#OceanShoot2017

This year we decided the team at Ocean deserved some proper staff photos. No more Instagram selfies (those filters are so forgiving!), but something that makes it clear we’re proud to be unique with our own sense of style. The results were amazing, and this is the story behind those great shots. 

We’re fortunate in Halifax that there are so many great businesses, especially downtown, but Applehead Studios is a standout company.  If you’re not aware of their work, you should be, it’s amazing!  They’re highly-regarded for their beautiful wedding photography, but they can do so much more and we gave them permission to give us the Applehead treatment ... complete creative free reign. Were we nervous, absolutely!

An easy rapport was struck because we both respect what each other does. They were grinning that we didn’t want the usual straight-laced headshots for corporate clients and politicians. No, we wanted something creative to capture not just what we do but some of our spirit. Ocean Optometry has always been something more than testing eyes and selling glasses. We aspire to help our customers express themselves and provide real care in everything we do.

For us, testing eyes isn’t just our job. You only have one pair of eyes and so our exams are thorough with an unusual attention to detail, but a key difference is how we make them personal. We appreciate that you’re unique and so a conveyor belt approach doesn’t fit with our ethos. Also, you might of noticed, we LOVE eyewear. We don’t do off-the-shelf products with brands attached to sell you an image. People come to us for the finest eyewear, and we give it to them. On our shelves you’ll find pieces made by artisan craftsmen, with the beautiful acetates, titanium, horn, and wood. Naturally, we use the best ophthalmic lenses too. This is another thing that ourselves and Applehead agree on, the optics produced by Nikon in both their camera technology and their spectacle lens technology is astounding.  Your eyes will thank you, and they’re welcome.

We wanted to ensure that the photographs captured something of the individual people, a geek, a biker, a reader and an outdoorsman; that they captured the essence of Ocean Optometry.  Having traveled an ocean to get here, we’re proud of our new home, and wanted to capture this with a strong reference to the history of Nova Scotia and its connection with the sea.

After many ideas, the concept was decided upon and we’re pleased to introduce:

#OceanShoot2017 – The Fishing Shack

Set in a timeless moment, perhaps early in the morning, eyes full of optimism for the day ahead.  A classic scene, peaceful and enduring, where victories aren’t easily won, but gratefully earned.

The sea salt is ingrained in every pixel, a sense of excited expectation palatable in the air.

Just beware of the seagull.

Mike Bonang

Alicia Austin

Dr. Euan McGinty

Dr. John Wilson

Outdoorsman

Reader

Geek

Biker

Many thanks to Applehead Studio for knocking this one out of the park!

The Coast's Best of Halifax 2017

We make no bones about it, we love being part of the community of Halifax and, in particular, in playing our role as a downtown business.  We also love being in Nova Scotia, our connection with the sea is a strong one!

Practicing optometry in Nova Scotia means that we have to comply with the Standards of Practice for Optometry set by the Nova Scotia College of Optometrists (NSCO).  As such, we have just received a news bulletin from the College which makes it very clear that we cannot participate in any "Best of" award run by media or organisations such as the Chambers of Commerce.

We have only been open for four years and in that short time we have been fortunate to have been nominated for a Chamber of Commerce Best New Business award and several of The Coast's "Best of Halifax" award.  Once again we have been nominated for The Coast's "Best of" awards (although as we placed Gold last year, we were also automatically included).

Having received the above recent communication for the NSCO, we immediately contacted The Coast to ensure that we are withdrawn from their awards.

We are very grateful for everyone who has thought us worthy of their vote and their support since we opened just a few years ago and it is with much regret that we have to withdraw from the contest. 

We never opened Ocean Optometry to win awards though, we opened with the desire to bring the world's finest eyewear made by independent companies to Halifax and to provide excellent optometric care for our patients.  We have done this without relying on promotions, discounts or specials; believing that people appreciate fair and reasonable pricing without gizmos and giveaways.

