You have likely already picked up on this…but I do like to take some pictures of the beauty of nature.
I had some trouble with the camera, as a result of it being an AF Digital, and the low light of early morning pics had it trying to focus on seemingly random things that were MUCH closer than the horizon or clouds.
Despite this, as the morning progressed, some really nice colors, shadows, and layering presented themselves.
I have always enjoyed nature, obviously. I have often gone through phases where trying to take pictures of various aspects of nature produced marginal results with occasional (accidental!) sparks of what I felt were … better than marginal? Over the past year, though, I have been able to “see” what I want to capture more clearly. At times, I look at a line of trees, a sweep of mountains, or the opening edge of a bank of clouds, and visualize sub-segments of it and how they might frame.
I think it is purely down to this: I have taken more time to really SEE what I am looking at, and to kind of soak it in. The reason for this, however, is a story unto itself.
At my eye exam, Q3 of last year, I was expecting the annual “refinement of my prescription” … AKA – thickening of the glasses. In addition to this, however, I was also asked to take a more detailed image of the retina, as something faintly appeared in the rear of my eyes. In the end, after the re-scan showed some definite shadows and a genetic test came back positive, I was told I had a 90% probability of losing my central vision within a few years.
Not what one wants to hear.
A few things go through your mind, when you get something like this passed on to you, like how your work depends on vision, your hobbies probably do too, and even daily tasks and chores (sorry…I can’t take the trash out, because I might fall down the hill or wander into a fence. Yeah….no.)
But…one good thought came to me: as I am regularly checking news feeds as part of work, I clearly remember thinking “If this does happen, there will come a day when I will literally not have to see the ugly things humans do to each other, or to nature.”
Yes, I actually smiled when that came to me.
In talking with the Optometrist and researching online (I know…hard to weed out bad sources, at times), it looked like although Genetics can strongly incline you; fitness, vitamins, diet, and careful practices can stall progression. There are even some reports of the drusen (lipid deposits in the back of the retina) being re-absorbed by the body.
When the initial COVID lockdown ramped up, I had started walking on the treadmill with more focus, then added abdominal, back, and arm exercises. In the end I had lost 50lbs in a 6-month span (No, I was bad. I did NOT ask my doctor before starting this, but did get his vote of approval at the next checkup when he saw where I had gotten). Perhaps the drusen had started forming when “there was more of me?” One can hope.
With this in mind (as well as AMD-focused vitamins, continued exercise, and eating more mindfully), I was anxious to reach the annual re-check. A single state of reference offers no rate of progression, after all.
In that time, though, I think the need to be much more mindful about using the vision I was given really took hold (oddly, the glasses correct a lens issue but my visual acuity corrects back to 20/15, once clear). I believe this is why I now take more time, study the colors, and really try to experience what is around me more fully.
When the annual re-scan came around….I was eventually told that the images showed a high level of stability, and I was advised to simply keep following my existing routine. The optometrist even brought up that he has seen patients reverse course on AMD, which is a good sign!
So, I know it is just the first annual, but it gives me hope!
I’d hate to end up “that guy” that fumbles his way out into a river, wearing some brightly colored (possibly Hawaiian) shirt instead of sky blue, facing directly to the side, casting into the upper branches of a tree, and dropping things all around me.
Because…I can be that stubborn.
Okay, that might be fun as a prank, but I’d hate to have the other Fly Fishers in the area have to duck my errantly cast #4 Blood Red (originally light green) Stimulator and shake their heads, or fist, at me.
Not here to ruin it for others, after all.
Additional pics from this morning, here.
Tight lines…