[Leica] "Small Negatives, Big Prints"

[jhnichols at lighttube.net (Jim Nichols)]

Richard,

I can identify with your tire incident, though I learned early in life to 
stomp on lug wrenches when necessary.

In 1967, after our second move in six months, we were renting a house while 
our new house was under construction.  It was Spring, so there  was grass to 
be cut.  While mowing the area where the kids played, I attempted to move an 
old tractor tire that surrounded a sand pile.  It came with the house, and 
appeared innocent enough.  When I bent and tried to lift one side, the pain 
in my back was terrible.  What I didn't realize was that the tire was loaded 
with sand, making it enormously heavy.

My doctor gave me a series of exercises that helped me recover, but, over 
the years, it continues to flare up from time to time.  My days of heavy 
lifting were over after that one episode.

Jim Nichols
Tullahoma, TN USA
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard Man" <richard at imagecraft.com>
To: "Leica Users Group" <lug at leica-users.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 03, 2011 11:40 PM
Subject: [Leica] "Small Negatives, Big Prints"


> Just before I went to the Santa Fe Workshop, I got a really bad asthma
> attack. Third times in ~8 years and finally have it diagnosed as such. My
> wife was rather mad at me that I hit a whole bunch of triggers and didn't
> realize it until too late that it got to be a full blown attack. Of course
> Santa Fe being at 7000+ feet and cold, is rather bad for me as I am more
> used to 70 ft above sea level and 70 degree days. That wasn't the worst of
> it though. I took my inhalers and even a pot to cook the Chinese herbal
> medicine with me, and the asthma was under control.
>
> At the first day of the workshop, I took the Hassy+P30 back and 3 lens and 
> a
> heavy tripod, hiking uphill and all. I even told Bob Adler about it as he 
> is
> known to hike all over Yosemite with multiple Hassies and lens. For the 
> next
> 4 days, I switched to the Leica M9 to give my body a break. At the last
> morning of the workshop - the day when everyone else is wrapping things up
> and saying goodbye, since we are the "Landscape Class," we met up at 5 AM 
> to
> hike up to the Bandelier National Monument to catch the sunrise, in 
> sub-zero
> temperature. By then, my lower left back is killing me already, but there 
> is
> a sunrise to catch and photos to take. Not sure exactly how I hiked up and
> down too.
>
> After the hike, we went to breakfast, and I couldn't quite move. It was 
> bad.
>
> I met my  wife at the airport later that day, and we spent a couple more
> days together in New Mexico, playing with corgis and such, and just
> generally tried not to further hurt myself. Popping iburprofen helped to
> ease the inflamed ligament.
>
> After we got home, my wife took the heavy weapons - the Chinese ointments
> (Dit Da Jow and Tiger Balm), and massaged it and by next day the
> inflammation has gotten way down, but the spine is still twisted.
> Fortunately, I was able to get a short appointment with our body worker 
> Dr.
> Jim that evening and he straightened things up (literally) and now I can
> walk again.
>
> So what happened? After talking to Dr. Jim, we figured out what. The 
> problem
> is that this killing pain only shows up only once every 4-5 years and 
> while
> I knew that there may be some connections, I didn't think it through 
> before:
>
> 16 years or so ago, when our daughter was a wee one, I was driving her to
> preschool one day and a tire blew. I took out the spare tire and tried to
> remove the dead tire. Now imagine this: I was crouching down and trying to
> jerk the wrench up. I have since learned that it is FAR more efficient,
> effective and LESS damaging to put the wrench handle on the other side and
> stomp on it. In any case, I didn't at that time and I pulled up and I felt 
> a
> pop and.... instant mega lower back pain with inflamed ligament to boot. 
> I'm
> pretty sure I started to see Dr. Jim then for that exact problem.
>
> Now imagine this last week, I was hiking up mountains, so I am bending
> forward, carrying heavy camera equipments, plus a heavy duty tripod, in 
> cold
> weather. Yup, the posture is awfully similar to crouching down and weight
> bearing load...
>
> Of course being in a busy workshop and that I was working in the evening
> (ah, the joy of having your own company), I didn't have time to get some
> Motrin. Big mistake.
>
> Many many lessons learned.
>
> One of them is certainly Oskar Barnack legacy - small negatives, big 
> prints.
>
> -- 
> // richard <http://www.imagecraft.com/>
> // icc blog: <http://imagecraft.com/blog/>
> // photo blog: <http://www.5pmlight.com>
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>
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