The bean harvest

Behold—the fruits vegetables of my labor!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Green Spring Gardens portfolio

I just updated my Green Spring Gardens-only portfolio on my Zenfolio site. Green Spring Gardens is an endless source of photographic inspiration to me, so I’ve dedicated a folder exclusively to images shot there. Check out that gallery here.

As we’re heading into fall, there are still a few plants left to photograph in my own garden, such as the tiny Speckled Miyazaki Toad Lily (Tricyrtis hirta ‘Miyazaki’), Autumn Joy Sedum (Sedum telephium) and Shasta Daisies (Chrysanthemum maximum) that are blooming in the front yard. Even my Globe Thistle (Echinops Ritro) has started putting out blooms again, which I find odd at this point in the gardening season—I suppose it has something to do with the inordinate amount of rain and consistently temperate days we’ve had here in Northern Virginia. Beginning a week ago, the Heavenly Blue Morning Glory vines in the front yard have produced a single, bedazzingly blue bloom each morning, mingling with the garish red and yellow combo of the Butterly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa) plants nearby. The Morning Glory vines reseed each year with no assistance from me, so I stopped planting new seeds a few years ago!

Although the three vines have been stretching along the grape arbor, I still see no signs of blooms from my new Passionflower plants, but I still hold out that hope that all gardeners learn to cultivate. I planted two Passionflower plants in one pot to trail up the grape arbor outside my patio doors and one in another pot with a trellis near the edge of the patio. Sharing the trellis are at least three green bean vines—unexpected sprouts from a neglected seed packet discovered on my potting bench. (Read my posting about that discovery in “Against all odds” here.) I have since harvested a dozen green beans from those tenacious little sprouts (which translates to “don’t quit your day job to become a green bean farmer”). A photo of my meager bean harvest is to come…

Learn “How to Grow Your Garden Photography Skills” in my recent photo feature for Nikon’s Learn & Explore section here.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Hairy Alumroot

Hairy Alumroot (Heuchera villosa), photographed at Green Spring Gardens; also called Rock Alumroot

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Carpenter bee on Turtlehead bloom

The Turtlehead (Chelone obliqua) is a hardy herbaceous perennial wildflower in the Figwort family (Scrophulariaceae). The flowers are cross-pollinated primarily by bees and I can attest to that because this bank of blooms was swarming with very busy bees. The plant is aptly named because the flowers resemble the head of a turtle. In fact, the botanical name Chelone (rhymes with baloney, Dad) means “tortoise” in Greek. Photographed in the children’s garden at Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria, VA

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

‘Zowie’ Zinnia

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

‘Zowie’ Zinnia

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Purple Muhly Grass

The feathery and ethereal Purple Muhly (Muhlenbergia capillaris) is a Virginia native and is also known as Pink Hairgrass or Gulf Muhly. A North American native ornamental grass, it has blue-green needle-like foliage and can grow 3-4 feet high with a 2-3 foot spread. In the fall, the grass looks like a soft purple cloud from a distance. This sun-loving plant will grow in both drought and wet conditions. Photographed at Green Spring Gardens

© Cindy Dyer. All right reserved.

Sedum and Lantana with Bumblebee

Can you spot the tiny “bonus” bug in this photo? Photographed at Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria, Virginia

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Re-post: Wildflowers in Damariscotta, Maine

Originally posted 8.26.2010

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Iron Chef Bobby Flay and the Sneeze Guard Heiress

This afternoon Barbara and I went to the Westfield Annapolis Mall in Annapolis, MD for a booksigning by Iron Chef and author Bobby Flay at the Williams-Sonoma store. You can learn more about Bobby Flay here.

I have watched every season of the Next Food Network Star, so it was fun to meet one of the judges/hosts in person. Unlike a few well-prepared line-waiters, we did not bring a folding chair. That would have come in so handy. We did get a chance to sample several things from the cookbook—Williams-Sonoma salespeople brought around samples of a pumpkin soup with toasted pumpkin seeds, chives and cranberry-maple creme fraiche (delicious!), a red velvet cupcake (good!), hot potato chips with blue cheese sauce (yum!), and apple chopped salad with toasted walnuts, blue cheese and pomegranate vinaigrette (really, really tasty!).

We stood in line beginning about 1:00 p.m. until we finally got into the store to meet him and have him sign our copies of his latest book, Bobby Flay’s Bar Americain Cookbook. How’s that for perseverance? The last image I shot was time stamped 15:34:36, so we waited exactly 2 hours, 34 minutes and 36 seconds to get the photo of Barbara and Bobby below! Barbara did get a chance to mention to Bobby that she is a Sneeze Guard Heiress (to learn more about that story, click here). Barbara had him sign my book as well, but I had to get the shots! At last count, there were more than 200 copies sold when we made our way through the chain in the store. (Jeff Evans—you would be happy to know that Bobby shares your love of black and white Converse sneakers. He be stylin’!) Check out Barbara’s blog, Kelley Hospitality, here.

