By Michel Fike
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Prior to 2008, James Eddy was a busy Lassen County surveyor with no camera and a wife who thought he really needed a hobby. In March that year, he experienced blind spots and bleeding in his eyes leading to a diagnosis of imminently life threatening blood cancer. And that is when everything changed. After a year fighting acute myclogenous leukemia (AML), Debbie, Jim’s wife, took him to Best Buy to replace the family camera that had been stolen long years before, and kept talking a “hobby” and a new focus in life. Today, Jim is in remission and he and Debbie have spent the past five years transforming his life. Although he still does surveying jobs, Jim is now better known as a landscaped photographe,r dedicated to capturing moments and memories. “I do see things differently today, both in a more spiritual sense and in a real physical sense. My desire is that some might be inspired by what I see and how I choose to let the camera capture it.” Inspired by Gavin Hoey, Digital Photo magazine, Scott Kelby and others, Jim uses the camera and Photoshop to capture the beauty of places as diverse as Lassen County, the Oregon Coast, and Hawaii. His photos have been featured at the Lassen County Arts Council Gallery and The Lassen County Fair this summer. Readers can see more of his work online at www.jimmyqphoto.com.
