It's been an especially rough week for Austin Portrait Photographers who are susceptible to allergies from the juniper and mountain cedar trees which cover the Hill Country to the west of the city. We have a scourge here called, Cedar Fever. It's named after one of the many symptoms attached to allergies from the pollen from the cedar family of trees.
While Zyrtec, Claritin and even Benedryl are our allies nothing seems to scrape the velcro-like grains of vicious pollen off the backs of our throats or the roofs of our mouths quite like a big cup of hot, steamy coffee. In a week or two this particular pollen season will come to a close; rains will clean out the residual grains and we'll start a body count to see how many brave Austin men, women, children and photographers we've lost this time.
If you were buying into the hype about Austin being one of the best places to do business in the U.S. or you thought about joining the hipsters for a beer at Bangers, maybe take in a bit of live music at one of 16,967 live music venues, you might want to reconsider. There's very little that's worse than sneezing to death for the privilege of a few funny hat moments.
While coffee is by no means a cure (the only real cure is to have one's sinuses surgically removed...) it does temporarily relieve one of the symptoms....at least enough to almost enjoy driving or blogging for a while. Coffee sales are off the charts in Austin in the new year. Hardly a surprise since we are enjoying a record setting cedar pollen harvest.
And yes, the pollen does stick to digital camera sensors!
6 comments:
My son has been dealing with it by hiding in a "clean room" in his house. He hasn't mentioned coffee as part of his defenses. Maybe I should suggest it.
I'll trade your PollenPocalypse for my 1 1/2 weeks fighting a particularly nasty bout of the flu. And I did have my shot. I still sound like I'm taking at one end of a long concrete culvert.
Pollen, or no pollen, good portrait and dof; look as though your serious about that cup.
great shot of you! plus i saw that video you did of the rx10... more in FRONT of the camera for kTuck! lotsa character in that mug!
Strange, I got a warm feeling all over when I looked at this picture, and I don't think it was the coffee. I enlarged the photograph and there was something about the way it looked that I liked very much. I'm someone who still shoots film and prints in the darkroom, and I really liked the look of this. Of course the person in it doesn't look too bad either!
Jon
Love your post .. a big 'Here Here", picture a thumbs up too, off to Starbucks at your suggestion
Post a Comment