My new project…
Thanks for visiting and reading! Your comments are welcome and appreciated!
Here’s a bit about me, first off I am legally blind. I have been since childhood. This makes taking photos a bit of a challenge, but this isn’t the first thing I have tried to accomplish that was challenging. I spent many years producing video games. I worked in the games industry for 13 years until I was in a car accident which severely reduced my remaining vision. Prior to the accident I had released over 40 titles to market and had teams working for me all over the world producing games. I worked for three companies during my time in the games industry, Atari, Accolade and Mattel Toys. After the car accident I no longer had the visual capabilities needed to continue in the games field, I decided to take on a less challenging obsession 8-).
I have no light perception in my right eye, and only 25% of my visual field remaining my left eye. The 25% I have is at less than 20/200 corrected, legally blind. I have no depth perception, no peripheral vision, no distance vision, I cannot see faces or anything clearly at a distance, and I cannot see anything below my waist without looking down. With the availability of personal PCs and some fantastic software, I have been able to really appreciate photography in a whole new way. I have always loved looking at pictures they give me a new way of looking at life as a whole. Things I cannot see well in person become instantly more beautiful when I view them up-close on paper or in screen. I started by taking some Photoshop classes with Kelby training (http://www.kelbytraining.com), and got myself as decent a camera as I could afford. This was all just intended to be a hobby, but then again Video Games was originally a hobby too. I started seriously shooting 8 years ago; I have decided to make photography something more than a hobby.
What’s this blog about? Well it’s about photography, but it’s also about low vision, and the challenges low vision presents in a very visual world. The most important thing I hope that you get out of reading this is that the only one stopping you from doing something you really want to do is, you. My philosophy in life has always been to never let anyone tell you that you’re not capable of doing something. If you want to do something bad enough, you find a way to do it.
I live in Santa Cruz CA, in a home that’s been in our family since the 1900’s. I spent a lot of time here when I was young. Santa Cruz is truly one of the most beautiful places I have seen in all of my travels. It is a photographer’s paradise, and is rich with history. I love history, especially old photographs. This blog will track the progress of my first real photo project. I plan to create a then and now book for the Municipal Wharf, Lighthouse and Mavericks surf area.