The Orphaned Images Project: Gone fishin’

Written around the edges of this photo:

7:30 A.M. In a few minutes he is off with a “fishing only” on a gasoline launch.

Archivist note: Hmmm….

The Orphaned Images Project: School children

Written on the back of this photo (I’m assuming the names go right to left in placement in the photo):

Loretta
Beverly
Clifford
Leighton
Harold
Junior

The Orphaned Images Project: Olive and me

Written on the back of this photo:

They were taken one Sunday morning & we put on something to make us look foolish. Please notice our hats. Olive and I and they do look funny, don’t they?

Re-post: Victoria Harbour, B.C. sunset

Originally posted 9.21.2008

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Re-post: Ah, that September light

Originally posted September 15, 2010

Every fall, I am sadly aware that there will be less and less flowers blooming for me to capture (and in case you hadn’t noticed, it is a passion for me), but the light is always exquisite when I do find a subject to immortalize in pixels. I was drawn to this Mallow flower mostly because of the light behind it, which with a large aperture, morphed into this dreamy soft background with lovely bursts of chartreuse and the rusty browns that fall brings. I’m sure this flower is in the Mallow/Hibiscus family; I just don’t know what variety it is. The flowers are considerably smaller than a “standard” hibiscus, if that helps. Anyone?

Photographed at Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria, Virginia

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Revisiting Nikon Learn & Explore

Nikon is still promoting the article/interview/my photos about photographing your garden. If you missed it, check it out here!

Edgar Eggplant waves goodbye to summer…

Karen bought this “eggplant with an appendage” for me at a local farmer’s market near the lakehouse in Lake Land’Or a few weekends ago. She thought I would be inspired by it and as you can see, I certainly was. Does she know me or what?

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Love, love, LOVE this site!

I subscribe to author and graphic designer guru Chuck Greene’s “Design Links” e-letters and he shared a really great link today.

“Dear Photograph” is a website that showcases old photographs placed in the same scene from the past, accompanied by funny, intriguing and often poignant one or two line letters that begin with “Dear Photograph,” all submitted by people participating in the project. It was created by 21-year-old Taylor Jones and is now an online phenomenon. Time Magazine voted it #7 in the Best Websites of 2011 (click here for that article). Read more about Taylor’s project in this article on msnbc.com here.

I am (slightly) obsessed with recording the lives of my family and friends (sometimes much to their chagrin), as well as retracing the lives of complete strangers in old photographs that I’ve collected (see The Orphaned Images Project here), so this site really resonates with me. Wish I had thought of it! I think I’m going to have to go through my personal photo stash and see if I have some to recreate and contribute to the site. Thanks to Chuck Greene for sharing the link and thanks to Taylor Jones for his creative genius.

http://dearphotograph.com/

I know what you can buy me for my birthday next month! :-)

How uber cool is this? Thanks to my friend F.T. for sharing. Click on the link below to see the newest product from Wacom!

http://www.wacom.com/en/Products/Inkling.aspx?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=Search&utm_campaign=Inkling&gclid=CJzv4c-Pk6sCFcis7QodeHrl6Q

Barbara Garneau Kelley, Sneeze Guard Heiress

Not many people are aware that Barbara Kelley, editor-in-chief of Hearing Loss Magazine and Deputy Executive Director of the Hearing Loss Association of America, is an heiress. This does not mean her bank account is brimming, but it does mean she has a rich and interesting family history.

Barbara shared her family history in a recent publication we worked on for her new venture (looks like she inherited her father’s entrepreneur genes!). Susan Parras, HLAA’s webmaster, told Barbara that a casting agency for the Next Food Network Star series was interviewing potential contestants in Washington, D.C. on August 8. Barbara has wanted to explore doing something fun with hospitality, cooking and entertainment, but hadn’t done anything with it until Susan’s announcement. With my help, Barbara switched into high gear and we prepared a four-page hospitality brochure/resumé as well as a food prep demo video to present to the casting agent.

The impromptu creative session was a good excuse to thoroughly clean my kitchen and get it ready to be a faux cooking show set. I did the video on my little Nikon Coolpix L110 and the results were pretty amazing considering the size of the camera and the fact Barbara performed unscripted, in one take, with no fumbled words! I was pretty impressed with her ad-libbing and ease in front of this (amateur videographer’s) camera. We plan to post it on youtube.com and link to her site soon.

The interview with the casting agent was scheduled for just four minutes long, but the ever-on-her-toes Barbara seized the opportunity to (hopefully) make a lasting impression with the agent. When the woman interviewing her said, “I would shake your hand, but I have a cold,” Barbara took this as her cue to reply, “On the subject of germs, I’m a sneeze guard heiress!” She proceeded to tell the agent about her father’s invention and the family’s background in the food and hospitality business.

