EnglishBay.com & Kian's Photography Blog

Osteoarthritis, what a BITCH! The above photo is titled “So many useless pills.”

Merriam Webster: useless, adjective, use·​less ˈyüs-ləs
: having or being of no use:
a: INEFFECTUAL
a useless attempt
b: not able to give service or aid: INEPT

About four months ago, and now late in my 49th year running around, I developed old people problems. I’m joking because it’s either laugh or murder people (again, jokingly). I have developed osteoarthritis in my left big toe. It’s come on fast and HARD!

It hasn’t stopped there. Soon after my toe announced itself with the screaming pain, my foot became trapped in a cage of pain above and below my arch. Now limping most days after about two blocks of walking, I developed a limp, and my inner left knee became as painful as anything else below. My lower back also wanted to join the party.

Crazy how one issue can spiral and cause tension and misalignment that has a ripple effect through half your body. And it doesn’t help when your doctor of thirty years is now half retired, checked out and already on vacation—spending two months chasing his bizarre theory that I have gout.

Pills have been useless, and I have been on large doses. An injection into my big toe was somewhat effective but not enough to want to do it again. This photo I have taken shows a collection of items that are about as useful as the pills featured in the image. I will explore this idea further because I don’t think I realized all of what I wanted here.

Pulling light out of what would otherwise be a stationary light source is one of my all-time favourite photographic techniques and one that I am amazed not to see more of. I read about it in the book that came with my original Sony A7. I still have that camera, and it takes excellent photos.

Before I go further, I will add that the photo shown here is available on my site as a free download. Simply follow this link.

To take a photograph like this, you need a few things:
*A lens with a range something in the 24-70mm range. At some point, the weight of the lens will work against you. The lens also needs to be as smooth as possible. Shake is your enemy here.
*A very sturdy tripod. Repeat; shake is your enemy
*Remote trigger, you will cause shake when you depress the shutter manually.

For the settings, you experiment with something like the following: 2-second shutter, but longer is often good and shorter rarely is in my experience. ISO 100, f9-11, or so.

Now let’s shoot: Having found an attractive light source, like a neon sign or building, you think has enough points of light to pull out into streaks. Set up on your tripod, ensure the camera is very securely mounted and frame up tight on the subject. Once you are happy, fire your exposure and while the exposure is happening, draw the focus out and go wide. This action will bring the light out of windows or any other strong lights forward in a brilliant streak.

I’m going threw all my photos to organize the best that is my library—currently 17,686. Like everyone, there is a mix of gold and fool’s gold with shades in between. The photo shown here is of the 2009 HSBC Celebration of Light, taken using a technique that pulls light streaks out of usually stationary light sources. I’m experimenting here by doing it with a bright, colourful, explosive light source.

I had many photos taken this night using a standard setup, but this one is fun, and I took a few more shots with this method. They will all be available on my site Kian.Photography

Dave, a dear friend, was working at the Coast Plaza Hotel. He managed to invite us to photograph the fireworks show from the rooftop. The view was amazing!

Sorry for the silly pun title! This guy was killing it. This was a big house birthday party I attended in Sri Lanka in March 2022. It was not a shot I planned; it just presented itself to me while I walked through this beautiful home.

This photo needed a lot of work. First, I reframed it from a larger image. Thanks to 42 mp, I have lots of room to play there. I then worked on the colour and other light settings to get the vibe I wanted. Finally, I had to recover some facial details that got lost in this challenging shoot. I was not at my best when I captured the photo. I was more than a little into the open bar……..

Taking our lovable dog Bowie out for his last pee of the night and grabbing a chance to “medicate,” I came across this rain-soaked table top of cool wine bottles. I took this photo with my new iPhone 14 Pro Max, and the resolution on this is crazy. I can pull just one of those wine bottles, crop in and get a great image. And that should be expected as this is a 48 mp camera taking almost 90 MB images and costing me $2400!!!!

Gastown can be a great place to live if you focus on the positives and make the negatives into positives. I am here, so I will need to learn to live with the abundance of drunken partiers at my doorstep and the endless crowds of wondering in the way tourists on vacation brain. The positives being there are photographic opportunities not available to most photographers on display here all the time. I will do my best to enjoy those moments, like finding a beautiful tabletop of rain-wet wine bottles with attractive labels.

The full-size version of this image