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BEHIND THE LENS:An ophthalmic technologist uses her camera skills for art, too.

Myra Nisly Cherchio is a clinical director by day, but maintains a passion for lifestyle photography

BILL KEKEVIAN, SENIOR ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Myra Nisly Cherchio is known as a leader in ophthalmology as the director of clinical operations at St. Luke’s Cataract & Laser Institute in Tarpon Springs, Fla. But when she’s off the clock, she’s focused on a whole different kind of lens: a camera lens. “Photography is my passion,” she says. “It gives me a creative outlet.”

“I consider myself a lifestyle photographer. When I shoot, I usually think in terms of the story behind the photo,” she says. Her work is focused on the beauty of the everyday; the majestic mundane. “I try really hard not to shoot what I want my life to look like, but what it actually is,” she explains. Of the genres she shoots, she enjoys portraits the most. “Nothing makes me happier than when I can show someone how beautiful they are in a photograph. Capturing someone’s personality is the essence of portrait photography. To do that, you have to get to know the person and not rely on forced grins and poses.”

Although she says she doesn’t have a formal training in photography, it’s been an area of fascination since high school, when she received a Kodak point-and-shoot camera as a graduation gift. Back then, she says, developing film was expensive. “I had to ration my shots, which limited my progress,” she says. “In 2005, my husband surprised me with a digital SLR camera and two kit lenses. That opened a whole new world where I could experiment with settings and get instant feedback.”

As someone in a leadership position and occasional dates on the lecture circuit, Ms. Cherchio says her photography hobby has helped her with her career in unexpected ways. “I love street photography. It’s brought me out of my shell to ask a stranger if I can take a picture,” she says. “It’s helped me with public speaking.” It’s also helped her explain eye care. “Most of us have probably used the eye/camera analogy many times with patients. If you get that, you can be a photographer,” she says. “The refractive structures (cornea and lens) make up the focusing system, the pupil is the aperture, and the lids are the shutter.”

“Looking through a lens every day has taught me to see beauty in little things that some people would miss,” she says. She’s willing to go to great lengths to find that beauty. “I don’t mind lying in the dirt if I can get an unusual angle that nobody else saw.” OP