In the photo above, Barbara was preparing an original sauce recipe containing tomato, basil (from my garden), garlic, olive oil and brie cheese. She prepared it and left it for me to use with pasta. It was delicious! You can find this recipe on her blog here.

Excerpted from Kelley Hospitality, a four-page promotional brochure that Barbara and I created in record time:

The Sneeze Guard Heiress: A Legacy of Hospitality
I am a sneeze guard heiress. You know the plexiglass thing that is required by law to be over salad bars and buffets? My dad, Johnny Garneau, invented that in 1959. That is my claim to fame. I am one of five kids who grew up with an inventor, entrepreneur, restauranteur, and germaphobic father—kind of like the dad in the movie, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.

My Dad, Johnny Garneau
My dad is folklore. People are shocked to learn that Johnny Garneau was a real person, and that he is still alive and well and working at age 89. Johnny is a dreamer, entrepreneur and entertainer, and most of all a restaurant man. After the war (the big one, WWII), he sat on the bumper of his ’46 Chevy, slapped his hand on his knee and said to my mom, “I’m going to start a restaurant!” And, by golly he did—he opened The Beanery—with curb service and a menu consisting of hot dogs, burgers, fries and shakes in 36 flavors.

In the photo above, Johnny Garneau explains the procedures of his American-style smorgasbord to TV celebrity Jean Connelly of WTAE-TV Channel 4 in Pittsburgh, PA (1961).

The Sneeze Guard is Patented and a Baby is Born
Fast forward to the late fifties when he had successful smorgasbords throughout the Pittsburgh and Cleveland areas. He could not stand the sight of people grazing the buffet, sticking their noses into the food and breathing their germs over the delectables. He called his engineers and had them design the first sneeze guard, one of his many inventions. He received the patent the year I was born. He later went on to open a chain of Johnny Garneau’s Golden Spike Steak Depots in Pennsylvania and Florida.

Sell the Sizzle, Then the Steak!
Johnny was big on this. You get them in the door with your hospitality and presentation—then you sit them down to a good steak. This is how we grew up—making people feel welcome, putting out the best, and making them feel good about themselves. He was inducted into Hospitality magazine’s Hall of Fame in 1969 for outstanding achievements in the food service industry. I was lucky enough to grow up on the heels of this celebrated man.

In the photo above, Barbara (center) is selling drinks and baked goods alongside one of her sisters (who did not inherit the hospitality gene) and one of her brothers (whom she has banished to roast in the sun). Barbara’s other sister owns several restaurants in Florida, so she obviously has the hospitality gene!

While neither of us are sure whether that brief interview will result in her going to the next selection phase, it did spur her on to keep blogging. I helped her set up a blog in WordPress and I now see that I created a monster! She has taken to it like a duck to water and is now blogging regularly about feeding her family, creating new recipes and road trips that revolve around food. I warned her that from here on out, she would look at life and all her experiences as fodder for blogging. She is already making her husband and son wait until she photographs their plates before they can eat. I plan to give her lighting and photography tips to improve her food photography skills. Download the entire brochure in pdf format here: KelleyHospitalityBrochure

Visit Barbara’s hospitality blog at www.barbaragarneaukelley.com. Her latest post is chock full of recipes (Hot Maryland Crab Dip, Spicy Burgers, Melanie’s Peach-Blueberry Crisp, Bagkelley’s Summer Veggies, and Pale Summer cookies) for her second annual Burywood Boyz Fantasy Football draft party.

Barbara’s father didn’t stop at the Sneeze Guard (aka, the covered food service table), though. He also developed the Pretz Roll, a combination pretzel-bagel roll for use by United Airlines, institutions and large chain restaurants. Read more about Johnny Garneau and his inventions in the links below:

http://www.personal.psu.edu/cjg212/tof2000/theinventor.htm

http://www.livestrong.com/article/24876-sneeze-guard/

http://www.cookingjunkies.com/rec-food-cooking/re-baron-beef-pittsburgh-pa-21025.html

Hosta bloom

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Learn how to grow your garden photography skills in my profile by Nikon here.

See more of my botanical images on my zenfolio site here.

Re-post: Blue than blue

Originally posted 2.2.2009

Remember that 1978 hit song, Bluer than Blue, by Michael Johnson? Check out the video on youtube. Kinda low budget video, isn’t it? Ah, well, it’s the song that matters, right? Another song of his that I love is, “The Moon is Still Over Her Shoulder.“

Let’s see—I’ve received three requests in response to my “what color collage next” question. One requested a collage showing variegation. One was a request for the color teal. Uh…thanks for the challenge, gals! And the third one was for blue, which just happened to be the color I was working on! (Jan of Thanks for Today blog and I were on the same wavelength.) I’ll work on those first two (more challenging) requests, but in the interim, here’s a collage of nothin’ but blue. Blue isn’t a really common color in the garden, yet I was surprised I had enough images in that color to create this collage. I would love to be able to grow the extra-heat-sensitive-needs-cool-rainy-summers (which we don’t have in Northern Virginia) lovely sky-blue Himalayan Blue Poppy (Meconopsis betonicifolia), a native of southeastern Tibet.

