early stages of our understanding of CCSVI and how best to treat it. The treatment procedure I underwent a little bit over a year ago is far different than the procedures being done today, and procedures being done a year from now will likely be more different still. Therefore, while no one could argue with any patient choosing to pursue treatment now, for some the decision to be patient and wait cannot be viewed as a terrible choice. Sometimes, the race does go to the swift, but there are times too that discretion is the better part of valor.

As for the other element prominent in this photo, freedom, well, that is what I wish for every MS patient, everywhere. Freedom from the fear that we wear as a second skin, freedom from the cognitive deficits that threaten to steal our very essence, freedom from the braces, canes, scooters, and wheelchairs that that we use to compensate for our damaged bodies, freedom from the grip of a medical establishment that all too often seems more designed to seek profits than cures. Let us all someday soon alight like birds from a fountain, our sweetest dreams come true, and our fondest desires realized.