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110 EW IN OTHER NEWS The picture continued from page 109 After these early days, Dr. Weiss let his interest in photography lapse. It was rekindled on a trip years later. "A number of years ago a friend and I went to New Mexico and took a course," Dr. Weiss recalled. Since that week spent photographing the New Mexico landscape, Dr. Weiss now carries a camera wherever he goes. Finding photos Some pictures taken over the years stand out for Dr. Weiss. "One of my favorite pictures is a black-and-white picture of a blind patient sitting in our lobby waiting for her ride to come," he said. "I saw her sitting out there and I handheld a couple of shots." When these came out Dr. Weiss felt that they were some of the more stirring that he had taken. Over time he has strived to de- velop his eye for photography. "The thing that I wanted to learn most was to see better," he said. "We look at stuff all the time but are we really seeing things—patterns and some- thing that might make a picture?" Dr. Weiss has been trying to train himself to do this, with varying de- grees of success. Sometimes he finds he stumbles on a prospective photograph. One of the silliest pictures that he ever took involved his career as an ophthal- mologist. "I've got these models of an eye and one of my friends, who is an internist, came in one day; when I went in to see him, he had this 'eye' up in front of his eye," Dr. Weiss said. Dr. Weiss quickly snapped the shot. Dr. Weiss also finds photo- graphic opportunities from other factions of his life. "I've taken some nice pictures of some of the people in the homeless shelter," he said. "I've been running a clinic there for close to 10 years." Dr. Weiss initially got involved in the shelter through a friend who was running it. "I've tried being on boards but I'm not a very good board member," he said. "I thought this was a way that I could give back that has some mean- ing to me and also is a service to the people." While he is there checking patients for glasses, Dr. Weiss likes to wear his photographer's hat and walk around the shelter looking for moving shots. "There are some in- teresting faces there," he said. Patient perspective While he says he doesn't have any definitive style, Dr. Weiss thinks that he is most adept at photographing people. "I have a patient who's a professional photographer and he looked at my work and said, 'I think your people shots are your best ones,'" he said. "But I do whatever strikes me." He finds that a lot of his pa- tients appreciate seeing his photo- graphs around the office. "My wife is a psychotherapist and she and I share an office; she has some of her paintings up and I have some of my photographs," he said. "People ask me, 'Did you take that?' and I talk to them about it—it creates a rapport." Dr. Weiss thinks his photogra- phy has created a nice balance to his career in ophthalmology. "I don't know that it has helped me to be a better ophthalmologist, but it does give me something to do when I'm not working that gives me some sat- isfaction," he said. He urged other ophthalmolo- gists to give it a try. "Just get out there and look at things and shoot," he said. "Or sign up to take a photo course somewhere." There's no telling where a good shot will come from. "We've taken family trips to South America, Europe, and Asia, and it is fun to photograph there, but of course you can find stuff close by as well," Dr. Weiss said. EW Contact information Weiss: weiss01@cox.net February 2012