Other blue flowers include:

Statice
Sea holly (Eryngium-–which I grow in my garden—and it is a beauty)
Hydrangea
Delphiniums
Chicory (shown below)
Love-in-a-mist (Nigella—shown below)
Cornflower
‘Heavenly Blue’ Morning Glory (shown below)
Forget-me-not
Bearded iris
Himalayan blue poppy (there are other shades of blue poppies as well)
Scabiosa (beautiful pale blue; I’ve grown them but they flop over too soon!)
Scilla
Veronica Speedwell
Globe thistle (Echinops)—I have several of these in my front garden
Muscari (grape hyacinth—some varieties lean more toward blue than deep purple)
Pride of Madeira (leans toward purple-blue—unbelievably beautiful plant—wish it would grow in our area)

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Nursery Web Spider on Japanese White Anemone

The late afternoon light illuminating this Japanese White Anemone bloom is what first caught my eye. Then I noticed the spider. At first glance, I thought, “what an unusual spider with extra antennae and a striped head.” It wasn’t until I looked through my macro lens that I saw what it really was—a Nursery Web Spider (I’m fairly confident with the i.d.) consuming a Hoverfly for dinner! Alas, poor Hoverfly. (Of course, spiders have to eat, too). Photographed at Green Spring Gardens

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

The Orphaned Images Project: The Altizer family

The caption on the back of this photo reads, “The Altizer family, including Shep.” I can assume this branch of the Altizer family was from Virginia (since the photos were sold by a seller in Virginia). I did a quick search in Google for the family name and came up with lots of information, including a comprehensive genealogy website prepared by Jay Altizer. Perhaps Jay might know what generation of Altizers this family is! Click here to learn more about the Altizer family.

The Orphaned Images Project: Home

The caption on the back reads, “Mar. 20, 1938 Home (at their home)

The guy second from left looks a little scary, doesn’t he?

The Orphaned Images Project: Giant teacher, little desk

This photo was one of more than 600 b&w prints I purchased on eBay from a seller in Virginia. Many of the photos from this collection have captions (thought this one does not) and most are dated from the 30s to the 40s. To learn more about The Orphaned Images Project, click here and to see more orphaned images, click here.

Lycoris radiata (Red Spider Lily)

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Lycoris radiata (Red Spider Lily)

This lovely perennial, also known as Spider Lily and Naked Lily, is a member of the Amaryllis family and was introduced to the U.S. in 1854 by Captain William Roberts with just three bulbs he acquired in Japan. I photographed this bloom this afternoon at Green Spring Gardens.

Learn “How to Grow Your Garden Photography Skills” in my recent profile with Nikon here.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Seen & Heard debuts in Hearing Loss Magazine!

Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA) members Danielle Nicosia and John Kinstler are my first Seen & Heard profiles in the Hearing Loss Magazine (September/October 2011 issue). I came up with the idea as a way to profile even more HLAA members in the magazine.

I photographed 48 (!) members (in just three hours!) in Crystal City, Virginia during HLAA’s annual convention this past June. I had help from my two able assistants, Michael Schwehr and Ed Fagan. Some members posed solo, some with their spouses, some with friends and some with a sister or daughter.

I prepared a questionnaire with more than 30 questions (some fun, some insightful) for each participant and we’ve got some great profiles in the works for future issues of the magazine. I included basic information such as name, birth date, home base, origin of hearing loss, etc., as well as questions about jobs, hobbies, family, favorite things, sage advice, life lessons learned, etc. I then picked my favorite answers from each questionnaire and paired them with a great portrait of that member.

I’ll try to fit in at least one profile per issue, but space-permitting, we may be able to include two (like we did with this issue). For those of you who had in-depth and very detailed responses, don’t be too surprised if your profile warranted a two-page spread! You can download and read Danielle and John’s complete profiles here: Danielle&JohnProfiles

Danielle wins a gold star for being first to respond to the “call for entries” via my Facebook promo, first to submit her answers and first in line for her portrait. Thanks for participating, Danielle and John!

(Oh, and to John, a fellow John Denver fan—I learned to play “Looking for Space” on the piano when I was a teenager. It’s one of my favorite songs of his to sing!)

