I’m sure I’ve moaned about this before somewhere on this blog but I have yet again my chronic back pain has flared up. The truth is is that there is nothing medieval science can do to help me as it is combination of getting older and being a human being. I know the drill: take painkillers, keep mobile the best you can and after a day or so things will get back to what they were and this is working it is just frustrating as I appear to have found a first world solution to a very first world problem: Simple Photography.

What, you might ask, is Simple Photography? For me it means having one camera and lens that allows me to make photographs I like without compromising quality of image as well as quality of life. To put another way: I can go out with my wife and she doesn’t have to hang around whilst I fiddle with gear to capture an image. Now of course smartphones are an obvious solution and that is what I thought for a long time but as of late I just don’t think that is the case anymore. I don’t know whether it is the ever encroaching computational photography or I just find the quality of the image from my iPhone not up to scratch anymore it doesn’t work for me.

As this is a first world problem and I am a first world person I threw money at the problem. I bought a rather superb lens for my APS-C in September and this seemed to be the answer but after a while it has become clear it wasn’t. So I have just bought another lens, Sony’s 40mm f2.5, and this really seems a much better fit: great quality lens in a much smaller form factor than the APS-C lens and is the perfect focal length for my full frame camera. So yesterday I was off out at dawn in the park to give the lens a test and I have to say it is a really great small lens. However, this is where my old back comes crashing into the party!

Late yesterday I tweaked my back and with the paths covered in frost I have made the executive decision that staying inside for a day and letting my back get better is the right thing to do. Which, of course, is REALLY frustrating as I want get out and play with my new lens. I know, I know, I’m regressing to a small child and there will be other opportunities but it feels such a great fit for my needs and I just can’t make the most of it. BOOO … IT’S NOT FAIR!!!!