We wish everyone participating The Coast's Best of Halifax 2017 awards well, we would encourage you to vote for your favourite businesses, venues, places and fine folks. More importantly, we'd encourage you to support the many great local independent business that Halifax has with your custom!

Best of luck, everyone, and thank you for your ongoing support.

Contact lens wearers are all idiots!

There, he said it!

A series of recent encounters with contact lens wearers coming to us for the first time has led our optometrist, Dr. Euan McGinty, to this conclusion, shall we find out why?

Dr. McGinty writes:-

The eye is perhaps the most exquisitely sensitive organ in the body, one which provides information that we are highly dependent upon.  Lets take some cold hard facts - 40% of all nerve fibres connected to the brain are linked to the retina.  More of our neurons are dedicated to vision than the four other senses combined.  When our eyes are open, vision accounts for two thirds of the electrical activity in our brain.

There's no denying it, we like to see!

Contact lenses can be a great way to correct our vision and we now have options available to cover most prescriptions and eye-curvatures.

Over the years I have been practicing as an optometrist, perhaps the best single factor in contact lens development has been the move disposable contact lenses.  Compared to years ago, the frequent disposal of contact lenses has dramatically reduced the number of complications I see day-to-day related to the wear of contact lenses.

Disposable lenses are much safer

Studies have shown the compliance with proper contact lens care improves dramatically with the use of disposable lenses and, by a long margin, the best regime is single-use daily disposable lenses.

I was recently discussing this with a contact lens patient who we were refitting with new lenses.  This person had been running in to problems with discomfort, red eyes and variable vision with his regular contact lens regime.

As we discussed all of the options, two things became apparent - firstly, that the idea of single-use daily disposable lenses was something this patient was very keen on and; secondly, that although the current lenses being used were monthly disposable lenses, these had routinely been used for in excess of a month.

Let's make one thing clear, daily lenses are to be used for one day, two-weekly lenses for two weeks and monthly lenses for one month.  That's from when you open the packet until you throw them away, it is not two-weeks' or a month of "wears".

There was no doubt that a lot of issues had arisen for this patient due to the poor contact lens regime and that sorting out the routine, in terms of lens renewal, hygiene and cleaning and also ensuring a good contact lens fit would resolve a lot of the issues.

We really were tempted to switch out to a single-use daily disposable lens, for him the fresh-lens comfort every day was great and for me the excellent safety profile was highly desirable.

The stumbling point? 

Price.

This then caused quite a moment of humour as we realised that purchasing daily disposable lenses would be a third less in cost compared to the cup of coffee that he had come in with and that he picks up every day.  The difference is that you don't buy a year's worth of coffee all in one transaction.

He'd never thought about it in those terms, however, with a bit of perspective it became apparent that great vision and healthy eyes were at least as important as his daily cup of Joe.

If you hear hooves, don't think of zebras

The second encounter which really led me to the conclusion that all contact lens wearers are idiots was a lady who was scheduled for an eye examination.  She contacted us on the day of the eye examination to cancel and reschedule, she had a red-eye.  We suggested that this would be an ideal time to see her optometrist, however, for whatever reason, she didn't want to do so.

I then saw her two weeks later.  We were chatting about her eyes and her recent red eye, she was quite frustrated by it.  She was sure that there must have been a faulty contact lens, or an issue with her solutions.  She had just opened up a new set of lenses and put them in, so they must be to blame.  She stopped wearing them, used some over the counter antibiotic eye drops and it had eventually resolved.  So, in her mind, it was definitely the contact lens's fault.

I examined her eyes and noticed a corneal scar in her eye that had been the affected one.  In my assessment this had been a recent corneal ulcer and she was fortunate that it had resolved, as they have the potential to be quite damaging, especially when associated with contact lens wear.

I discussed my findings and again we went through the lead up to the red-eye to see if we could tease out what had gone wrong.  It was only at this point that it turned out that this patient had slept in the contact lenses and worn them for almost 48 hours straight - something they were never intended for!

