Doctor Doctor…

As I’ve mentioned many many times on here, I shoot quite a bit of medical related photos for the Indiana Nursing Quarterly magazine.  This last issue ended up being quite the challenge for me though, not because of any specific content; but the lack there of.

(Canon 5D Mark II, 640ISO, Canon EF 24-70F2.8L@54mm. 1/80th@F3.5.  Canon 580EX Speedlight behind camera left pointed into the wall set to 1/16th power zoomed all the way out with a 1/2 CTO.  I used the High ISO and the low power flash to bring back the Blue from the neato flashlight, otherwise I’d have increased the power to shoot at a lower Sensitivity.  Flash fired by Pocket Wizard Plus II Transceivers)

That’s Nurse Megan Brown from St. Vincent Hospital here in Indianapolis.  She works specifically with police officers and victims of Sexual crimes.  She was the one who comforted the victims by determining as much as she could about their injuries in order to try and find the perpetrator.  Taking hair samples, fluid samples, the flashlight in the image above is actually very similar to a “black light” for use on people as everybody jokes around about using it on bedsheets in college dorm rooms.  The whole process was very interesting, and I guess I never realized the attention detail that went into the collection of evidence of this kind.  There were swabs, bags, and labels for EVERYTHING…

(Canon 5D Mark II, 50ISO, Canon 24-70F2.8L@60mm.  1/200th@F10.  Canon 580EX Speedlight on a stand to camera left pointed almost straight down at the scene.  Speedlight set to 1/8th power zoomed to 105mm with a 1/2 CTB.  Flash Triggered by Pocket Wizard PLUS II Transceivers)

One of the much more specific requests in the series of assignments was to get a photo inside of a crime lab.  I’ll have you know, that crime labs look quite a bit like any other lab does………oh wait.  I never found one.  That shot above is as close as I got to a crime lab, and it was on a table next to that scary chair with the stirrups that some doctors offices have.  The special blue flashlight set the tone, and a little bit of added blue from the camera made the rest.  Personally that’s how I envision a crime lab right? All sorts of blue CSI Style?  Either way, the shot did what it needed to do, which was show that there are people out there to help if someone has been abused, or assaulted.  Something that isn’t issue specific, but a point that I have learned over the last few years of doing this is that when someone says they feel nurses are very unappreciated; they are most certainly correct.

(Nikon D3s, 200ISO, Nikon 24mm F1.4N, 1/125th@F1.4.  Nikon SB900 to camera right shot through a Fotorosa 16″ Softbox, set to TTL, fired by a Pocket Wizard Flex TT5 triggered by a Pocket Wizard MiniTT1 on the camera)

A great example of this would be Carol Meyers here.  She was hand painting individually several paintings to sell to raise money for the Japanese Tsunami near the time of this photo’s creation.  She was painting them by hand.  Individually.  40 of them as I recall.  She was a nurse who even in retirement is still trying to help people.  She keeps a Studio in the Stutz building, and while really doesn’t make any money doing this (as she’s retired), she has several donors that help her continue her work in helping people.  Not just private donors either.  Companies the likes of Eli Lilly, make sure that even though she is retired she is continuing to make her mark on those that need her.  It’s amazing what people can and will do if given a chance isn’t it?  More Soon.