Setback

At the 3-month mark post shoulder replacement surgery, the pain was still interfering with my range of motion. Then I had my follow up appointment with the surgeon. He asked where the pain was located, touched the different areas I mentioned and found a sensitive spot at the back of the shoulder. That is when I heard the words no surgery patient wants to hear, “let’s take some x-rays and then we will talk.”

Although the x-rays did not show any problems, the doctor started talking about stress fractures, indicating that this can happen with the reverse shoulder replacement, especially in older women with osteopenia. He then put a stop to all the assisted range of motion exercises I was doing (pulleys, cane exercises, etc.). I was restricted to completely passive range of motion exercises, like table slides and wall slides and instructed to use the sling if necessary. I always found the wall slides a bit painful, so the jury was out on that one. I was back in four weeks, so my thought right now was just s**t, my recovery was set back at least 4 weeks.

So, what was I doing to cope? I had to put the cross-stitch project on hold, since that seemed to bother my shoulder. The weather had improved a bit, so I did get out for a few walks, but not as much as I would like. I did notice we had a few new visitors to the bird feeder. We did not usually see purple finches, but several pairs were hanging around. I had my husband set up my camera with the long lens by the window. Since I could not get my arm high enough to take pictures, I was using a camera utility that let my camera talk to my laptop. The package included a remote shutter release.

I was also still reading a ton of books. This month I enjoyed a nonfiction book about the pianist, Van Cliburn, called Moscow Nights by Cliff Nigel. My book club book was an historical novel called Skylark by Paula McLain. It switched back and forth between two timelines. One followed a woman in the 1600s who wanted to create clothing dyes and was put in an asylum for daring to take on a man’s role. The other follows a doctor who works in an asylum in 1939 and helped Jews escape through the tunnels of Paris. Finally, a light read to lift my spirits, a book called Twilight Garden, by Sarah Nash Adams, a story about two neighbors who do not get along but share a garden space. When they receive photos and fliers about what the garden looked like before, they join forces to restore the garden to its former glory.

Winter Beauty

We are between winter storms at the moment and I want to share some of the beauty that can be found in a winter landscape.

Looking out the bedroom window, as the sun cleared the mountains after one of the storms, the ice-covered branches reflected the morning light. I thought it was magnificent and tried to capture the moment. Unfortunately, I didn’t quite catch the sparkling appearance of the trees. I was using my phone to take the picture, and I was shooting through the window and the screen, so I wasn’t too surprised. Still, the sun shining through the forest was brilliant. It is mornings like these that makes my heart sing when I view the beautiful gifts of nature.

He who marvels at the beauty of the world in summer will find equal cause for wonder and admiration in winter. John Burroughs

Penobscot Narrows Bridge and Fort Knox

Our friend from New York got some really nice days to test out his new camera setup. October 13^th was another glorious day for an outing. Our destination for this photo-shoot was the Penobscot Narrows Bridge and Fort Knox.

Just before the historical grounds, we stopped at the pullout on Route 1 so that our friend could take some photos of the full length of the bridge. From there, we joined a line of cars to enter the site. It was a holiday weekend and a beautiful day, so people were out enjoying the weekend.

Once we parked, our first stop was to head towards the bridge and the observation deck. On the floors above the elevator, we scanned the views below us in every direction. At one point, we spotted an eagle in flight flying across the river. I’m not sure what he photographed from the deck, but I took a few shots of the opposite tower and the bridge cables below me. I also got a nice picture looking down at the fort.

After descending from the observation deck, we headed towards Fort Knox. We had parked closer to the fort, not knowing that it was a bit of a walk to the bridge. Unfortunately, the return trip towards the fort was all uphill. It did give us an opportunity to take in the river, the fall foliage, the picnic area and finally the fort. Of course we took the long way to the entrance, crossing across the back end of the fort, past the shop and information center and on towards the front of the structure.

Inside the fort we headed separate ways, our friend exploring the passages and upper area of the building, while we walked around the interior grounds. As I mentioned in the last two posts, being with a serious photographer made me slow down a bit and think about things like framing and eliminating objects from the shot. This meant I had to acquire patience or at least control my impatience. I waited several minutes for people to get out of the way, during my ground level photo.