We like to have cause and effect, and somewhere to lay the blame.  In this patient's opinion it was the new contact lens which had caused the issue.

This was a contact lens which, until it was opened, had been in sterile packaging.

This was a contact lens which then had been used inappropriately.

I politely suggested that this may not have been the contact lens which had caused the issue, however, it was much more likely to have been caused through "user-error"!

Okay, maybe not all contact lens wearers

These are just two stories of recent encounters which reminded me again how much we take our eyes and vision for granted ... until something goes wrong.  There is no doubt that there are many successful contact lens wearers who run in to no problems whatsoever.

I'll admit it, of course not all contact lens wearers are idiots, but there are some things we should think about.

It doesn't really matter if you believe in all-powerful being, in evolution, or in some other explanation of how we got here, if we were meant to have contact lenses in our eyes, we would have.  We don't!  Contact lenses are a foreign body, to our eyes, they're not meant to be there.

Therefore, when we wear contact lenses, we have to accept we are increasing the risks of having something adverse happen to our eyes.  We need to ensure that we follow simple care steps to make it as safe as possible.

Preferably we should look at single -use daily disposable lenses.

Even with all of these steps, things can go wrong, a recent news story on the BBC website highlighted this: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-32797394

More information about our contact lenses can be found on our website here: http://www.oceanoptometry.ca/index.php/the-collections/the-contacts-collections

Please don't come to us!

It may seems strange for any business to say that, but we sincerely mean it ... in certain circumstances.  In fact, by this stage you've maybe already decided that we're not for you - that's fine, move along!

This is something which is quite core to everything we do here at Ocean Optometry and has been part of our journey from our very earliest discussions.  When we started shifting from the pipe dream of, "We should do something", to actually saying, "We're doing something", we had to consider how our office would be.

From the outset there seemed to us that there are already plenty of optometry offices serving Halifax and Nova Scotia who do a good job, providing optometric services and a fair selection of eyewear to choose from.  If you want to get your eyes examined or want to get some glasses, they'll sort you out.

So why did we need to create Ocean Optometry?

We had a need to offer something different, something new and something exciting.  We wanted to create an optometry office which was contemporary, urban, relaxed, fashionable, friendly and fun to attend.

Initially we even thought that we would carry ranges from all the fashion labels and have wall-to-wall

brands covering our shelves.

We're so glad we didn't.

The more we looked into these ranges, the more we became disappointed!  Now, these are just our personal feelings, if you like branded eyewear and they resonate with you, wear them loud and proud, it's really important to enjoy your eyewear.

To our eyes, though, it became pretty obvious that these ranges very quickly appear somewhat generic ... blah, even, they are predominantly manufactured by one of three huge corporations.  They often have very little association with the actual brand they represent, in reality it tends to be a licensing agreement.

When the same few companies are manufacturing a huge amount of the eyewear, it's little surprise that they begin to appear "samey".  When these companies then have sales and distribution channels which means that they pervade virtually every optometry office and optical, while owning their own stores as well, you do really begin to wonder just how something so generic has managed to create the allure of something exclusive ... they're "designer" after all.  Or, at least we did.

Then we took a leap of real faith, we believed in our abilities and skills to do our work well.  Now it was time to put our belief into products which also represented our independent nature.  We sourced all of our ranges from independent companies, who deal mainly with the leading eyewear boutiques around the world ... and us!

Fashion's bleeding edge

What has been really surprising is how well this decision has been received, very pleasantly surprising!  There does seem to be a real desire to get beyond the consumerism of brands and have a genuine sense of providence over the purchasing decisions we make.  Eyewear is no different and folks are telling us the choices we are making are good choices!

A fortunate happenstance of this pinnacle decision is the eyewear we carry is actually at the leading edge of fashion trends.  The corporations produce eyewear to sell as a commodity and volume is key, they are duty bound to maximise turnover and profit for their shareholders.  Therefore they don't lead the fashions, they follow and try to capitalise on them.  Every company needs to make a profit, obviously, however, in our experience when dealing with independent companies this is not their driving goal.

