Part of the joy of macro photography for me is the exploring at that level — getting down on your hands and knees in a three by three square can yield you a world of images. Kicking around a forest is an unholy bounty. This shot was one nabbed doing exactly that — I was toodling around our woods and found an old bottle. The old bottle was open at the top, and inside all manner of gunk and grime and bubbling moss made way for something rather goopy and strange, and so I put the macro lens against the mouth of the bottle and snapped a few pics.
One of them is this photo:
(Click image for larger size.)
It’s fantastic because it looks like something out of another world: an observatory station on a planet of mucus, which is pretty much exactly how I feel right now, having yet another cold gleaned from the preschool petri dish. (Seriously, I am a slow-oozing leak of pine-colored face-tar.) Not only does this image capture what I love about macro photography, but it also captures HOW MY SOUL FEELS RIGHT NOW BECAUSE I HAVE ANOTHER GODDAMN COLD.
*blows nose*
*weeps*
I said as much on Twitter and I’ll repeat it here — young children are covered in a forever sheen of bacteria and viruses. Each child is an individual outbreak monkey. I have learned that having a preschool age child means constantly swimming in pox. We spoke to our family doctor and he’s like YEAH THAT’S PRETTY MUCH YOUR LIFE NOW. GOOD NEWS IS, IF YOU SURVIVE TILL HE’S IN FIRST GRADE YOU’LL HAVE BULLETPROOF IMMUNE SYSTEMS. So, onward to survival.
Happy Monday, flipperfloppers.
Dan Schwent says:
Awesome shot! My macro lens increased my joy of photography one thousand fold. Ice is one of my favorite things to go all macro on.
February 8, 2016 — 8:38 AM
jackswanzy1022 says:
If we wait to see our grandchildren-ages 1,3,5- when they are well, we don’t see them.
February 8, 2016 — 8:42 AM
Pavowski says:
Our kids went into day care this year, and our son starts preschool this August. I feel you.
February 8, 2016 — 9:33 AM
Eugenie Black says:
My husband, having worked in a bank for 27 years, is now training to be a teaching assistant in an Infant school (kids aged 4 to 7). Suddenly our whole family is ill every Everything!!! So pleased I went back to the beginning of your blog to read, as, when I downloaded the picture having just caught the end of the blog – I had a thought that you had actually photographed the content of your own nose….. I feel that might be a step too far! Now I know what it is I can appreciate it much more.
February 8, 2016 — 9:36 AM
Karin Weight says:
Ok, Chuck. Since I’ve come to care about you, and since I’m a former medical professional (PA-C to be precise), I’m going to give you some advice: Zicam. I worked in an Emergency Room AND I have a young child and I rarely got sick. I swear, swear, swear by this stuff. The big butt, excuse me, BUT, is that you must start using it at the very first sign of your impending cold, ie. the tickle in the throat or the sudden fit of sneezes. Use it every few hours for a few days and you may find you don’t get many colds anymore. Oh, and don’t forget to sleep.
http://www.zicam.com/our-products/cold-shortening/oral-mist-arctic-mint.php
PS – It won’t work at all if you use it after the cold has taken hold.
Cheers,
Your fan Karin
February 8, 2016 — 9:45 AM
terribleminds says:
Is Zicam’s trick Zinc? I use Cold-Eeze and generally it’s done a good job of keeping my colds down — but this year has been fucking HEINOUS with the pox.
February 8, 2016 — 9:50 AM
Pitboss14 says:
sorrow of color
Blue his eyes threw to me,
white circles like snow blinding.
clear is the mind of blonde youth
looking at green as he dreams.
red scares its own reflection,
fears a boy pale in the moonlight.
yellow dances upon the soul in
lazy afternoons with lemon ice
black waits among shadow slow,
holding the wilted flowers, orange
marigolds folded over themselves,
Blue his eyes threw to me.
February 8, 2016 — 10:08 AM
joshlangston says:
Love the atomic watermelon growing out of that goop. Thanks for sharing!
February 8, 2016 — 10:11 AM
Louis Shalako says:
My lens isn’t very good, but I like moss, lichens, mushrooms, rotten stumps, etc.
February 8, 2016 — 10:46 AM
Justine says:
Your doc is pretty much spot-on. My boys are now 8 and 6 and not only do THEY not really get sick anymore, even when they do, I don’t. *knocks on wood*
A home remedy that I swear by (and I promise it’s not gross or freaky or weird or anything) is 1 TBSP honey and 1 TBSP apple cider vinegar in a cup of hot water. Drink it like tea. The ACV kills some of the crap in your throat, which is a germ breeding ground. If you’re up for it, gargle with ACV (I can’t quite do that without gagging).
I also pop Ricola Honey & Echinacea cough drops like they’re Tic-Tacs.
Good luck and keep washing your hands!
February 8, 2016 — 11:28 AM
Jana S Brown says:
As I sit here with a pile of diseased toddler across my lap your post made my day. That’s totally what it is…survive and know you will be stronger, even as you feel the twitch of the cold setting up in your own throat.
February 8, 2016 — 1:25 PM
Moriah says:
I had a doctor tell me that children were cesspits. I prefer carriers of plague myself.
February 8, 2016 — 2:30 PM
Laurie says:
Yeah, that happened here when the kid started attending preschool, until he hit kindergarten. All the handwashing and such in the world couldn’t stop it from spreading to all. An extended family member said she was worried we had mold in our house, since we were sick all the time. No, we had a kid in preschool. After that, the kid didn’t (and still doesn’t) get sick very often.
February 8, 2016 — 2:42 PM
Robyn says:
I used to call my daughter “Typhoid Mary” during those years.
February 8, 2016 — 2:58 PM
Wendy Christopher says:
This photo has taken me to my imagination happy place today. Thank you so much!
And hope your cold gets better soon. Your doctor tells the truth; for the first few years of school your kid will invite all manner of lurgies home to play in your systems. And then, quite magically, it will stop. My son is nine (almost ten) now, and it is so rare for me to get colds or bugs that on the few occasions I do I become outraged at the unfairness of the universe (ugh, this cold is actually making it HARD FOR ME TO BREATHE, what the hell’s UP with that?!”
February 9, 2016 — 7:12 AM
Jessica Salmonson (darkocean) says:
Ha! Come first grade and be prepared for horrible chest colds; no sleep for you. Lol. Cool photo btw.
February 13, 2016 — 9:24 PM