I love the feedback I sometimes get from other professional photographers who read the blog. Mark sent a comment gently suggesting that I use a light gray background on Thursday's shoot instead of green screen or white. And considering that keeping detail in white lab coats is important I thought I should test his suggestion. I shot some tests against a light grey, seamless background and they were just right. It will be easier in the set-up to shoot this way instead of on white, and it will be easier in post than shooting against green. Sometimes I get stuck into one way of doing things and forget how important it is to learn new stuff. The motivator for me is how much Photoshop has improved its selection tools. Getting the right background means a one click drop out (with some "refine edge" fine tuning) versus the old school methodologies I learned early on.
I was doing a deep dive through the older hard drives that live on my desk to see if there were more photos that needed to be backed up to the cloud yesterday and I found this series of images which were done with a Fuji Xe-3 and the 60mm macro lens. They're nice. Kind of calming a relaxing. I don't think they need to do more than that.
I've looked at the Xe-4 from Fuji and I really like the non-stylistic body style. It's just so spare and utilitarian in a 1960's Russian industrial design way (albeit with rounded corners...). It seems like the perfect answer to people who like the overall idea of the Fuji X100V but would never get around to using the bright line finder and who really would like a choice of which lens to use for each situation.
The camera uses the same 26 megapixel X-trans sensor as most of the rest of the line and has lots of the same, juicy film simulations that goad us into shooting Jpegs but it's so small and light. The body has been stripped down to its essentials which means no mf/af lever on the front and no built-in flash. I think the black body is minimal but at the same time a classic small camera camera. Grab a 23mm f2.0 and a 50mm f2.0 and you've got one of the smallest and most practical travel-cam systems I can think of.
OT: I have a quick question for anyone who has already gotten both doses of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine: Did you have any symptoms of temporary depression or depressed thoughts? Asking for a friend who could not get to sleep last night, even after dosing with Melatonin and milk. He was up reading a book in the living room at 3 in the morning after tossing and turning for hours....
He even missed swim practice.... Just curious. And, of course, asking for a friend.
17 comments:
Your "friend" may be wondering how normal this new normal will be. That's normal.
I received my 2nd Moderna shot a week ago. About 6 hours after the injection I began to feel lethargic and went to bed early. The next day was more of the same: lethargy, mild headaches, mild nausea, mild aches. The following day was back to normal. The closest I came to depression was worrying if the side effects might be long-lasting or even permanent.
Since then I've resumed my running and hiking/walking with no issues.
DavidB
In my experience melatonin is not conducive toward pleasant thoughts and contentment. For me melatonin brings on the night sweats, disturbing dreams and a sense of impending doom...
Got my second dose of the Moderna vaccine a week ago yesterday and experienced what I'd call a mild case of the blahs for a day or two. No real lack of energy but no ambition to apply it to anything specific. I've had two non-consecutive nights of difficulty getting to sleep and that is VERY unusual for me. Caused by the vaccine? Who knows.
I didn't; my wife was hit pretty hard by the second shot of Moderna, spent most of the second day in bed, and has said that on the third day, she felt agitated like something was up, but she didn't know what. Like she had to be somewhere or do something, but she didn't really have to be anywhere or do anything special. In other words, she was jittery. So there seemed to be some psychological effects. Day after that, she was back to normal, but the effects were unusual enough that she still mentions them sometimes, two weeks after the second shot.
Thanks for sharing JC. That's about how I felt ---- I mean, my friend felt yesterday. A bit jittery and worried about stuff he doesn't usually worry about... Hope it passes soon.
Seems to be a pattern forming. Two people I know well got vaccines last week and are somewhat depressed right now. My "friend" is much better today. He hopes he can sleep though the night...
Each person seems to react differently. My wife and I had absolutely no reaction except very mild pain at the injection site. My son was strongly affected, lethargic and a mild one day fever.
I just went shopping for the first time in almost a year.
Shot #2 in a few days. I’ve already scheduled the next day as a sick day.