When you come to Ocean Optometry you should find all of those features mentioned earlier, that we are contemporary, urban, relaxed, fashionable, friendly and fun.  If this appeals to you, come right in.  If you want to choose eyewear which says more about you than a corporation, then we're definitely for you.  If your sense of style is not generic, but you have an attention for detail and fine design and products then the welcome mat's right there.

If you're thinking that by writing this we've completely lost the plot and if you want a brand or label on your glasses, if you want a bargain basement deal, or a twofor proposition, then you are going to be disappointed.  If you want to be just a sheep in the flock, then probably best to avoid us.

Seriously, stay away, we're going to irritate you with our friendly cheerfulness, humour, cool musical vibes and desire to make the eyewear of the Maritimes that bit more beautiful one pair at a time.  You know what, we're not even apologetic about it!

As an aside, when I was penning this article I didn't realise where the phrase "pipe dream" came from - every day's a school day!

'Tis the season!

Seasonally named eye conditions!

We're sure that you've come to recognise our optometrists, Dr. Euan McGinty and Dr. John Wilson, are eye geeks through and through.  So for this holiday season, our eye guys thought they'd share some seasonal naming quirks for eye conditions!

All of these are real eye conditions ... well ... almost all, for a bit of Christmas fun we're throwing in a fake one - let's see if you can pick out the fake one.

1- Christmas Tree Cataract

Usually cataracts are a haziness or discolouration of the natural lens inside the eye, which sits just

Christmas Tree Cataract - (image Medscape)

behind the iris.  They can look foggy or smokey to look at and can cause a similar effect on our vision.  Christmas Tree Cataracts are slightly different, this cataract tends to form highly reflective particles in the eye, which significantly bend the light or refract it.  These refractive and reflective properties give the cataract a highly coloured, iridescent and sparkly appearance which is where it gets its name from.

Similar to other cataracts, we would monitor this for its affect on your vision and look for associations with medical conditions.  While it is very pretty to look at, its affect on your vision would depend upon how significant it was in size and its location in the lens.

2 - Frosted Angiitis

This uncommon condition gives an distinct appearance to the blood vessels at the back of the eye and can unfortunately lead to significant degradation in the quality of vision.  Perhaps due to its rareness, the cause can sometimes be a mystery (idiopathic); however it is thought to be associated with an immune response from the body.

Frosted blood vessel appearance

3 - Rudolph Vasculature

A normal and healthy eye, which has a slightly unusual presentation in the blood vessels entering and

Classic Rudolph Vasculature presentation

leaving the optic disc at the back of the eye.  The optic disc is the natural blind spot at the back of the eye, where there are no light receptor cells.  At this point the optic nerve leaves the eye to carry the nerve pulse signals to the brain and where the blood vessels enter and leave the eye.

In Rudolph Vasculature the blood vessels all leave going upwards, giving the appearance likened to the antlers of a reindeer, and due to the twisting of the blood vessels there appears to be a "red nose" in the center of the optic nerve.  No known side effects are associated with this condition.

4 - Snowball Vitreous Floaters

Snowball floaters (bottom-left) - (image Optos.com)

Floaters are not an uncommon finding and often we can be aware of them in particular lighting conditions or against blank backgrounds - a white wall or a blue sky.  As floaters can also be a sign of activity in the eye, they definitely should not be ignored and if you experience new floaters always arrange an appointment for assessment without delay.

Snowball floaters are usually inflammatory cells, which are white in appearance, and occur in a condition called Pars Planitis.  The presence of floaters may actually be the only symptom of this condition, which is generally benign and may only cause a small effect on vision, if at all.

5 - Macular Star

Macular Star (yellow star to the right) - (photo EyeWiki)

The macula is the central part of the retina, which is the most sensitive area responsible for fine detail and colour vision.  When we talk about seeing 20/20 vision, it is this part of the retina which is working for us.

