Pain in the neck

There’s something wrong with my neck.

I’ve had some intermittent soreness over the years but I didn’t think I had serious neck issues. I would get engrossed in writing a blog, for example, and only get up to stretch after soreness had settled in. I blamed myself. My chiropractor also blamed me.

Then I started looking at my photos and recognized a design flaw in my neck – I don’t have enough motion.

osprey

This osprey swivels its neck to look straight behind as though that is perfectly normal. I’m betting it doesn’t have a sore neck! My neck is clearly has issues.

Now that I have made this discovery, I just need to figure out what to do with it.

Latest Comments

  1. Outlier Babe says:

    Every feather, branch, and needle. I can break off twigs and hear the tiny “snaps”. I can run my finger along the edge of the larger feathers. (I wish I could reach out and touch my index finger’s flesh to the stabbing point at the bottom of its beak, just for a moment.) Quite a photograph.

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  2. Round River Reflections says:

    The lighting and clarity, fantastic! I dream of images like this!

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  3. janina says:

    I know….lie flat on your back as you photograph..,.that way, you can also build up your arm muscles as you hold your camera with its big lens! Or, how about one of those gadgets attached to your viewfinder that acts like a telescopic viewfinder, whilst also laying on your back (make sense?). LOL. 😉

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  4. sagescenery says:

    Really beautiful photo!! The feathers are gorgeous!!

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  5. Kodiak My Little Grizzly says:

    I work with spine docs… You may think
    it would solve your neck issues…
    But being a photographer you need more stability than this… 🙂

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  6. doraiswamyganesh says:

    Dear Lyle, A really beautiful picture and a good write up .I am getting rejuvenated !,Regards, Ganesh.

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  7. lexi says:

    Pretty photo!! Good luck with your osprey exercises 🙂

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  8. melodylowes says:

    Osprey chiropractors must have quite the moves… 😀 I’d love to be able to do this in my classroom. Great shot!

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  9. Phil Lanoue says:

    Wow I can’t believe you just wrote this about having a sore neck. I have had a stiffness between my upper shoulder blades and a sore neck for about two weeks now. Wonder if it’s a bird photographer thing? Maybe I tried the osprey trick and was quickly made to realize I could not hope to come close to duplicating it. I could use eyes in the back of my head though for those times when a certain big nose swamp creature (no not me) comes silently crawling out from the underbrush behind me.

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    • lylekrahn says:

      Thanks for clarifying the swamp creature:) I’m often struck by the possibility that the best wildlife action is happening behind me and when I turn around there’s nothing. If I had a rear view, I’d know of sure! Maybe if you try photographing different creatures the neck stiffness moves around.

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  10. Fotografin Thee Ballmer says:

    How’s about some exercises while waiting for birds and cool shots;-) Or climbing on trees to be at the same level as the bird is;-) have a good day, LG Thee

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  11. Mike Powell says:

    The only person that I recall that had the neck flexibility of the osprey was the character that Linda Blair played in the movie The Exorcist. As I recall, her head could spin around. Of course, she had other issues to offset this potential advantage.

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  12. Deb W. Trotter says:

    I guess that saves the osprey from needing eyes in the back of his head…

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