Angst and photos.
In other words, the usual.
Grandkid-ography
Our grandson J was in a facility again. He got bad enough this time, they had to put him into restraints before hauling him away in an ambulance.
We already suspected he’s on the spectrum, and the pros have finally, officially, confirmed it. He’s what probably would have been called an Aspie a few years ago. He’s sharp as a tack in book learning and has no issues with language. Even the simplest social interactions are hell for him.
It’s genetic. Besides his cousin who’s also on the spectrum, my dad’s entire family tree is tilted waaaaay off center, including a few branches of the family tree institutionalized with schizophrenia. As for the kids’ dad, my long-departed ex-spouse… well, he and his family defined special. I know of at least one significant genetic faultline ripping right on through my kids and grandkids (along with nieces and nephews and their kids), and I’m sure there are lots more we don’t know about.
J’s late daddy was disaster, too. Which, together with a determined effort to NEVER do anything remotely smart or healthy, is why he died in his early 40s.
J lost the genetic lottery so hard: the autism is on top of at least one (and possibly two) varieties of Cystic Fibrosis and Charcot-Marie Tooth disease. His dad’s death is Mother Nature being a complete shit. And throwing another big, stinky log on the dumpster fire is his age. At 12, he’s dealing with the onset of puberty.
More Shits and Giggles
Looks like an obscure branch of Cystic Fibrosis might also explain some of my health issues. Apparently this specific strain doesn’t require two parents to pass it along, and it generates atypical symptoms. I’ve had mild versions of the more common CF crapola my whole life. It simply wasn’t on the radar until I got genetic testing done, because it wasn’t acute enough to raise alarms. (And because I’m female, but that’s another issue.) The initial results were meh for me. I knew I was a CF carrier, which was was the only significant marker to show up on my reports. As it worked out, though, the CF markers I have are for a rare, only-learned-about-it-recently type. Apparently it’s as nasty as the more common type, if not more so.
This same variant of CF is likely the root cause of all my youngest daughter’s weird and extreme health issues, too. Her case was uncovered by the same genetic testing company as mine, at around the same time.
</angst>
Photo Drop
Still digging through bazillions of photos taken on our minication.
The picture at the top of the page was taken in the tiny mining town of Clifton. There’s a small historic district I unfortunately couldn’t navigate. It’s neither wheelchair-friendy nor driving-friendly. I do like my classic cars, though, and happily snapped the blue one sitting in front of a rickety garage. I’ve got a few more pictures from the area, just haven’t had the time or the heart to dig through them yet.
I like this picture (below) of the upper Salt River, mostly. Not so sure I like the red lens-flare bubble from taking a photo almost directly into the sun. (Edited it out because I couldn’t stand it and thankfully my photo-buddy Dangerspouse agreed with me.)
G says leave it. I’m ambivalent.
I do, however, like this shot of Seneca Lake. It was calm enough to allow for terrific reflections.
The photo below also isn’t going to take the blue ribbon at the county fair, but I like my silhouettes and think this one is kind of pretty. We hit Salt River Canyon early in the morning. Even in the shade, the sky was bright and blue,
The picture below was from a the day before we hit Salt River Canyon. This is shortly after we left the Morenci area and started the climb up the 191 toward Alpine and Springerville. It’s not the most scenic view we encountered along the way, but we saw a lot of those signs before we were done. Hairpin curves were our near-constant companions.
The skies weren’t ideal overall. We had a few light clouds here and there, but mostly the sharp, unforgiving blue of the desert. I think it worked in my favor for this shot:
Every photographer takes obligatory lone tree pictures. This was atop the Colorado plateau, not far from Alpine. There were still tall pines and deciduous trees along the road in either direction, but there were also high plains like this, dotted by small brush and the occasional imposing tree.
One last photo for this batch – another example of the glorious colors we saw. This was backtracking a couple of days, taken on Mount Graham:
I like the hint of sunray filtering through the leaves, and didn’t even notice it until I posted here.