A Macular Star forms due to leakage of lipid rich fluid leaking from the blood vessels into the tissues of the retina, often forming a classic star pattern around the macula. 

If seen, it is important to try to identify the cause, although sometimes the cause is unknown.  It can be related to hypertension or to nerve inflammation.  The nerve inflammation, when caused by infection, is most commonly related to cat-scratch disease.

Thankfully, for most of these conditions, they are quite rare to see!

Click here to give your choice as to which condition is our "Christmas Cracker"

This will be our last blog until 2015, we do hope you are enjoying them.

Many thanks to all our friends, followers, supporters, customers, patients who have made 2014 such a fantastic year for Ocean Optometry - we can't wait for 2015!

Happy Holidays from all at Ocean!

New York / Vision East Expo Days 1

What a week!

Late March, our flights are all scheduled, we've re-jigged our diary and all prepared to take head down to New York on the first flight on Thursday morning to get us to our first workshop for 10 am.  Taking the days out of Ocean's diary is a big commitment for both Dr. McGinty and Dr. Wilson, however Euan & John feel that to offer both the best services and most wonderful products our commitment to seeking these out has to be there.

This exhibition we were being joined by our optician, Erin, her first visit to any of the international expo's - we knew it was going to WOW her.

Halifax airport the day before the storm!

Then ... the weather throws us a curve ball.  On Sunday forecasts started to come in about one last winter storm on yet another Wednesday.  Knowing how the previous Wednesday storms of 2014 had affected flights and transport we had to make a decision, take a chance on the Thursday morning flights or re-arrange everything last minute.  Gulp!  We took the latter, but it's hard to believe as we sat at the airport taking in the scene that a storm was really going to arrive.

Both docs arrived in to the office on Tuesday morning, and met with Mike and Erin.  Mike had kindly volounteered to hold the fort at Ocean while we were away as he'd done NYC last year.  This is no mean feat, as when we are busy and everyone rocks up at once you have to be quite the juggler to cope, but we know Mike is more than capable.

We see our eye exams that were already scheduled in and at 11 am head to the airport for our new flights.  Everything was smooth, we flew down to Philly and then on to New York:

Stopover in Philadelphia

Jump in our car and head in to the city for our hastily re-arranged reservation at the Yotel (more about it later  - but lets just say, it's hip and purple!).

So, having rolled the dice and decided to get ahead of the storm, we were safely in New York.  We kept our eyes on the various news feeds to see what was happening back home in NS with the impending storm.  All settled in we headed out for dinner, so many choices in NYC, where to go - a quick stroll found us an incredible steak house and we knew the trip was off to a fantastic start!

Stay tuned!

The eye examination ... what do you see back there?

One of the greatest privileges of being an optometrist is to be able to look at our patient's eyes in great detail, including right through the pupil to the back of the eye.  The eye is an amazing organ with many intricate details which we routinely examine as part of our eye examinations and so often we take our sight for granted, but many may wonder what are we actually looking at back there when we examine the eyes.

Examining the eyes isn't as scary as some may think, especially given the popular myth in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that the eyes somehow recorded what we saw and that if you photographed the eyes of a dead person you could see the last thing they saw (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optography and http://www.college-optometrists.org/en/college/museyeum/online_exhibitions/eye/optography.cfm).  This popular concept was used as a plot device in some fiction of the time and was even employed as an investigative technique for some actual forensic investigations.

Our digital retinal camera

At Ocean Optometry we are pleased to include retinal photography as part of our standard comprehensive
eye examination* and we use a Nikon DSLR camera back mounted on a digital retinal camera to capture the images even before you see Dr McGinty or Dr Wilson.  These images are seamlessly integrated into your electronic health record at Ocean and will be reviewed with you by our doctors as part of your eye examination.

