Boulevard of Dandelions

[RBSinTo]

I've not been shooting much for about a year, for a number of reasons including a severely deteriorating right hip that makes walking for more than about 30 minutes quite painful and so will be replaced at the end of August.
To try and get my creative juices going, I've been looking at other genres that don't require me to run around on city streets with a ton of gear and so when a few weeks ago, while driving, I noticed a boulevard covered in Dandelions along the roadside, I immediately got an idea for what I thought would be an interesting photo and took the shot. Playing in Photoshop I cropped the roadway and street lamp poles, duplicated the left side of the image, flipped it, pasted the two halves together and then made just enough changes to eliminate the exact bilateral symmetry that I so dislike in photos of this type.
I know there are a number of issues (including a bald sky that only changed a few days later after the roadside had been mowed) but I hope to re-shoot it again when the Dandelions make their inevitable reappearance, and improve the result.
Nikon D3
Sigma 12-24 f4.5-5.6 autofocus zoom
f16 @ 1/100th ISO 200

[Manfred M]

Sorry to hear about your hip and good luck with the planned surgery.

The reason I moved into studio work a couple of years ago was for exactly the same reason; it's something I could do without having to do a lot of walking and it gives me a chance to shoot, especially in the winter when walking on ice and snow is not something my feet enjoy very much.

The image has some charm that comes from the restricted colour palette. I suspect puffy clouds would have been more of a distraction than the cloudless sky you have captured here.

[Urbanflyer]

Glad you are having fun again! Wonderful thing about photography is there are lots of ways to enjoy it! Nice work!

[RBSinTo]

Thanks Manfred.
The pain finally became too much to bear, and the surgery was expedited by an Orthopedic Surgeon I play hockey with. One of his surgical team members has kindly agreed to get me in as quickly as possible, so I'm scheduled for August 29th., and hope to be back playing about six months from then.
As for the photo, I like the "feel" of it but still wish the sky-gods had been more cooperative.
Robert

[RBSinTo]

Judith,
Thanks for commenting. I'm slowly getting over my first real photofunk in over 40 years of shooting, and hope to be back to street photography pain-free next year.
Robert

[Donald]

Ahh, another hip sufferer.

It's awful. I've been really struggling for about 3 years now. I've had a couple of steriod injections which have helped, but I really do need surgery. But I've got to loose quite a bit of weight before they'll do that. Walking with two walking poles has helped me greatly.

[Wavelength]

A pleasing image; beautiful combination of blue and green...

[xpatUSA]

Ahh, another hip sufferer.

It's awful. I've been really struggling for about 3 years now. I've had a couple of steriod injections which have helped, but I really do need surgery. But I've got to loose quite a bit of weight before they'll do that. Walking with two walking poles has helped me greatly.

Add me to the list, gentlemen. Had that a couple years ago; an X-ray showed bone nodules up there in the joint. I OD'd on Glucosamine Chondroitine for a few months and it went away - I guess I grew some more cartilage or something which makes me lucky compared to you guys.

I do sympathize, that pain is no fun at all ...

[RBSinTo]

Donald, Nandakumar, Ted,
Thanks for the comments.
The hip deterioration only became noticeable about three years ago when I began to suffer pain in the joint while playing hockey (I'm a 71-year old Goaltender who's youngest opponent is a 15 year old who skates at 200 miles per hour with his hair on fire) and going for my weekly three-hour walk with a friend. The pain has increased in frequency and intensity to the point that I'm walking with a limp and often have trouble sleeping. This combined with cartilage-less knees (four arthroscopic surgeries-each knee twice) and spinal disc compression mean I've been in constant pain for about the last 25 years. I guess one can only abuse one's body for so long before pieces begin to fail or fall off. But the hip pain is the most severe so I'm looking forward to getting the joint replaced at the end of August.
Robert

[Wavelength]

Have you all tried any Ayurvedic treatment? I could work wonders even in many allopathy discarded cases.