My assistant

Not.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Future Tense – Smile

This week’s photo challenge is “Future Tense.”

I was about three with my father snapped this photo of me and my two brothers. I have no idea who that usurper in the back is. If you look closely you can see a little lift to the left side of my smile.

That little lift is still there.

Self-Portrait, 2013

Chili Mix

New lens, and, of course, I have to play with it! Canon EF 40mm f/2.8.

Sweetie doing his best hand modeling for some chili mix he got in the mail from Greater Good. You all don’t get to see his goofy side that often.

Shameless Begging

I’m walking again. For me. And everyone like me. As some of you know, I was born with a hole in my heart (atrial septal defect) requiring open heart surgery and other interventions. So while I’ve participated in many kinds of fundraising walks, this particular one is up-close and personal for me and my family. Congenital heart defects are the #1 birth defect in the United States, affecting more than 40,000 babies a year, yet we hardly ever hear about it. Thanks to medical advances, those of us who may have been condemned to an early demise are living well into adulthood and living pretty normal lives but CHD requires a lifetime of care, and so I walk.

This time (April 27th) we’ll be in Sacramento, rather than Oakland. If you’d like to donate to help support the cause, I would really appreciate it. If you would like to spread the word, I would doubly appreciate it.

(If you are interested in my congenital heart defect history, I’ve covered it at my other blog. You can find all posts HERE, but the main explanation of my defect is HERE).

Weekly Photo Challenge: Lunchtime

Every two weeks I pull myself away from my desk to visit the nail salon.

Image

Conversation

How I Spent My Sunday, Part 2

A few more photos from Sunday’s Medical Response Outreach Event (MORE).

Danielle and Cory shared their stories with us. Danielle was compelling and her story would break your heart.

They both were willing to let me photograph their teeth so that we could convey to our elected officials the dire need for services in our community. For obvious reasons, I will not be posting those photographs here.

Jacqui is a home health care nurse. Neither she nor her husband are insured.

Davit has big dreams of making it one day.

Bette (pronounced Betty, she was quick to tell me!) brought her son in for a flu shot and gave me good-natured hell about taking her photo, yet when I asked if I could photograph her with her boys, she proudly sat between them. I’ve got a print all ready to send to her.

Waiting outside the dental van.

How I spent my Sunday

Long-time followers know that I photographed the first ever Medical Outreach Response Event (MORE) last year as my final project for my lighting class. They held the event again this past weekend and I volunteered to shoot the event. They already had a photographer for Saturday so I showed up yesterday. Sunday wasn’t as busy as Saturday, but there was still plenty of need. There are no medical services to speak of in our town. Many of these people are working poor, or disabled, and there are so many hurdles for them to jump over and so many cracks for them to fall through, that the problem feels insurmountable.

Here are just a few shots.

Attendees starting the process at intake. The clients were screened here and directed to the various areas, depending on their need.

They might need dental work, vision care, help with obtaining affordable insurance or low-cost prescription assistance. Or all of the above. There was also an immunization clinic to get people up-to-date on their shots, mental health screening, three dental vans, and the Mammovan was there to provide breast cancer screening.

People shouldn’t have to get their health care in the middle of a high school gymnasium or get their teeth fixed in the parking lot. My country has its priorities all screwed up.