Excerpts from “Looking for Space” (lyrics by John Denver)

On the road of experience, I’m trying to find my own way
Sometimes I wish that I could fly away
When I think that I’m moving, suddently things stand still
I’m afraid ’cause I think they always will

And I’m looking for space
And to find out who I am
And I’m looking to know and understand
It’s a sweet, sweet dream
Sometimes I’m almost there
Sometimes I fly like an eagle
And sometimes I’m deep in despair

All alone in the universe, sometimes that’s how it seems
I get lost in the sadness and the screams
Then I look in the center, suddenly everything’s clear
I find myself in the sunshine and my dreams

Photos © Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Michael Eury, Superhero

Michael Eury is our cover feature article for the September/October 2011 issue of Hearing Loss Magazine, which I design and produce bimonthly for the Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA). Michael approached Barbara Kelley (the editor-in-chief) and me this past spring and proposed writing his story for the magazine and pitched an idea for a conceptual cover. We’re so excited with the results of our collaboration. (Congratulations and accolades to HLAA and their webmaster, Susan Parras, for the recent debut of the beautifully redesigned website here. Of course, I’m kind of partial to the changing “billboard” photos since they’re mine!)

Binder Clips, Booth Curtains, Wire and a Whole Lot of Enthusiasm!
With the help of my trusty sidekicks Michael Schwehr and Ed Fagan, not to mention a very willing model, I think we pulled off the concept brilliantly! Although Michael Eury was prepared with his Clark Kent suit, glasses and superhero demeanor, neither of us remembered to bring the infamous red satin cape. I was also hired to photograph the HLAA Convention, set up a few cover shoots and begin my newest addition to the magazine—a one-page 20+ questions member profile series called “Seen & Heard,” which also debuts in this issue. I knew I had some red satin in my fabric stash, but in the mad rush to get everything ready, it fell off my radar.

So, since necessity is the mother of invention, I dispatched Ed to “borrow” a burgundy convention booth drape to serve as a cape (with the color and texture modified afterward in Photoshop to the requisite glowing red, of course). With the aid of wire and binder clips and Michael and Ed serving as puppeteers, we had our Superhero flying in no time. I also bent a thick wire through Michael’s tie to really show him in action.

We couldn’t have had a better subject—it’s been his childhood dream to be a superhero, and he said we made his dream come true, if only for a couple of hours. His enthusiasm was contagious and his expressions would rival those of Jim Carrey! After viewing a few of the cover shots on my screen, I told him, “you really look like Charlie Sheen in some of these.” Then I added, “before the booze, ladies of the night and W-I-N-N-I-N-G, of course!” We’re so happy with the photos and Michael’s well-written article was the perfect complement. I’ve reprinted his article below, but you can see it in layout form by downloading the pdf file here: MichaelEurySuperhero. All photos © Cindy Dyer

by Michael Eury

I look nothing like Lois Lane, but I was saved by Superman! And today, like DC Comics’ legendary Man of Steel, I am also a superhero, the realization of a lifelong dream. Believe it or not, I have my adult-onset hearing loss to thank for this. But as with any superhero’s story, we must begin with…an origin!

Who He Is and How He Came to Be
I was not rocketed to Earth from a dying planet, nor have I been mutated by radiation (at least not to my knowledge). Instead, I was born in Concord, North Carolina, and grew up during the 1960s, the tumultuous decade when Americans wrestled with the ugliness of real-world crises by ducking for cover inside fantasy realms of bubblegum music, flashy pop-culture heroes, and cornball comedies.

On January 12, 1966, my life was forever changed when, as an impressionable third grader, I watched the first episode of ABC-TV’s Batman. My parents cackled when Adam West as Batman shimmied the “Batusi” on a dance floor, having been drugged by Molly (Jill St. John), the girlfriend of the Riddler (Frank Gorshin). In my young mind I thought my parents were suffering from some type of dementia—couldn’t they see that Batman was in peril? Mom and Dad, Batman’s acting weird because he was slipped a mickey by Molly. There’s nothing funny about this! What’s wrong with you people?!

Batman in 1966 opened a gateway to other superheroes and I became a voracious reader of comic books, learning the lore of Superman, the Justice League of America, Spider-Man, and the Fantastic Four. Ask me to calculate a percentage or name the capital of Kansas and I’d respond with a blank stare, but I could tell you without hesitation that Gingold was the name of the serum consumed by Ralph Dibny to turn him into the Elongated Man, and on the backwards Bizarro World, Bizarros said “goodbye” when they meant “hello.”

I learned to appreciate the “camp” humor of TV’s Batman, but never outgrew my love of superheroes. Throughout adolescence I trekked each week to newsstands and convenience stores, searching for new “funnybooks.” I also wrote and drew my own comic books, crudely penciled on typing paper and hand-lettered in ballpoint ink and shared with fellow students. My comics starred my classmates as superheroes, their superpowers usually based upon a sophomoric nickname or trait.

The kid with a long neck (“Weasel”) became Weaselman, with the power to stretch his neck great distances, and a buddy renowned for hurling spit wads at classroom clocks became Wonder Wad! These and other homegrown superheroes (I couldn’t draw girls, so there were no superheroines) occasionally banded together as the Concord Crusaders.

