What is Iritis?

The simple answer to that question, “What is Iritis?” is that it is an inflammation of the iris! Yup! Not so informative, but I wanted to get something written down today – I wanted to give some more information about this eye condition.

These Iritis blog entries are not photography related, but I feel a responsibility to share whatever information I can find about Iritis, Ankylosing Spondylitis, AAU (Acute Anterior Uveitis) and RA (Rheumatoid Arthritis), because these affect me.

http://nawfalnur.wordpress.com/ (A look into my photography, special projects and my scannography project).

As a photographer, a person who sits in front of the computer for many hours at a time, and a person who gets recurring Iritis, the combination is quite frustrating – AND PAINFUL!

Moderation, that is one of the keys. Yes, moderation.

For a more detailed answer to what Iritis is, I found a good answer from Robert H. Shmerling, M.D., who is an associate physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and associate professor at Harvard Medical School. He answers a question about, “What is the link between RA and these eye conditions?”

Click here  for the link to Dr. Shmerling’s answer. The answer comes from an HONcode Web-site, and this is a really cool NGO that gives a sort of accreditation to Medical Web-sites to make sure the information is accurate and medically sound.

Thus, if I link to any sites with information of a ‘medical nature’, I’ll attempt to find sites that have the HONcode logo, or some other type of accredited source.

Anyway, if I can find medical advice from PROFESSIONALS in the field (of whatever topic), then I’ll attempt to find the information to share and provide a link.

Otherwise, I’ll just be continuing to share some of my own thoughts and experiences on the topic of Iritis, Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS), Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) and Being a Photographer with Iritis and AS…

 

Photography and Arthritis

Photography & Arthritis

Photography & Arthritis:  There’s got to be a link.  No, no, not a medical link…Don’t think I’m that totally crazy to suggest that sort of thing, LOLOL! ;^} )

I’m talking about a link (the CHALLENGE of) between HAVING Arthritis, and, DOING Photography.

It’s quite difficult sometimes to even think about doing photography when I’m feeling pain from my arthritis.  Nevertheless, the overwhelming drive to be creative…and to be a CREATIVE in the face-of-pain, is what makes even the “Arthritic Photographer” sally forth in the quest to pursue and to capture a tremendous capture.

Click HERE, to see the rest of the blog entry.

 

Changes of Development and The Times

“Changes of development are applied to control the total contrast range of the negative, but a side effect is that the ‘local contrast’ within low and middle values is affected.  Most surfaces include lighter and darker components that we perceive as texture, and while these textural variations may all lie within a range of one or two zones, they will be reinforced or weakened by modified development.”
~ Ansel Adams ~

That bit of advice would have been extremely significant to the film photographers, ‘back in the day.’  Nowadays, I reckon that most digital photographers wouldn’t have ‘clue-one’ about what Adams is talking about.  And why should digital photographers even care: With a touch of a button or two, the digital brains of the new technology takes instant-fantastic’o-well-exposed snap-shots.  Hardly any thinking required.

Oh well, it is fruitless to fight the future.  It is so much easier to go with the flow.

Yes, indeed.  There are a lot ( a ‘gajahbillion‘ ) of happy snap-shooters out there.  Are there a huge number of photographers taking technically great photographs that are unique and interesting:  probably not…I don’t see it.  Seems like the more digital cameras there are out there in the market the more sameness there is.

One thing that seems certain is that with all the photo-sharing sites out there, vainglory is at an all time high.  I wonder if anyone is worried about that, considering it was one of the eight original sins, but then it was all lumped into ‘pride’, so the eight became seven (at least that is what I learned from a show on the History Channel).  Everyone seems to love their photos to be oooo’ed and awww’ed over at these sites.

I’m just wondering…what is the point?  Ego?  Vainglory?  Pride?  Or, is it just a matter of self-advertisement, self-promotion.  Or, all of the above.

Do you hear it?  Listen…The hamster wheel of progress goes on, doesn’t it, but at what expense?  Is there an expense?

I think it is just one of those days…

 

Video File Conversion for SAMSUNG Phone

I just thought I would give a couple bits of information on video file conversion from .mp4 and .flv files, to the .3gp file format for use with SAMSUNG Phones.

First, I’ll recommend a conversion program called: Oxelon Media Converter. http://sourceforge.net/projects/oxelonmediaconv/

I would not be immediately set back by the reviews that some people have given at Sourceforge regarding this program. It has so many options, it takes some experimentation. However, once you discover the right mix of settings, it is very useful.

