My personal journey back from blindness.
Full circle.
Today my life seems like it’s made a long lap only to come back to where I started. Fresh off from international high school in Asia, I took a year off to think through my future. Starting as an assistant at a photo studio that was quickly gaining contracts, I ended up as a staff photographer for one of the wedding complexes shooting multiple ceremonies each weekend. Experience gained was priceless, but the truth was that it gradually robbed me of my passion.
Photography then was a completely different beast. It was still an age of film of course. And while I was not expected to shoot 1,500 digital frames for each wedding, I had to produce and capture sets of portraits and moments that were specific to the tiniest detail, develop and print the proofs. Every day, I longed for the freedom to capture and express these precious moments from a more personal perspective than the formula I was paid to create. While quickly racking wedding ceremonies under your belt might sound like an accomplishment, within a year following that first job as a working photographer, I decided to abandon it completely until a life-changing event turned me around many years later.
I did enroll at an Art school to pursue Photography and Design, but quickly left the school after my dismal first quarter and decided to pursue Economics and Math. I know… who’d do something crazy like that?
Fast forward 25+ years and I found myself working for a successful hedge fund in San Francisco; living my dream life with my wonderful family. Following the credit crisis of 2008-11, the hedge fund shuttered and I ended up working for a technology company in Silicon Valley. Life was still good and aside from picking up digital point-and-shoots to take photos of my family and occasional freelancing volunteer work with SLR, I still felt at peace.
All that changed three years ago when I started to experience vision issues out of the blue. My stellar vision had quickly deteriorated and the eye doctors really did not have an answer. Central Serous Retinopathy. That was what the doctors told me I had. Oddly, I did not appear to fit into the profile of patients succumbing to this disease.
Eventually, the more ominous nature of the issue manifested as my condition worsened to a point where I practically lost all of my vision as darkness from the center of my vision expanded to my periphery. An MRI scan finally revealed the root cause of my condition. For cause unknown, I developed a tumor that was so large that its pressure caused deformation of my eye that eventually resulted in internal bleeding beginning with my left eye. After a seven-hour surgery, the tumor was removed completely and the biopsy deemed the tumor non-cancerous. Following another year of eye treatment, I was able to recover my sight (right eye back to 20/20 and left eye at 20/30).
The prospect of becoming blind was just about the scariest thought I had contended with. The gaping darkness I found myself seeing through day after day was nothing I could avoid or dodge. When the darkness finally cleared and I was able to see what was ahead of me, I realized I found a new lease on life. As my eyesight recovered, I began looking through the camera viewfinder again, but this time with a fervent passion to capture what I see for the future.
Coming full circle after so many years where photography is concerned was a revelation. While I had already dabbled with point-and-shoots and learned digital post-processing on my own, I was so excited to experience what technological advancement has brought to digital imaging. Today's technology allows us to do what was considered impossible back when I first started. Striking images can now be taken in light conditions where no one thought it was possible to capture them adequately. With mastery, emotions and expressions veiled in shadows can now be revealed with exquisite detail.
Photography is my passion and I believe any occasion I am asked to capture that most important moment for my client is an honor that I take to my heart. I want to capture images that will be adored not just in one lifetime, but images that tell a personal story for generations. We live our lives as witnesses to one another; as a photographer, I want to give you an opportunity to immortalize that fleeting moment for you, your family and your children.
I am so thankful to have been given a gift of sight and light back into my life.
July 2016.
The Knot
Winner: "The Best of Weddings" Awards for
2017, 2018, 2019, 2020
★★★★★
WeddingWire
Winner: "Couples Choice" Awards for
2017, 2018, 2019, 2020
★★★★★
Vicki & Devin
“It was great working with Toshi on our wedding day! He guided us through the process, and produced amazing photos. He was very flexible about what we wanted, and prepared by visiting the location beforehand. He was very prompt providing the highlights, and the full collection. We're so glad to have had him as our photographer!”
