Tim Irwin’s work as a documentary cinematographer became difficult as his close up vision grew worse, so he contacted Waite Vision for LASIK. Here’s his experience in his own words.
My name’s Tim Irwin, I’m a documentary cinematographer. I’m 50 years old, and I recently had LASIK eye surgery.
I love mountain biking. I love backcountry splitboarding. I love all things outdoors, so I’ve always had in the back of my mind, like, I should probably get LASIK. But I was always freaked out about the idea of having surgery on my eyes because I use a camera for a living.
I was fortunate that I didn’t start losing my close-up vision until I was 48. But once it started to go, it started going really quickly, and I was getting scared, particularly because, at work I found myself pushing the camera farther and farther away from my face just so I could see the screen. And I knew that it was time to do something about it.
So, I called Waite Vision. I really appreciated the approach Dr. Waite took with me. He asked me to bring a camera into the exam room, and that way, while I was looking through the machine that he was making adjustments to, I could hold up the camera and feel confident that, yeah, I’m gonna be able to see the camera. I’m gonna be able to do my job after the surgery. It really made me feel like we were making a customized plan that was gonna work for my specific situation.
Cut away to Tim on a snowy mountain: About halfway up Milby right now. Definitely, a later start than I wanted, but should be able to get some good turns up there today. That’s where we’re headed.
Everything that I love doing got better after the surgery. You know, mountain biking, backcountry splitboarding. Doing these things without having to worry about contacts or glasses, like that was super amazing. But the most important thing to me was the confidence of knowing that I could do my job to the level of performance that I expected of myself, and that was priceless.