In my opinion, this program offers MANY Options converting between formats and quality settings.

And, this is the only one I’ve found (thus far) that successfully converts mp4 and flv video files to USEABLE 3gp format that can be used with my SAMSUNG Phone.

Second, you need to experiment with the settings a little to get a bitrate combo that works well on your phone, and this may be phone model specific.

Here are the settings I use to convert mp4 and flv files to 3gp format:

Open the Oxelon Media Converter (I’m using v.1.1).

Media Format = 3GP (.3gp)
Video Codec = H263
Audio Codec = AAC

VIDEO SETTINGS:
Video W x H = 176 x 144
Frames/sec = 15
Bitrate (Video) = 576

AUDIO SETTINGS:
Channels = Stereo
Sampling rate = 44100
Bitrate = 128

Hit the “Conversion” button and it starts the process.

These are not the only workable settings, but without fiddling too much and wasting time, these work pretty good for the conversion of mp4 and flv files to .3gp, which work so you can view video on your SAMSUNG Phone.

Good luck!

 

Predictors of response to anti-TNF therapy in ankylosing spondylitis

http://rheumatology.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/kep422

Here is the results of a recent study done by researchers at the ARC Epidemiology Unit, University of Manchester. This may be useful to some people with ankylosing spondylitis.

 

Wrinkled Sheets

I quickly wake up.

The room is dark.

The atmosphere is silent.

It’s happening again, getting breath becomes a convulsive effort at best.

Wrinkled Sheets…

I lie there in bed, suddenly realizing that I’m gasping for a decent amount of air to fill my lungs, but it won’t come.

Morning confusion and pain, the more I struggle, the harder it is to get a good breath.

The more awake I become, the more I struggle, but there is only so much I can do to expand a ribcage that does not want to expand.

The short night’s sleep was enough to undo the progress I made the day before to loosen up the bones that make up my chest.  All it takes is a few hours of stillness, if I can call tossing and turning most of the night, stillness.  A few hours of sleep is enough for my ribs to tighten up again.

The pressure of the early morning air seems to crush in on me, and I fight for a breath.  Muscle spasms quickly hit me and that adds to the confused and unnatural efforts it takes to capture unsteady, small amounts of air.

Even the unevenness of the wrinkled sheets pressing against my ribs cause excruciating pain for which I can find no relief.  I toss and turn slowly from side to side finding that the wrinkled sheets have created little…how to describe…like little speed bumps all over the bed, and those push up into my body triggering more muscle spasms and crushing my chest.

Just a breath, just want no pain.  “I just want to wake up and feel good in the morning,” my brain screams!

“If lying down is horrible, then sitting up must be better,” I say to myself.

I begin the sitting up process:  I push myself into a sitting position, and then I swing my legs off the bed and I sit there in pain.  I feel the spasms hit me in regular fits as I attempt to breath normally again.

It feels like the ‘Devil Hand Grip’ squeezing my chest.  Perhaps, this is the ultimate wrestling hold of all time, I don’t know.  What I do know is that this crushing hold happens with all too often a frequency.

After several minutes of sitting at the edge of the bed, there is no relief, it is the same…standing must be better.  It is too bad that I can’t sleep while moving around, while walking.

Standing is better.

The ribs are still clamped down on my lungs, but they are easing slightly and loosening up the more I move, the more I breath.

The spasms subside as the minutes tick away:  An hour goes by and breathing is considerably easier.

Breathing.  A full and refreshing breath.  Something so natural, so necessary, so unnoticed most of the time.  However, when episodes like this happen, the lack of good breathing becomes very noticeable to the “Spondy” (a term for a person with Ankylosing Spondylitis), especially in the early hours of the morning.

What sets it off?  I don’t know:  It’s just the disease.  That’s what happens.  I should be used to it by now, after 26 years of mornings similar to this one today.  But why should anyone ever get used to pain?  I don’t have the answer to that one either, but I know that as a Spondy, it will come and that is all there is to it.  I’m not bitching about it:  I’m just sharing a few thoughts about what it is like for me with Ankylosing Spondylitis.  Maybe there are others with AS who can identify with these types of mornings.  If you can, then you are not alone.  I only wish I had some answers for you to help make the “experience” easier.