As graduation approached, in my heart I wanted to study creative writing and art and become a professional comic book writer/artist, but played it safe by opting for Plan B: becoming a band director. Music was my other passion, and I played trombone in every ensemble available. And thus, in fall 1975, I became a music education major at East Carolina University (ECU). Throughout college, however, I continued to read comic books.

Look! Up in the Sky!
I was at ECU in December 1978 when another life-altering superhero experience happened: my first viewing of Superman: The Movie, starring Christopher Reeve, whose likable portrayal of the Last Son of Krypton convinced millions that “You’ll believe a man can fly.” I saw Superman multiple times. Reeve as Superman became my hero.

I graduated from ECU in 1980 and took a job teaching middle and high school band in eastern North Carolina. And I hated it. I had blundered into the wrong career. I taught for only a semester, quitting and returning home. During the early 1980s I worked as a substitute teacher, cable-access TV cameraman and talent, record and video stores clerk, graveyard shift convenience store clerk, singing telegrams messenger, comedy-improv group performer, and freelance writer for small press publications and community newspapers. I was able to leap from one dead-end job to another in a single bound!

My one success during this period of instability was finding the love of my life, Rose. We met in 1984 as co-workers at Monkey Business Singing Telegrams in Charlotte, North Carolina, and had an instant chemistry. After a year and half of dodging our feelings for each other, in January 1986 we could no longer ignore what was intended to be and have since lived happily ever after.

Throughout my mid-twenties, Superman begat movie sequels, and my obsession deepened. I even nurtured fantasies about being Superman! I dreamt of flying to the rescue of those in need. Inspired by the examples of superheroes, I had an innate desire to do good for others but lacked the maturity to cultivate a pragmatic way of realizing that desire.

My Own Private Kryptonite
A hero is generally defined by his archenemy. As I aged into my thirties, a supervillain conspired to topple me. My foe did not operate from a subterranean lair, nor did he hire underlings with henchmen names embroidered on their sweatshirts.

Instead, this insidious mastermind quietly employed covert tactics. He began his assault as an embezzler, secreting away sounds—a consonant here, a high pitch there. He sometimes brandished weapons of mass destruction—otosclerosis, tinnitus, and noise exposure. His attacks, however, were gradual and unannounced, allowing me to make minor lifestyle adjustments along the way. I did not realize—until it was too late!—the havoc he had wreaked. The name of this scoundrel? Hearing loss.

In January 1988 my long-time passion for comic books finally blossomed into a vocation. I took a job as an assistant editor at a small publisher called Comico the Comic Company, in Norristown, Pennsylvania. It was here that I was first bothered by hearing problems, especially in restaurants, where I learned to position myself with my “good ear” facing the table’s conversation.

In the summer of 1989 I landed my dream job: I became an editor at DC Comics, the publisher of Superman and Batman. DC Comics, headquartered in midtown Manhattan, was a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Living in the Big Apple and working for an entertainment empire was an exhilarating experience for this small-town southern boy!

Within eight months I had been promoted to editorial management, working as the assistant to Vice President/Editorial Director Dick Giordano, and seemed to be on the fast track. A few freelancers called me the “heir apparent” of the editorial department, the “guy to get to know.” (An aside about my boss: Dick, coincidentally, was profoundly hard of hearing. We often held private conversations in the elevator so I could speak loudly enough for him to understand me without being overheard by editors loitering outside his office door.)

I began having difficulties processing information. When people would speak to me while I was on the phone, their comments, heard through my “bad ear,” were muffled. DC’s president had a high-pitched, soft voice, and I rarely understood what she said. I began to mishear in editorial meetings, and some colleagues questioned my competence or sobriety. A few editors still stinging from my promotion took advantage of my unsteadiness and bullied me. My self-confidence, along with my hearing, was fading away.

Of course, a true hero would rise above such adversity. I was not heroic in any way. I allowed my progressive hearing loss to crush my spirit, and the bullies and professional stress to make me miserable. Three years after taking my dream job, I resigned from it and slunk back home to be a freelance writer of comic books, a job I could do without having to rely upon my failing hearing.

Trapped in the Phantom Zone
Rose and I spent the summer of 1992 in New Bern, North Carolina, in a house my grandfather had built decades earlier. The house was in disrepair, souring my disposition, and culture shock also waylaid me. I was extremely unhappy and anxious to retreat.

That fall we moved—again!—to Philadelphia, to familiar territory and friends. I was depressed, however, although I usually put on a happy face to friends, keeping most folks at arm’s length. My depression adversely affected my work, and writing assignments withered away. I accepted an editorial position at Dark Horse Comics in the Portland, Oregon, suburb of Milwaukie, and, in August 1993, Rose and I moved from the East to the West Coast.

