Ouch. (Blood inside, ewwww)

[AaronLLockhart]

This cactus:


(Literally that exact one)

Decided it was going to jump out in front of me yesterday right before staging to take this picture:


And I have to say... the barbs on that cactus are about 4 inches long, and 1/8 inch thick. Oh yes, I forgot to mention that they don't bend/flex/break. It's like a knife sticking out of the side.

Anyway, I accidentally kicked it (Serves me right, I was wearing flip flops like a moron) and the barb went completely through my pinky toe. I got snagged and couldn't go anywhere, looked back and there my foot was hanging on this cactus. It bled for about 2 hours, and then I cleaned it up a little bit:



BUT, before it stopped bleeding I went to the Hospital and they wouldn't put stitches in it. They said something about that wounds like that can breed bacteria if they close them shut, to just keep pressure on it and it would eventually stop bleeding. Well, 1 1/2 hours later, it stopped.


Here is a pic of the wounds... Entry wound on left, exit on right.



Moral of the story? Don't kick a cactus, it bites back.

 

[pic_chick]

Great story great photo.

well not the ones of your feet

 

[AaronLLockhart]

Great story great photo.

well not the ones of your feet

You know those hairy toes are down right sectsy hahaha

 

[Jaemie]

Aaaggghhh! Ouch ouch ouch ouch...... I hope you're toe is better, now. Don't kick cactusessseses.

The photo of the valley is very interesting. It has an unusual quality that makes it resemble a photo of a photo, as if you had shot a photo of an image in a book. Of course, you didn't, but that's the feeling it evokes in me. What are those strange diagonal rays of light? How did you achieve that faded appearance? It's really neat! Did I say I like it? I do. A lot! It's just so unusual.

 

[AaronLLockhart]

Aaaggghhh! Ouch ouch ouch ouch...... I hope you're toe is better, now. Don't kick cactusessseses.

The photo of the valley is very interesting. It has an unusual quality that makes it resemble a photo of a photo, as if you had shot a photo of an image in a book. Of course, you didn't, but that's the feeling it evokes in me. What are those strange diagonal rays of light? How did you achieve that faded appearance? It's really neat! Did I say I like it? I do. A lot! It's just so unusual.

There was a lot of post done to that photo. The original just wasn't dramatic enough for me... So, I blurred the foreground very slightly. Then I put a series of white and black dots with the hardness set to full in a second layer, applied a motion blur to the dotted layer at a slight tilt and 2000px expansion and set the layer to "overlay". Then I duplicated the first layer, added a lens flare to the upper left hand corner, set the layer style to "Overlay" and then deleted every part of the layer except for the flare using a 500px buffer on the selection.

And voila... you have that highly dramatized image

I think online tutorials refer to this effect as "added dynamic lighting." However, I could be wrong.

I also love how I was bleeding like a murder victim, yet it didn't stop me from taking my intended photograph of the valley, or taking one of the cactus. Talk about dedication to photography

 

[Jaemie]

Well, it's quite dramatic. I'm somewhat unsure about the rays and lens flare effects (they seem a bit unnatural), but I love the faded look to everything else. It feels very hot and 1960's suburban, like a frame from a desert B movie filmed in Palmdale or someplace similar.