One thing I can tell you is that there are, what I call, trigger foods:  Trigger Foods are those that seem to cause inflammation in the body.  At least, the list of foods that follow are some of the ones that make me feel very horrible the next morning, because they seem to consistently cause more stiffness and pain for me:

• cauliflower
• eggplant
• potatoes
• yellow dhal (lentils)
• cabbage
• tomatoes, tomato paste, and tomato sauce (ketchup is OK, however – not sure why, but happy about this!).
• …and there are more, but these are my worst.

The problem is:  I love eating all of these things!  Damn the Arthritis!  Anyway, these foods, or any type of food that has a lot of these products in them (i.e., pizza, and many of the South Indian foods that I like to eat), seem to cause me extra pain.  All I can say is:  “Eat at your own risk!”

I’ve had my share of good, bad and ugly mornings.  This one was particularly UGLY!  Maybe that is why this blog entry is finally surfacing.

Maybe it’s just the wrinkled sheets.

 

Happy 2010 – Getting out of Procrastination

Happy 2010!

Take this anti-procrastination message with you into the new year, and I will too:

“Do what you can do, given what the conditions are.” {Brooks Jensen}

Meaning: Don’t wait for the situations, conditions, or for the equipment to be perfect before attempting to do something. Yes of course, we can always complain that the photographic equipment we have is not right for us to do something. However, don’t allow any of these things to stop you from doing some photographic “thing“. Just try it anyway.  Or, find another way of doing some “thing“.

There will never…hardly…ever, be “perfect” situations, or conditions presented to us when we need to do something. Procrastination is sometimes just an excuse we use when trying to avoid any possible chance of failure, because failure is painful!

Nevertheless, deep down inside, we all know that failure is always necessary to grow and get better. Sometimes we win – YEAH! Sometimes we lose – Yuk! But this is necessary to improve the next time.

I guess there is no stopping failure from knocking us in the teeth, but with that bit of pain, we grow, we learn, HOPEFULLY we duck the next time failure swings at us.

Dennis Keeley said something like this referring to failure: Failure is necessary, it is like a stop on a train ride, but I don’t have to get off.

With that said: I hope we all grow more this year. And, that we procrastinate less, that we learn more from our failures, and we improve on whatever it is we do!

This is my New Years 2010 Message, and I hope to learn from it, more and more.

Have a great year!

ps: I’ve been working on a new website to host my Smoke Photography images. This is like…what…day 5 and many hours later. Maybe I’ll have the website up and running today. When it happens, I’ll post the new website link here.

 

THE BEST CAMERA IS THE ONE THAT IS WITH YOU – AGAIN

Back on 21 May 2007, I had mentioned that the best camera is the one that is with you…and now I’m saying it again. 

Here’s the link to the Article where I mentioned "The Best Camera is the one with you!"  This post recalls the time I hopped out of my car and got the photo of the very tall, interesting bike, and I took the shot with my carry around camera (a Canon Powershot).

I may have mentioned this back in 2007, but I was reminded about carrying around a camera all the time, from a Brooks Jensen podcast.  And, I’m sure this bit of advice has gone around, many, many times prior, by Photographers through the ages. 

Before that, I’m pretty sure that cave people were saying:

“Ugh!  The best wall carving tool is the one I have with me!  So where the hell did I put it?  I just saw an awesome takedown by a Saber Tooth, and I need to record it before I forget the details!”

Chase Jarvis recently came out with a book about THE BEST CAMERA philosophy, and he does a lot of work with the iPhone.

My carry around all the time camera is my SAMSUNG Phone.  It may only be 2MP, but it is sure better to take inspiring scenes with my Camera Phone than just making the “CLICK” SOUND with my mouth and have nothing to show for it:  Am I right or what!

I just wanted to finally put some of the photos I’ve taken with my SAMSUNG Phone Camera:

“ABSTRACT” PHOTOGRAPHY:

 

“GREEN” PHOTOGRAPHY

 

“METAL” PHOTOGRAPHY

 

“SHIPS, SEA & SKY” PHOTOGRAPHY

 

“RAIN” PHOTOGRAPHY

 

That’s all for now.  I see “photographs” (in my mind’s eye) all around me: It is a blessing when I have a camera with me, but it is a curse when I don’t.  However, now, I always have a camera with me, and it doesn’t matter that it is just my 2.1MP Phone Camera. 

 

Iritis Attacks, Some Thoughts 16 Dec 09

Today, I just want to share a few more thoughts about Iritis. 

Why do I get Iritis?

That is one of the search phrases I see often from people who find my blog entries about Iritis.