Once again in an office environment, the pattern from my DC Comics job replayed itself. I was quickly promoted into management, becoming a “group editor” (overseeing an entire line of titles and staff), but fell prey to communication breakdowns. Some editors considered me aloof because I didn’t hang out with them, or rude because I sometimes didn’t answer when they addressed me from a distance or from behind. The day that one of Dark Horse’s executives—a low-talker—mumbled a question that I answered inappropriately, earning a bewildered gape from him; I realized that I could no longer deny my problem.

In spring 1994 I visited an audiologist, had a hearing test, was diagnosed with otosclerosis, and acquired an analog full-shell hearing aid for my right ear. This helped me hear some of the things I had been missing, but did not cure my depression. Actually, I choked on self-pity when I first wore the aid, whining that I was going deaf and would one day be left with nothing but that incessant ringing (tinnitus) in my ears!

I was also having difficulty modulating the volume of my voice. Sometimes I’d speak too loudly, and sometimes, too softly. I remember being at a gathering in a noisy Portland nightclub and greeting an old friend from behind. He didn’t hear me, I was speaking so softly. I repeated myself and it wasn’t until he saw me that he noticed I was there. He called me “the Invisible Man.” While I’d wanted a superpower, invisibility wasn’t it.

On May 27, 1995, my hero, Christopher Reeve, had a horseback-riding accident that left him a quadriplegic, forever banishing him to a wheelchair. Through the support of his family, he “stood tall” as an advocate for people with spinal cord injuries. What an inspiration he was! Reeve truly became a superman.

While I was impressed, I wasn’t prompted to fully address my own disability. In the fall of 1995, I resigned from my staff job and once again retreated into the quiet world of freelance writing. My hearing loss worsened, and so did my attitude. I was also aging out of comics, finding less and less work. I came close to breaking into writing for animation, but that was predicated upon relocating to Los Angeles, a move my wife and I considered ill-advised.

By the late 1990s, I felt that I was a failure and rarely connected with others. I continued to reside in Oregon, more than 3,000 miles away from family and old friends who didn’t have to witness my shortcomings. And I was drowning in despair about my hearing loss. I blamed God for it—hearing is one of our vital senses, and, like air, should always be there, right? At least that was my thinking at the time. At my lowest, I took my Bible—the same Bible I had studied for years, one that was saturated with yellow-highlighted passages—and chucked it into the trash can. I reasoned that God had forsaken me by allowing my hearing to pull a vanishing act, so this was my way of returning the “favor.”

Summoned into Action
In 1999, I took a part-time job as a clerk at a small community-based corporation in Lake Oswego, Oregon, where Rose and I had settled. My hearing worsened. My job involved dealing with the public, and some folks had little patience for someone with a disability. I remember one woman rudely biting my head off after my mishearing of a name.

Still, I began to regain some confidence and became the part-time communications director of this organization. I started wearing two in-the-canal digital hearing aids, which I purchased in 2001 once my single analog was no longer cutting it.

I also inched my way back into publishing, in 2002 producing my first book, the history of a collectible toy. Another book followed the next year. My publisher offered me the opportunity to edit a start-up magazine that would examine comic books and related media of the 1970s and 1980s.

In summer 2003 I became a full-time freelance writer and editor with no shortage of work. Professionally, things were looking up, but I worked from my Fortress of Solitude, limiting my face-to-face contact with others. Hearing loss had become my kryptonite, and I was embarrassed by my condition. I grew my hair long to conceal my hearing aids.

Online I discovered SHHH–Self Help for Hard of Hearing People, the original name of the Hearing Loss Association of America. There was a chapter in Lake Oswego, and one in Portland. I marked their meeting dates in my calendar and swore I’d attend. But when these dates would roll around, I’d find an excuse not to go.

That was my life—not taking ownership of my hearing loss, not learning how to cope with it. I had become a pale imitation of the person I was before I lost my hearing.

And then Superman came to my rescue!

Christopher Reeve died on October 10, 2004, nine years after his debilitating injury. Reeve’s death affected me deeply. I’d never met the man, but it was like I had lost a close friend or brother. Then my grief morphed into something else … a sensation of peace, and of empowerment.

I firmly believe that God used Christopher Reeve as an “angel” to send me a message about dealing with my hearing loss. At that transformational moment, I stopped bellyaching, “Why me?” but instead pondered the question, “What do I do next?”

The answer to my question led me to the next meeting of the Clackamas County, Oregon, SHHH Chapter, which happened to be a hearing resource fair held at the Chapter’s meeting site at the Lake Oswego Senior Center. I learned a great deal about assistive listening devices; was inspired by a speech by David Viers, then the Oregon state president of SHHH (and who soon became my friend); and met other people like me! At the end of the meeting I asked the program director, Ed Larson, if I could join the chapter—I thought I might be too young, since most of the others in the room had gray hair! Not only did he say yes, he recruited me to replace him as program director, since he was moving into a retirement village in a different city. Ed detected a fire within me that I had thought long extinguished.