Once I successfully acquired my picture, we joined our friend on the upper level of the fort. I attempted a few shots of the battlements but wasn’t overly impressed with them. My final shot of the bridge captured a few of the canon areas in the foreground. It was one of those “good enough” moments.

Done with our photo-op we went looking for lunch in Belfast. The last day of our friend’s visit it rained all day. It was a good day to process all the photos we took over the last three days.

Popham Fort and Popham Beach

Saturday, October 12^th was another bright, beautiful day, so we decided to take our friend to Fort Popham and Popham beach for another photoshoot. When we arrived at the fort, we discovered that chairs were being set up for an afternoon wedding. No matter, there would be other photographic opportunities within the remains of the building.

Before entering the fort, we scouted around the outside of the building for a bit. Our friend, an avid birdwatcher, as well as photographer, headed towards the rocky beach just below the fort. He had spotted some offshore birds and went closer for a better look. I found a perfect sitting rock and took a picture of a ground view looking towards the fort and another looking straight out from where I was sitting. Once we were done, we headed back towards the entrance.

Inside the darkened remains, our friend continued finding artistic opportunities. On one of my first visits here, I had taken those artistic shots but somehow lost the original photographs. My goal was to at least retake two of those artistic pictures. (See Fort Popham 2021 ). Unfortunately, different times and different lighting situations did not produce the same results.

After exploring the fort, we headed to Popham Beach for additional photo opportunities. As we walked down the path to the beach, we found warning signs about supersaturated sand, also known as quicksand, and how to get out of that situation. Apparently, the sand could be very soft near the mouth of the Morse River. Forewarned, we stepped onto the beach.

The beach was very interesting to me. As I looked out towards the water, I noticed that the sand was broken up by water. There was the majority of the beach, followed by a line of still water, another line of sand then water, and finally the sea beyond. I watched people walk on the sandy patches between the water and even to the island nearby. I was amazed but did not venture out to join them. Instead I found an interesting sculpture of driftwood and took several photos to get just the right composition.

When our friend was done with his photoshoot, we headed back to Bath to find lunch. We had the idea that we would stop at Best Thai II but apparently they were not opened for lunch that day. We wandered around Bath for a bit until we found an Irish Pub for lunch. After lunch, we bought some goodies at the bakery across the street before heading home.

Pemaquid Lighthouse 2024

A longtime friend of ours decided to visit us during the October holiday weekend. He had just replaced his entire camera system and wanted to test out his new equipment during his stay. Knowing this, my husband and I came up with a few places that would provide him with a Maine photographic experience. On the Friday of October 11^th, we went to one of the most photographed lighthouses in Maine. Pemaquid lighthouse, of course!

Aside from the breeze, we could not have asked for a more beautiful day. I was glad the weather held up for our friend’s photography session. Once we arrived at Pemaquid, we let him get on with taking pictures while we explored a little bit.

After walking around the structure, my husband and I headed down that amazing geological feature that is seen in almost every picture you see of this lighthouse. As we made our way down the rocks, I realized how tentative we become as we get older. This was not as easy as it was more than ten years ago. I made some attempt at the iconic photograph but we never got down far enough to really capture it. It was one of my good enough photos.

We watched our friend take pictures from above until he ventured down to join us. Instead of the often seen photo of the lighthouse reflected in a puddle within the rocks, he took one of use standing by and reflected in that puddle. Later, he told us that one wasn’t great since it looked like half my head was gone. Even serious photographers can take some bad shots.

Being with a serious photographer, pushed me to up my game just a bit. It also helped that our friend was very kind and patient and gave pointers in a casual manner. I tried to concentrate on the lighting, the camera settings and eliminating distractions. At one point, I took a scenic shot looking out to sea. When we got home, I noticed a lot of lens flare across the picture. Then I realized that it wasn’t lens flare but strands of my white hair blowing across the lens. I removed most of it post processing, but since I had difficulty doing so, I may have left a bit of hair behind.

I also practiced waiting for the right moment and better framing of my photos. At one point, I must have waited 10 minutes for people to get out of the way while trying to get a picture of two attached benches in front of some vegetation. For once, I was not afraid to take multiple shots and change angles until I eliminated most of the distractions. For the lighthouse shot, I got tired of waiting for the people to move and just cropped the picture instead.

When more people arrived to explore the lighthouse, we decided it was time to leave and to seek out lunch. It had been a very productive morning.