With that said, and from my own experiences with Iritis, I propose that there is one main reason you may be predisposed to Iritis; that there is at least one main psychological cause that contributes to Iritis; and, one modern day activity that contributes to Iritis “Attacks”.  I say, “attack” because it feels like an attack on your eyeball.  If you have had Iritis, you will know what I mean.

So let’s begin…

• There is one main reason that you may be predisposed to Iritis:  It is a secondary condition of another disease.  In my case, I have an Autoimmune disease called Ankylosing Spondylitis (A.S.)…a type of arthritis.  I am also positive for the genetic marker, HLA-B27.

According to an article in the 2004 edition of the “Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine”:

“84% of HLA-B27 positive patients with AAU [acute anterior uveitis] have other B27-associated diseases—specifically Reiter’s syndrome, ankylosing spondylitis or psoriatic arthritis.” 

Source:  The ramifications of HLA-B27 , by Nicholas J Sheehan MD FRCP

• Main Psychological Cause:  DISTRESS! 

Yes, that is correct, I said “Distress.” 

Life is Stressful:  Stress is normal.  Some stress is even good for us – it keeps us on our toes, motivated and creates excitement.  HOWEVER, many people are better at coping with life’s psychological and physical stressors than others. 

Constant and overwhelming (continuous stress) causes DISTRESS – feelings of extreme worry, sadness or pain.    

Therefore, I propose that if you have a medical condition that causes pain a lot of the time, or, if you are feeling ‘extreme’ pressure from stress or sadness, THEN it may be possible that this distress assists in the outbreaks of Iritis. 

B27 Diseases + HLA-B27 POSITIVE + DISTRESS = VERY PROBABLY Iritis.

• Main Modern Day Activity that could contribute to Iritis:  Continuous, Long-Periods of Focusing your Eyes at the Normal Computer Screen Reading Distance.

There is one thing that my Ophthalmologist tells me each time I pay him a visit with a new outbreak of Iritis: 

“You MUST NOT use the computer for the next couple of weeks, because you are focusing your eyesight too long ON THE COMPUTER SCREEN…at that fixed distance!”  [from eyeballs to computer screen – basically arm’s length distance] 

I’m not sure how scientific that statement is, but it seems to fit my situation quite perfectly because I notice that before I get Iritis, I’ve usually been spending extra ordinary time working at the computer, and usually feeling stressed about a project or…whatever.

In today’s world of computer-everything, we seem addicted to being on the computer, using the Internet, and staring at that computer screen for hours upon hours.  I propose that there could be a link between Iritis attacks and over-working your eyes while focusing on an object (i.e., the computer screen) at a rough distance of arm’s length.

My doctor’s advice for dealing with this is: 

“OK, if you have to work on the computer, at least get up and walk around regularly and relax your eyes from time-to-time, see things at other distances – don’t just continuously stare at the computer screen.”

I’m not a doctor.  I do not claim that any of my observations or advice are medically worth a hill of beans.  In other words, you don’t need to take my word for it. 

However, in my experience with Iritis, I know that being predisposed to Iritis via another B27 disease, having my share of distress, and long-term computer usage, I’m pretty sure it all adds up to my risk of getting new Iritis attacks.  What about you?  Does any of this sound familiar with your dealings with Iritis?

With this knowledge, I attempt to at least reduce my distress and reduce my computer usage – there’s nothing I can really do about the A.S., but I can do things to reduce the persistent long-term pain.

If you too suffer from Iritis, I wish you all the best.  Maybe you can keep a journal of the events you experienced and the activities you did before the onset of an Iritis attack.  This may help you determine which activities you can control, and possibly reduce the frequency of Iritis.  It’s just a thought.

 

LIPSTICK CONTAINERS, STILL LIFE, v.15

LIPSTICK CONTAINERS, STILL LIFE, v.15, originally uploaded by N. Nur.

“The strongest and most graphic images are those in which design has played a primary role, and the power of its effect can’t be denied.”
~ Gary Perweiler ~

 

HOT STUFF v6 Scanography

HOT STUFF, v.6, originally uploaded by N. Nur.

 

PHOTOGRAPH DETAILS

Title: “HOT STUFF, v.6″
Creation Date: 26 Nov 2009
Location: Penang, Malaysia.
Genre: Scanography.
Equipment: UMAX ASTRA 5600
PPI: 1200.

