My Hippie Thanksgiving with Lytro
For my birthday in June, The Boy got me a new camera. A weird new camera. A Lytro. It is a camera with an infinite depth of field. For those who aren’t fluent in photo nerd, this means that you don’t need to focus the camera- it captures enough information that you can go into its software later and pick where you want the picture to be focused and modify the perspective from which the picture was taken!
Lytro Camera
It’s pretty weird and every time I’ve used the camera I’ve gotten strange and curious reactions. There are some cool things about it- it’s small and you don’t need a macro lens to capture things that are tiny and/or close. There are some annoying things about it, too- the lens cap it magnetic and falls of ALL THE TIME (I can’t tell you how many pictures I have of the inside of my purse), and the software is SLOW (nearly a minute to upload each picture)! I also can’t figure out how to use my pictures without sharing them publicly (problematic when you work in mental health and want to protect whatever you can of your privacy)*
Since I haven’t gotten over the hump of incorporating the Lytro into my quiver of cameras, I decided I’d take it to Thanksgiving to force myself to use it (yes, I know I’m late posting about Thanksgiving because it was over a week ago, but I’ve been busy traveling, consoling a friend post-engagement break-up, working, applying (and interviewing!) for jobs, and have just been busy with life stuff). Maybe because I know that the Lytro is best used for a specific purpose (capturing many things each with different narrow depths of field), I tried to use it for that purpose, and as such didn’t use it much for people, who would inhabit one depth of field (but you could do that, too).
(I’d typically embed a picture here, but Lytro won’t let me, so check one out here; click different places to focus)
Thanksgiving was spent in Arizona with The Boy’s family. It was awesome to meet some of his Aunts that I haven’t yet met. It was even more awesome that two of them are very accomplished massage therapists who were more than happy to teach us massage techniques by working on us for hours (literally multiple hours over multiple days). I learned how to cup and even have a new cupping set in the mail!** There was lots of food, fantastic little kiddos, and we spent most of our time laughing and being active. The Boy and I went for a nice run and one of his Aunts is a former dancer and acrobat (she started a circus when she was young!) and current yoga instructor so there were lots of impromptu inversion practices.*** The Boy’s mom was also there and I just adore her and her sweet energy. It was such a nice way to spend the holiday!
*Yes, I am fully aware of the irony of writing that on a blog. I try my best to never use real names here and have taken other measures so it’s harder to link the content on this blog to a google search of my name.
**I have no idea when I became a hippie. Also aware of the irony that I’m writing about Eastern medicine while employed in a very Western medicine field.
***Really, if you would have told me three years ago I would have spent Thanksgiving in the desert learning cupping from a former circus acrobat and practicing headstands, I would think you were as nuts as you think I am right now.