The photos are beautiful, as always. I’m so sorry about the grandson. He certainly has been hit with the ugly stick as far as mental issues. I can’t imagine how tough his life is for him. I hope he can learn some coping skills.
Me too. Thankfully he does have a few things going for him. His mama, despite her own issues, is a tiger in his corner. And since we already had a pretty good idea of what was happening, and have autism in the family, we had a pretty good idea of how to deal with it. I was fully expecting a lot of this, including some extremes, considering everything this little boy has to contend with.
I’m grateful with his diagnosis at least it will open up some resources for him. One HUGE issue for him right now is he feels utterly defeated, like he cannot possibly have a happy moment in his life. It’s certainly understandable, considering everything he’s dealing with. We’ll teach him how wrong he is, but it won’t happen overnight.
Oh my god, after reading about J’s health travails – and your possible one – I feel SO bad now for constantly complaining about my ongoing battle with priapism. My best to you both.
Whoa, what a great set of photos! Again! Gorgeous colors, excellent composition, the whole package. Very, very well done. Tough to choose a favorite.
It’s NOT tough to say this, though: GET RID OF THAT STUPID ORANGE CIRCLE. And for godsake, get a lens hood on that puppy if you weren’t using one. You live in Flairsville, USA!
That is all.
Already edited out the orange beast and uploaded the clean version. I have a lens hood – and was using it. However, I was shooting almost straight into the early morning sun. On purpose, trying to get a spikey-sunburst effect FROM the sun. Which I sort of got – but it also generated the orange midair unrolled light-condom. Because that’s what it looked like to me and probably why I hated it so much.
I’ve learned a LOT in my time on Vero. I get to see the pros’ work and while I can’t replicate all their tricks, I’m picking up some of them. Also watch a couple of YouTube experts, which has helped a lot too.
I’ll never be able to shoot fully manual because I can’t see well enough to manually focus, but I’m learning how to make my camera work for me.
The orange beast has been vanquished! The townspeople rejoice! Huzzah! Huzzah!
My work here is done.
Almost. If you want to show nice, defined sun rays, you want to use a very small aperture. You say you’re not shooting Manual – understandable – but you didn’t say if you’re shooting Fully or Partial Automatic. Partial being the “S”, “A”, or “P” positions on the dial. If you are shooting in Auto, then there’s not much you can do, and you’ll get what you get. But if you can shoot in Partial, choose “A”, then just move your aperture to f/16 or f/22 (the brighter the light, the higher the number you should choose). That should give you nice rays, and usually fewer orange orb intrusion events 🙂
I have to admit though that I’m confused by your statement, “I (can’t) shoot fully manual because I can’t see well enough to manually focus”. Those are two completely different systems, neither of which affects the other. The overwhelming majority of photographers who shoot in full Manual mode use Auto Focus, myself included (with the exception of fine macro work, or focus stacking shots). Manual just means you control aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. It does not determine how the camera focuses. That you choose with a different dial, and will not affect the Mode you chose (A, S, P, or Manual). So if you want to try manual mode, go for it! You can still have the camera focus for you once you choose your exposure settings. Again: one has no effect on the other.
You’re on Vero? What’s your user name there? I have a Vero account and was posting there for a while til life events dialed back my hobby photography time. I should really get back to that when things resolved themselves here. You can look for me using the same “Dangerspouse” name if you want to see some of my pics and typical hilarious captions.
I shoot in aperture mode 99% of the time – and I was probably set around F14-ish for that shot. And yes, I was thinking with autofocus off — but also, if I have to fiddle with some of my settings too much my vision becomes problematic.
If we go somewhere it ISN’T bright I’ll change a few things, but mostly I only change the aperture and let the rest go automatic.
Yes, I’m on vero, @ldholland. I’m actually a mod there for one of the groups. I just found and followed you there 🙂