A FEW THOUGHTS ABOUT SCANOGRAPHY vs. PHOTOGRAPHY

Scanography is the opposite of photography. The same rules hardly apply to the other. Being a photographer for so long, it is tough to think in the opposite – and that is an odd feeling.

• Subject Placement & Lighting

In Photography, you shoot with the subject facing you (usually), and your goal as a Photographer is to apply lighting to the surfaces of the subject from whatever direction you think will get you the best results. Often times, this is from the front, overhead, the sides, and maybe in addition, from behind the subject.

In Scanography, the side of the subject you want to capture is placed FACE DOWN (on the glass) toward the optical lens of the scanner. The main light, and most of the time the only light, is coming from the scanner. For special effects, you can attempt to use additional lighting on the opposite side of the flatbed surface, but the way a scanner captures an image is WAY DIFFERENT FROM A CAMERA.

• How the Subject is Captured

The camera captures what is seen through the camera lens. The scanner captures the image as the optical lens slides along, underneath the flatbed scanner glass.  The scanner slides (captures the scene as it slides) and lights in progression as it moves across the subject.  Thus, the same lighting rules do NOT apply for photography and scanography.

Scanographic images also work best, in my opinion, with the lid down over the subject to reflect as much light back onto the subject.  Although, for creativity’s sake, other materials and colors can be placed over the subject to create a background other than white.

• Scanography as an Addition to Your Creative Tools

Scanography can be used as an additional tool in your creative tool kit.  Scanography is a rewarding art form to use to create art pieces that are different from those created with photography.  Scanographs definitely resemble photographs, but as you can see from my “HOT STUFF, v.6″ scanograph, the results are different.  For example, notice in the scanograph of the chillies and silver fork the location of the water:  The liquid settles on top of the chillies, as if to defy gravity (settles in the foreground). This experience is the exact opposite of what happens with a photograph setup, where you will see the moisture settle down on to the background material.

In this way, scanographs can create a bit of an optical illusion that makes the viewer’s brain wonder, “What is it that is different in the scene?”  You know something is different but it may take a couple of moments to figure it out.

You can kind of get the same visual results (as a scanograph) with photography if you placed the subject on clear glass and photographed from the bottom upward, but it would still appear different, maybe in subtle ways, but different all the same.

• File Size and File Dimension Differences between a 1200 ppi Scanograph and a ‘typical’ Digital Photograph from a Digital Camera

Another marked difference between Scanography and Photography is that scanographs, at 1200ppi create HUGE digital files with BIG dimensions. This image ended up (in the original before cropping) at around 6000 pixels wide by 8000 pixels high, and the TIFF file size was around 150MB!  You won’t see that much information captured in one shot with the majority of modern digital cameras.  Of course, the optics of fine photographic equipment is superior to scanner optical lenses, but it is a different tool used to create a different type of visual.

Another interesting item about scanography is that the Scanographist (not sure, but maybe that is a made-up word) has a wide range of settings to play with when creating a scanograph:

• You can set your desired ppi – I like starting with 1200ppi.
• You can set your desired file type – I like TIFF output.
• You can set your desired file dimension – I like A4.

• Scanography as a way to be Creative when You Feel ‘BLAH’ about Photography

For myself, Scanography is a kind of refuge, especially when I’m feeling distressed with the sameness and the madness of digital photography, where the ‘industry‘ comes up with the next best digital cameras that you MUST purchase or dare you be obsolete, and this seems to happen every six or nine months.

When these feelings of, well, for the lack of a better term, “BLAH“, happen, then I swerve off the road of what Brooks Jensen says is ‘the hamster wheel of digital progress.’  For me, I like to know that I can switch things up a little, and work on some scanographic imaging, so I can be creative in a different way.

 

Flashlight on Purple, v.6

Flashlight on Purple, v.6, originally uploaded by N. Nur.

“Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dream.” ~ by Brazilian novelist and spiritual teacher Paulo Coelho ~

 

Abstract, No-5, 2009

Abstract, No-5, 2009, originally uploaded by N. Nur.

I don’t have very much to say today.

At times, I think a lot of words are wasted on saying nothing of importance, really.

However, I heard something very insightful the other day from Jay Maisel (from an interview on the Internet), he said something to the effect of, ‘you don’t capture pictures, they capture you.’

This makes a lot of sense to me. If I’m not captured by a subject, then it is probably not a subject that I would want to photograph. If that photo is not formed in my minds eye first, then for me, there is no photograph there.

That’s just a short thought for the day.