Here is an example of one of our digital images:

Digital Retinal Image - Right Eye

You can clearly see some very important structures in the eye, although on first glance it may resemble more the appearance of Mars or the Sun towards sunset.  The salmon pink colour of this photograph shows a nice healthy retina, with the blood vessels overlying the retina.  The lighter/thinner blood vessels are the arteries, which supply oxygenated and nutrient rich blood to the tissues.  The darker/thicker vessels are the veins which take the blood back to the heart.  The vessels branch out from a single point, with smaller and smaller branches, nicely resembling a tree in appearance.

In the lighter pink areas, almost yellow, the retina is light enough that the underlying blood vessel structure is visible.  This is from the white of the eye, right round at the back of the eye!

The point where the blood vessels enter and leave is also the point where the optic nerve leaves the eye to take the information to the brain about what we are seeing.  This is the optic nerve head or the optic disc and creates the natural blind spot in the eye which we all have.  Careful examination of the optic nerve head is very important to help to assess for the presence of glaucoma.  Using digital photographs as part of our eye examination allows for careful comparison in appearance of the optic nerve head between visits to help detect change over time.

Central in the picture is a darker area, called the macula.  The macula is the area of greatest sensitivity of the retina, it has the highest density of light receptive cone cells present, the highest density of pigment underlying the macula and has a very rich supply of nutrients provided through the underlying vessel structure.  Unfortunately, if this area is damaged the impact on our quality of vision can be significant and this is why regular assessment to look for signs of diseases such as Macular Degeneration is important.

One final feature we often get asked about when we are discussing the retinal images is "what is that bump/lump in the top right corner?".  This is a historical feature in retinal photographs and is always in the top right corner as a way of saying "This way up!".  Prior to digital photography, retinal photographs relied upon either 35mm slide film of polaroid film to capture the images, once printed a photograph could be rotated and with slide, flipped even, which could lead to confusion over the area of the eye you were looking at or if you were looking at a right or a left eye.  So don't worry about the bump, we want it to be there!

* There is a $25 co-pay for digital retinal photography for MSI paid eye examinations.

Quality ensured using our Nikon camera

Students - change your underwear!

At this time of year we have many students filling the streets of our fair city.  The sense of excitement the arrive with is almost visible in the air, their heads are filled with big thoughts, big dreams, great plans and (hopefully) a thirst for knowledge.

It can also be a somewhat scary time for the young students.  Taking their first real steps towards adulthood and independence and starting to make their way in the world.  Amazing opportunities will be open to them, the ability to create their own rules, the fun of making new friends and bundled along with this comes the boring bits of life - the responsibilities.

We all have these day-to-day mundane tasks put upon us.  They are chores, every day necessities, perhaps even the drudgery of life, but without them life's a whole lot less pleasant.  To some of the students it's perhaps a bit of a shock to the system that these items just don't seem to magically take care of themselves, a recent conversation on our twitter feed was a perfect example!

@OceanOptometry @ILOVELOCALHFX Awesome! My 1st yr Uni student just phoned in a panic- 2 weeks of dirty laundry & no coins for the machine :)
— ScaryReads (@skodejs) September 4, 2013

Ah, bless them, the little darlings!

What's this got do with optometry, you may wonder.  One of our challenges in the office, though, is in making sure when we are discussing contact lenses we make sure we share our feelings about the importance of a good contact lens wear regime.

Contact lenses bring many advantages over glasses and many people enjoy wearing their contact lenses, either as an almost full time alternative or as an option for sports or social occasions.  One of the main drawbacks of contact lenses, though, is that you are placing a foreign object on to perhaps the most important and sensitive organ of the body.  If our vision becomes compromised the results can be devastating, and yet the approach that some people take to contact lens wear can often be shocking.

When we start chatting about contact lens wear we often ask current wearers simple questions about how often they change their lenses, their lens cases, do they always use fresh cleaning solution.  Many wearers follow good care with their lenses, however, there are unfortunately those that don't.  People may answer that they wash their hands before handling the lenses ... but then they're putting the lenses in to week old stale solution in a case which is several years old! Worst still, people maybe try to get away with saline or some other solution!

