Seeing Things Through Someone Else’s Eyes

It’s summer, and that means time for vacation and taking a trip! Let me take you on a little photographic journey–to Canada, brought to you by Christina Anne McCallum.

Let’s call this a view through her mind’s eye. A view that is clearly wonderful, if not miraculous, as seen through the eyes of a blind woman, who uses her camera lens to give others a view of the world that they can only hope to see as she does.

What? A legally blind woman who takes pictures? And not just pictures, but—see for yourself, on her website—gorgeous moments in time, of wildlife and nature scenes. How is this possible? Well, let me introduce Christina to you. She is one of the most remarkable people I know and gives new meaning to not letting anything stand in your way when you want to do something.

On July 26, 1995, Christina, who lives in Quebec, Canada, woke up and could barely see out of her left eye. Within five or six months, her vision was reduced to about an inch. After seeing numerous eye doctors, she was diagnosed with advanced keratoconus. For Christina, her only treatment for this condition was a cornea transplant operation. For the most part, the cornea transplants were successful. Before the surgery Christina’s vision was 20/800, and now it’s 20/400.

However, the traumatic experience of rapidly losing her eyesight, caused Christina to fall into a bad depression for about 10 years, during which she gained about 100 pounds. Since then, she has reclaimed her ability to see the beauty in life, and has also lost the weight. Yay, Christina!

OK, so how did Christina become a photographer? Well, a few years after she inherited her grandfather’s camera, she decided to try it. To her surprise (and everyone who knew her), the photos she took came out good, and not blurry.  Christina said half-jokingly, “To me, if everything was just as blurry as I normally see, looking through the view-finder, I figured all should be ok!”

On that positive note, Christina started practicing photography daily in 2009 with a Canon PowerShot A590 IS. It had a manual setting for the shutter speed and she learned by trial and error how to take pictures. So, Christina isn’t just a photographer with limited vision, she’s self-taught, as well.

She’s never used an automatic camera. Last year she upgraded to a Nikon D3000 and is very excited about it.

Some of her favorite places to take photos are Anse-à-l’Orme Nature Park, Mont-Tremblant National Park, and just about anywhere in nature. She loves to kayak (like me!), and one of her favorite “subjects” to photograph is the Great Blue Heron, which are very elusive. But she has the patience to sit and wait for hours for one to appear.

I’m including a small sampling of her work for you to look through. In my eyes, these and others she has taken are some of the best photographs of animals and nature I have ever seen, and they rival some of the ones I’ve seen in National Geographic.

Christina, has one of the best eyes for capturing what so many cannot. And the amazing part is, she’s flying blind, so to speak. I truly hope that her talent is appreciated and recognized to the level she deserves. Her talent, and ability is something to be admired, proving that you can achieve your life’s passion no matter what obstacles are thrown your way.

On that note, let me end my blog here and let her photographs speak for themselves. Enjoy!

Christina can be contacted by email at christina.a.mccallum@gmail.com .