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First Precious Memory
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3/28/2019 at 1:25:03 AM GMT
Posts: 692
First Precious Memory

I am pleased to share this OPS memory.  It is one of my first and meaningful to me so maybe that is why it is a favorite.

Though I had been imaging for 9 years already, I was new to the OPS when I was asked to help with the first OPS Mid-Year destination educational program at Park City, Utah in 1984.  I was excited to meet and completely intimidated by all the seasoned and talented photographers I met there.  I'd been working in a private practice with no other photographers and i was absolutely self-taught, except for reading Emery Billings' monthly articles on ophthalmic photography in Ophthalmology Times.  I had no real sense of the quality of the images I was making or if I was even doing them correctly!  

The faculty had been very friendly and I felt accepted by the meeting team.  We were sitting collectively in the back row of the auditorium at the Claim Jumper conference center.  There I was, sitting in the midst of some true ophthalmic photography giants:  Terry George, Bill Nyberg, Emery Billings, Terry Tomer, Paul Montague, Dennis Makes, Sheila Smith, Michael Coppinger, Bruce Morris...  It was a heady moment.  We were listening to a lecture by Csaba Martonyi who was giving us a little mini-quiz on  technique.  I was surrounded by these imaging veterans who were casually shouting out the answers to Csaba's questions to keep the lecture going.  Csaba projected a slide that showed a large inferior crescent light artifact, and asked,"How would you eliminate this artifact?"  No one said a word!  I looked left and right, wondering why the answer hadn't been shouted out by the noisy back row folks and suddenly realized that while no one was saying anything, everyone was rotating their right hands in the air as if over a floating joy stick, and I was doing the same!  Hooray!  I had found community!  May be I DID have an inkling of how to manage a camera and take good photos!  Pretty soon we were all giggling over everyone's "ability to do it, but not say it!" And after that, students started to find their voices and Csaba no longer had to rely on the mouthy back row kids to supply the answers to his questions.

For me, it was a great memory, a great meeting, and my first excellent experience with OPS educational programs.



Last edited Sunday, March 31, 2019
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