Regarding your upcoming shoot, white lab coats against the gray is a good idea. I’d also consider large black cards “unbounce” cards on each side of the model. Just out of the frame it’s surprising how much they help define the edge of a subject. White needs an edge. Give it a try
My spouse had a bit of a fever and some flu-like symptoms the day after. I was lethargic the following evening, but we were both fine the following morning. Our doctor said that these transient symptoms were the product of a strong immune response.
Sorry I can’t offer up anything on the vaccination but I did pre-order the Fuji X-E4 (all black) with 27mm pancake. It arrived on Saturday and seems to be a really nice piece of kit. I also bought the Fuji 60mm lens and like that too. I am intending to get to get the Fuji 16mm 2.8 lens to round out my kit. Even if I carry all three lenses it will still be pretty light and compact and allow me to cover a range of 24mm - 90mm in 35mm equivalence.
I like the atheistic of the camera a lot, and if course it has Fuji’s well known sensor, processor, and color science. Jeff
Had my second dose four weeks ago and spent the day after feeling like crap with flu-like body aches and absolutely zip energy. Since then, nada.
Sounds like a confluence of a few things (speaking as a scientist, in a different field, but having talked with several sciencey buddies including neuroscientists).
The second dose of a vaccine is more likely to elicit a response which leaves you feeling grotty, as your immune system has been primed.
When you feel grotty you might not sleep too well, which will also make you feel low.
We're in a transitional period. One set of worries are being superseded by another set and our routines are in the middle of being rejigged again - which is likely to trigger some anxiety, that, if you're already feeling under the weather and low, might also impact sleep.
My view (for what it's worth) is that it makes sense to just try and ease into the new routines, explore stuff at a slowish pace, and cheesy as it may sound, try and be gentle with ourselves (and those around). It's (been) an odd old time, and there'll be some twists and turns - but trying to enjoy the small stuff and not overwhelm with expectations (of what we all 'should' be doing) will hopefully make re-entry not too turbulent (and allow us to keep some of the upsides we unintentionally discovered along the way.
Mark
My wife and I had the vaccine yesterday afternoon. No real arm pain for either of us. I was very tired last night as was she. This morning feel pretty good, she is still very tired and napping. I feel good and am heading out to golf. Very relieved to have gotten the second dose. We have been very active during the quarantine, traveling by car and airplanes. We always used a mask and sanitized to the best of our ability. The cleanliness of airlines and strict protocols have been amazing (especially Southwest Airlines and Marriott hotels and resorts). We respected anyone’s more concerned reactions including my son. Therefore we have not suffered the feeling of confinement and loss of engagement that many have. We are both in our late 70’s and have been in good health most of our lives. We have the usual medical maintenance issues most people our age have but they have all been easily treatable. We live in Northern AZ which was spared the worst of Arizona’s problems. John
Tell your friend to call his doctor NOW. Right NOW. I'm not in the medical field and I have no knowledge of any of these symptoms, but better safe than sorry. And I'm truly hoping the doctor says nothing to worry about and the anonymous poster on the blog is an idiot.
I'd thought to mention the x-e4 the other day, thought I'd spare you the gear lust treadmill ;) I'm tempted myself, has the q button on top I believe, round black friday I was tempted to get an x-t30, they were fairly well reduced, and the lenses had cashback plus 10% off at one place, was all set to go for the 16mm 2.8 and 35mm 1.4, then they knocked another £50 off the x-t30, I thought I'd wait, then eventually the price went back up £100 instead and there were no more deals on lenses, I can almost always get them 5% off with a new fuji from one place here
so there's the xs10 too which is old enough to get £50 knocked off the price here now, I like IBIS, if they do a kit with the new 27mm 2.8 I would go for that I think
To the anonymous commenter who suggested my friend call his doctor immediately....
Too late. He got better. He's feeling great now. But not to worry too much, fatigue and "sadness" are on the side effects lists.
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