That’s right, I got a staph infection… on my face! Not just on my face, I got a staph infection just above my eye where my camera’s viewfinder sits ON my face. This past October I had shot many weddings, with several more to go, and I got what seemed to be a pimple just above my eye lid but not quite on my eyebrow. This seemed to be a really odd place for a pimple, but eh, who am I to say where someone might get a pimple? I tried popping it. Nothing happened. I lied, it got bigger but didn’t pop. I tried putting a hot compress on it. It got bigger. It hurt so incredibly bad and I had to shoot a private elopement with this “THING” on my face. I as mortified. 

I cried, because good people shouldn’t get giant, monster pimples on their eyeballs! My husband was with me this day assisting and he just kept starring at it, I could just feel it. By the next day the pain was more than I could bare, so finally on day 4 of this beast I caved and went to urgent care. 

I sent these pictures to a friend, a fellow photographer, because it dawned on me that is exactly where my camera sits on my face. I had googled “staph infection” the night before and pretty much thought I was about to go blind (that can actually happen, tho I likely wasn’t in danger of going blind at this point). The infection had started to bubble up under my eye as well. 

The doctor laughed, we all laughed tho I wanted to cry. She drained it with a giant needle after I refused to lance it open and have stitches above my eye. I clearly can’t take selfies with any grace in this state ha! I was sent home with antibiotics for TEN DAYS as the infection had spread and I didn’t want to chance it getting worse. The next day however, it was worse. 

I ended up going back to the doctor to find the infection had festered overnight. In the end we decided to let the antibiotics do their job before panicking. By day 4 of antibiotics (day 8 of the giant beast) I was finally starting to see some improvement! All of this because I rarely cleaned the eye piece on my camera! I never even thought to do such a thing between weddings or family sessions. Cleaning your gear is so important, I don’t know that I’ll ever shoot without a quick alcohol wipe down ever again. For more information on staph infections, how you get them, and staph lives I recommend WebMD…  As for me, I am fully mended but wanted to give a warning, heads up, whatever you’d like to call it to fellow photographers… CLEAN YOUR GEAR!