My initial shots for this were with trousers off! I think I made the right decision! ;-) I have a pair of scars on both hips. The smallest is 1x1cm. The other three are 2x1cm. Little criss-cross marks, which make me think of philips screw heads. They are extremly neat and fading, so they don't look bad at all. Quite often I wish I could just remove my legs, using the correct type of screwdriver, and put on some new ones which have better sporting performance and require less maintenance. I had both hips arthroscoped in 2007. First the left, and then the right, 8 weeks later. I didn't realise there was anything wrong with the right hip until I got 6 weeks into the physio rehab for the left hip and found that whilst that one was working nicely, the right hip couldn't cope with the recovery program. This was the start of a cycle of surgery and recovery which added up to 5 surgeries in 25 months, which is not very healthy and very hard work. I've done so much physio now, and learnt so much, that I've seriously considered re-training to be one. I have hip impingement syndrome. Basically my hip sockets are too shallow. This means that I didn't have the full range of movement in my hips, and over the years, the cartilage got trashed. The surgeon found a lot of inflammation, frayed cartilage and a tear right back to the bone. After skilful trimming, I have a tiny bit of cartilage left round the front of both hip sockets. My range of hip movement is now the poor end of normal, which is a big improvement. I'm glad that I finally found out what the problem is. I always wondered why I was rubbish at running. I first got problems when was at uni, and I was treated for a slipped disc. Despite following the instructions for rest and exercise to the letter, I couldn't manage a proper recovery and some people thought the pain wasn't real. I thought I was going crazy. Not being able to sit comfortably nearly cost me my degree but in the end I wrote my final exams lying on the floor, leaning on my elbows. And I was OK for my wedding day. The scars on my hips remind me of what I've lost. My life has been pretty disrupted ever since I started on the physio/failure/surgery/recovery cycle. But they also remind me that I can be pretty determined and get through stuff. As a result of needing to rehab two hips (which is extremely unusual), I had to swim, but not swim breast-stroke, which was the only stroke I knew. So I taught myself front-crawl, and eventually built up to 1.5km twice a week, at a respectable pace. I can't do that any more because I've lost my fitness but the time will come to try again. Having been forced to spend so much time learning about my body and confront my limitations, I've come to really appreciate what I can do, and discover that my body is amazing, despite all the flaws. I used to feel that my body was just this awkward, annoying "thing" that I didn't feel in touch with, but now I have a real sense that it's mine, it's me and it's precious.

Okay, here's a story behind this shot. In short, I found out why my Pentacon 135/2.8 frustrates me: it's off-focus. I went through a manual focus forum that had a page someone made detailing how they dismantled one of these. They were mostly just cleaning the blades, but they mentioned how to put it back in focus along the way. The problem here is that they knew what they were doing. I think I lost a screw because now it won't connect properly. This meant I was out one 135mm. I tried finding a new Pentacon, but apparently these things started getting popular since I last bought it and I can't find one for 20 bucks like I did this one. Although I wanted to get an 85/1.4, I know that 135=200, which is a pretty good range for concert photos. So I went hunting for a new type of 135mm altogether, this time aiming for the best I could possibly get on a budget. I found an Asahi SMC 135mm/2.5 on KEH for a (relative) steal. The catch was that it was in "Bargain" condition. However, if you know KEH, you should already know that "Bargain" still means that it's in pretty good workable condition. True to their word, the Asahi was in good condition. Unfortunately, the aperture was stuck at f/22. Okay, f/2.5 wouldn't be bad since I would be using this wide most of the time anyway, but f/22 is worthless, so I broke out the screwdrivers and started to unscrew it. I stripped one. Badly. So badly that I tried almost everything to undo the screw, but I only stripped it worse and worse. So I bought Screwgrab. I bought screw removers for precision-sizes. I then bought a Dremel and a cutting wheel so I could use a cutting wheel to cut a line into the screw and then unscrew it that way.. The Dremel was the only thing that worked, and not the way I planned. The cutting wheel? Too big: I had no clearance. Because these damn screws were so cheap, I finally just got a grinding bit and ground the hell out of the screw head until it loosened up. Voila, got inside, fixed the aperture, and now it's good as new. I even found a replacement screw for the dead screw. Oh, and I did all this instead of worked on a portfolio site like I *should* have. On the bright side, I think I can fix up an old Seikanon that I wanted to use that I couldn't properly mount before. I just need to find an element I pulled out of it. So, that was my day! How was yours?