Stubborn Woman and CLF Light Bulbs

As everyone knows Janet was in the hospital, released last Friday. Some background; I can’t cook but I have a few cooking rules: Rule No. 1. No dish can have more than four ingredients and Rule No. 2. You have to be able to open it up, heat it up, eat it up and clean it up in thirty minutes or less. Neither will endear me to the Culinary Hall of Fame.

Janet had occasional problems prior to being hospitalize that made me believe that she was having problems swallowing. In the hospital they did a battery of swallowing tests and she passed with flying colors. I was relieved. Every meal she cleaned her plate, even on the day that I did not get there to feed her breakfast until after ten. Less than an hour later she also cleaned her lunch plate.

As soon as we got home she refused to swallow—food or liquid. I was getting less than four ounces of water down her a day and for food I even resorted to buying baby food as gosh awful as it is. I could only get the baby food, applesauce, and pudding down her and those in limited quantities. I was very concerned.

Tuesday I wanted to go to the camera club as I had a couple of photos printed for the monthly competition. Not having anyone to sit with Janet and under the circumstances not wanting to leave her alone, I packed her up and took her with me. After the meeting we picked up a neighbor lady and drove over to Denny’s for some eggs. Janet ate like a trooper and on top of that drank two cups of coffee and three large glasses of water. Once again I was relieved and thought maybe the swallowing problem was simply temporary. The next day at home we were back to no eat no drink so after 8 o’clock in the evening I bundled her up and took over to a local restaurant where we used to eat twenty plus years ago, Aunt Bee’s. They are open twenty four hours so I knew we would not be rushed. I got a tuna salad sandwich with potato salad—all I got to eat was the bread from the sandwich. She ate, she drank and she cleaned up the peach cobbler. Like Hannibal she came, she saw, she ate. So it appears that the solution to the problem is to go out to eat and I am happy to do that as long as I can get at least one good mean down her each day. She has her days and nights mixed up so our bedtime is after 4am and she generally sleeps until about noon. Tonight at eight I am again going to bundle her up and head for Aunt Bee’s for catfish.

Anyway, I recently pontificated about how much I enjoy shooting photographs in mixed light and voiced a concern about how the new fluorescent CLF bulbs were going to factor into my shooting.

Right now I love to play the warmth of incandescent against the coldness of daylight and CLFs are likely to change that drastically. After looking at the photographs I took I think at Aunt Bee’s I got my first taste of the new bulbs and it is strange. On many of the photographs the skin tones looked fairly normal in places and very jaundiced in the shadows so I think they are using a mixture of tungsten and CLFs. I originally shot the photos on incandescent white balance and in post had to change it to fluorescent 3700 degree to be anywhere close to normal. The examples posted here have been post processed so it is impossible to really see much of the original results because I have a tendency to really pump up the color in mixed light situations—I love playing with the off colors.

Actually I will voice an opinion to those that are concerned about “true color” as though in the world of photography there actually is such a thing. Color is an emotional component of photographs and to be overly concerned about “true color” seems more of an interest in documentation than in exercising your innate creativity. Some times in my photographs of Janet she comes out green, sometimes orange, sometimes pale, sometimes saturated. She comes out what ever color I think makes the most interesting photograph. I may process several photographs taken in the same situation quite differently, playing with different colors on each one. I am much more interested in the emotional impact of the colors in a photograph than what color the object photographed actually is. Switching white balance settings is a pretty normal occurrence in my post processing and recently I am frequently trying a hue shift.

After 8pm Update: Again to Aunt Bee’s for fried catfish, baked squash, black-eyed peas and mashed potatoes, it’s one of those home cooking places which you might have guessed from the name. They always serve more food that old people eat so Janet and I share a plate—I only got to eat because I was the one holding the fork. This may become a habit.

We sit at the same table as last night and I discovered that I was in error regarding the CLF bulbs they are using all tungsten bulbs. However, we sit in a corner table and Janet was right next to a large window which was to my back. Outside the window was an awning and under the awning was several rows of fluorescent tubes which is where the jaundiced off color came from. I shot a few more photographs tonight but the next time we go there we are going to sit at a different table unless it is during daylight.

As you might notice I am still working on brokeh shots for the Houston Photograph Meet Up next week. Now just to narrow it down to five.