I have lately started to comprehend how much eye strain I have in my life. I use my eyes a lot, seriously a lot, no joke I use my eyes much more than you. Let me give you a day in the life of my eyes. Ok, first there are all the times I spend with a camera crushed up against my face. Watching auto focus go in and out of focus is a very eye straining experience. Then there is the squinting of using only one eye for the bulk of a photo shoot. Having a flash go off is like having minnie fireworks shot at your eye all day. Then there are the eight plus hours that I spend in front of a computer screen doing the in and out of a photographers life. Computer screen glare, I hate you. Next, I am a reader. I read a lot. Reading leads to eye fatigue. See I told you I use my eyes a lot and I’m not even done sharing my daily sights with you. Then there is all that TV watching that takes up the twilight time of my day. You probably thought that I am not much of a TV watcher. I am. I wish I could watch more TV but there’s not much that I like. LOST (see you in February ‘08), Men in Trees (everybody should watch this show. Please watch this show so they don’t take it off the air), House, Criminal Minds (not much of a fan of this show just more of going through the TV watching motions) and then there’s Sunday NFL (here we go Steelers, here we go). WOW, that’s a lot of eye strain, thanks for understanding…
So, what to do? Well? I could rest my eyes. Not much of an option there, being a photog and all. I could get someone to see for me. They could describe life to me as it happens. Kind of like a sight butler. It might be fun for awhile, probably not much of a long term solution. I could become more light aware. Awareness is the key to happiness! I knew the answer along. I just want to brag about my newly conceived eye strain awareness solution. (Hence the long-winded and whimsical paragraph above).
What is the key to my awareness? Sunglasses… Not much of an epiphany but it will do. The one thing I am finding hard about wearing sunglasses is that fall colors diminish when driving. I love the saturated blend of autumn colors and viewing autumn colors through sunglasses is not natural. It’s a disheartening experience for a photographer who makes his living from color and light saturation to deprive himself from the inspiration.
C'est la vie, eye strain and thankfulness, awake or asleep I have photographic dreams. I guess managing a little bit of eye stain is worth it for all the grand viewings I get.
