The Pictures Are In

      It's been a rough week. My eyes once again tried to swell shut. All the things I thought were causing it before, I hadn't done at all, so I'm completely at a loss now. My skin seems to slowly get better each day, but it is still extremely dry. At least the cracking has stopped. At night it seems to get worse, and when I go to sleep and roll over on my side, the side of my face stings like it's sunburnt. I still place all the blame on dying my beard with Just For Men, and lesson learned, I will never use that product again. Oh, the latest thing that is happening, is my vision is being bothered. Mostly in my right eye, but it feels like the inner lid is swollen and sometimes like there is debris caught in my eye. I'm not sure what is more maddening, the stinging in my skin or my eyes bothering me. I have to get over this. I'm not sure how or when it's going to happen, but I will have better skin again.

     I do feel lucky, because I got to do that photoshoot yesterday. It was really good to be back behind the camera. I was a little rusty, but in the end I got some really great shots. I'm not done processing them yet, not that I really do all that much to them, so I only have two to share with you tonight. Both of these kind of blew my mind when I got a real good look at them, and I always feel that's a good sign. Before I get to them I have to tell you about the locations. We didn't get all our desired spots in, but the ones we got were pretty good, especially the first one. We went to a buddhist temple that was peaceful and tranquil, it made for a juxtaposition with what we were doing. I'll have pictures of that next week. I did take a few stand along shots with out the model. Mostly to get my bearings and figure out how to set up the camera for the shot I wanted. Our next location was supposed to be a cemetery but night had fallen, and they have a strict no entry at night policy, so we moved under a bridge near the waters edge, and although I didn't use the scenery, I got some really great shots, one of which you will see below. Our last location was the Astronaut Memorial in Titusville, and I got some shots with the memorials, but the other shot I'm going to share was simply using a street lamp for light and since she is a smoker, I got some really cool shots with the smoke lingering around and being highlighted by that lamp. Without further adieu, here are the two shots I have to share tonight.

     I'm really looking forward to shooting with her again, but I don't have any idea when that would be, or when I will get the chance to go out for a few hours. It really did feel good to be out. I needed it, but it wasn't enough. It just reminded me of just how stuck I am with the bare minimum of help. I'll get through this, but I am going to have a real big chip on my shoulder when it's all done.

     I have realized that talking about it really gets me nowhere, so let's get to Favorite Song of the Week. This song comes from a one man band. Ok, he is actually part of a band, but he writes all the songs, and plays all the instruments on the recording tracks. With the pandemic going on he has been in a writing frenzy, and he began to notice that some of the songs really didn't fit in with what the band does, so he decided to put them out as a solo project EP. I'm happy to introduce you to Honorary Astronaut with their first single "E.K.E.".

     Yes, the video is a bit weird, but that's what makes it so fun. Oh, and the band that he is a part of is The Dear Hunter, in case you want to check them out. Those albums are more like storytelling concept albums which will blow your mind.

      That's all I have for tonight. Over the next few days, I'll be working on those photos. I took 157 images and as always, I won't use them all. Some of them are duds for sure, and that is all my fault, but that is how I work. I will waste a shot to see what the settings get me, and then I'll get it right with the next shot. It's all part of shooting in manual. I'm so glad I shoot in digital, because if it was film, I would have no idea what the shot looked like until they were developed. That's not all true, I would have an idea of what they looked like based on lighting and settings. I do know what results I should get from what settings, but it's still fun to try something new and step out of your comfort zone. Magic happens when you do that. Take that as a lesson. Try something new, you may be surprised by the results. Peace in and goodnight.