At the next chapter meeting, Ed introduced me to the group as a “godsend.” I dismissed that remark, but now realize that I was sent there for a higher purpose. I knew absolutely nothing about shaping programs for people with hearing loss—my motivation was initially one individual’s search for information—but having been thrown into the deep end, this time, unlike my previous challenges, I did not quit. The questions I had about hearing loss became program topics, and through curiosity and the help of other SHHH leaders and professionals, I made contacts and booked speakers.

And there I learned a lesson that has since enriched my life: helping people is the path to happiness. As program director, and later president, of that chapter, I was able to console and guide many who felt marginalized by their hearing loss.

Before long I joined the Oregon SHHH (and later, HLAA, post-name change) Board of Trustees and edited the statewide newsletter. After Rose and I decided to return home to North Carolina in September 2007, I became an at-large member of the Board of Trustees of the Hearing Loss Association of North Carolina and the editor of its statewide newsletter. In 2008 I was elected state president, an office I am honored to maintain today.

Below: This Superman take-off, “Super-Antics,” by cartoonist Kerry Callen (kerrycallen.blogspot.com), shows that even a Man of Steel occasionally mishears! SupermanTM DC Comics. Used with permission.

Wanted: More Superheroes!
So how does this make me a superhero? A superhero is someone who does not give up, no matter the odds, and who does what he or she can to help others. Christopher Reeve certainly could have hidden from the spotlight after his accident. The man could not breathe without a respirator, yet he rose above his bodily prison to show us all that you don’t have to be “more powerful than a locomotive” to be a Man of Steel.

My conversion from a self-pitying introvert with hearing loss to a self-confident extrovert with hearing loss opened other doors for me. While I was looking for a community-service project, fate led me to accept a part-time job as executive director of my county’s historical nonprofit organization. I was concerned that my hearing loss might once again work against me, but my wonderful wife encouraged me to move forward.

And I’m so happy I did! My hearing loss has created an occasional hurdle, but I’m now in my fourth year overseeing the preservation of my community’s heritage. From young adults to veterans to senior citizens, I’m routinely showered with gratitude from people who are thrilled that I care about their past. My job has also led me to volunteer with civic organizations such as the Rotary Club, the public library, and my church.

You see, this is my superpower: community service. While I may be painting a portrait of altruism here, I admit that there remains a hint of selfishness behind my motivation: Nothing I’ve ever done before has made me feel so good!

Not long ago, I created for HLA-NC a leadership program called “Invisible No More,” which encourages people with hearing loss to stop hiding their condition. This program has been shared with national leaders and is available on the HLAA website. An important component of “Invisible No More” is the contention that it is the moral imperative of HLAA leaders to help others who have yet to reach our level of confidence or enlightenment.

And so, I invite you to become a superhero, too. Be proud of who you are. Seek guidance and resources to help you communicate and participate in life. Do not give up, no matter how insurmountable the odds may seem. You may not be able to “leap tall buildings in a single bound,” but you will soar to new heights. This, I promise you—and you know Superman would never tell a lie!

Michael Eury wears binaural hearing aids and has been a member of HLAA since 2005. He is the state president of HLA-NC and is a 2011 recipient of the Spirit of HLAA Award. He lives in Concord, North Carolina, with his wife, Rose, who has loyally stood by his side during his journey through life with hearing loss. Contact Michael at euryman@gmail.com and visit HLA-NC’s website at www.nchearingloss.org.

Books by Michael Eury
Michael is the editor of Back Issue, a comics history magazine published eight times a year by TwoMorrows Publishing of Raleigh, North Carolina. Visit their website at www.twomorrows.com. Back Issue premiered in November 2003.

Images of America: Concord (Arcadia Publishing, 2011)
Captain Action: The Original Super-Hero Action Figure: Revised Second Edition
(TwoMorrows, 2009)
The Batcave Companion (with co-writer Michael Kronenberg) (TwoMorrows, 2009)
Adventures of the Mask Omnibus (Dark Horse Comics, 2009)
Comics Gone Ape: The Missing Link to Primates in Comics (TwoMorrows, 2007)
The Krypton Companion (TwoMorrows, 2006)
The Supervillain Book (with co-editor Gina Misiroglu) (Visible Ink, 2006)
The Justice League Companion (TwoMorrows, 2005)
Bugs Bunny: What’s Up, Doc? (contributing writer) (DC Comics, 2005)
Daffy Duck: You’re Despicable! (contributing writer) (DC Comics, 2005)
The Superhero Book: The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Comic-Book Icons and Hollywood Heroes (contributing writer) (Visible Ink, 2004)
Dick Giordano: Changing Comics, One Day At a Time (TwoMorrows, 2003)
Captain Action: The Original Super-Hero Action Figure (TwoMorrows, 2002)