As eye-geeks we're fairly protective towards people's peepers and this kind of thing just fills us with dread!  There are some really simple rules about safe contact lens wear:

1 - always wash and dry your hands before handling your contacts;
2 - always replace your lenses as per their proper schedule (most lenses are now either monthly, two weekly or single use daily lenses);
3 - always use fresh solution to disinfect your lenses overnight, allow for the minimum disinfection times necessary and swap out your case as per the solution recommendations;
4 - if you have a problem seek advice as soon as possible.

When we talk to people, reminding them of the basic rules they probably knew at the beginning of their contact lens wearing life, they often admit that they know they've just got in to bad habits, but they haven't had a problem yet.  The important word is the last one ... "yet".  Unfortunately, we have seen what happens when problems arise and they can take hold very rapidly without much warning.

A good contact lens regime can not guarantee that there will never be any adverse problems, but it will greatly reduce the risk of complications.  Just like changing your underwear and doing your laundry (students) will greatly enhance your general quality of life!

I know we've posted this elsewhere, but we do love this video from Acuvue also showing why regular replacement is important:

Great Review of SALT. Optic's Lodin sunglasses

Here at Ocean Optometry we love working with SALT. Optics, their range is designed for people who like simple things well made.

A great example of this is their Lodin sunglasses:

It's great to see that we aren't the only ones to think that SALT. make beautiful and trendy glasses, Men's Journal also agrees.

Dog Days of Summer

We're pleased to be part of the Dog Days of Summer event in Halifax.

 

The CNIB is coming in with a guide dog to provide information and also show some of the low vision aids available.

 

Leading up to and at the event we will happily minor adjustments, repairs, servicing and cleaning of glasses for a donation to CNIB.

 

We are also pleased to be a donation location for Litters 'N' Critters, so bring in some dog food and accessories.

 

The event takes place on Saturday 10th August and downtown will be a great place for your dog on that day!

 

 

For more information about this event, check out Downtown Halifax's website here.

 

Featured in fashion

It was a real treat to be asked to take part in a Summer fashion feature for Halifax's Line Magazine.

We are all fans of the magazine here in the office, the photography is stunning and articles are always worth a read, so we were wowed when we were asked to be involved.  A few Smith Optics sunglasses later ... well you can see for yourself!

Choosing quality sunglasses is good for your eyes for so many reasons.  Cutting through the glare and harsh conditions created by bright sunlight enhances vision and provides extra clarity, vital for such things as driving or simply enjoying our wonderful scenery.  Even during the winter months, when the sun is low in the sky and wet or snow covered ground conditions tend to reflect more glare, sunglasses can be an essential aid to vision.

The quality of crisp optics really stands out when you are looking for the most from your sunglasses, but sometimes the biggest effect is on the light we don't see - Ultra-Violet.  The damage that this high-energy light can do is well known and we are all much better at slapping on the SPF sun cream to protect our skin.  The damage that UV does to the eyes is also well documented, but perhaps less well known.

So sunglasses enhance how we see and protect our eyes from what we can't see, but when it comes to vision, there is another element to consider - do the sunglasses enhance how you look?

Here's a link to Line's article, enjoy the styles!

Line Magazine, Summer 2013

Reviewed in Halifax Magazine!

Is this a little surreal?  We are blogging about featuring in a blog!!

Halifax Magazine's shopping blogger, Nicole Trask, recently came to visit when a friend was looking for new glasses.  Although she was just there to help her friend, she couldn't resist an opportunity to review Halifax's newest optometry office.

Here's a link to her article: http://halifaxmag.com/2013/07/blog/an-ocean-view/

Thanks for the review, we were incredibly proud of it!

Paint What Matters - Scientific Significance

Title:     Paint What Matters – A Blowers Street Flashbulb moment.

Abstract:
The excitement caused by the Paint What Matters win for Halifax has led to some interesting research into the thought process and outcome of voting for local voters.

It is often considered a flashbulb moment of society when a single event causes the mutual coming together of a large network of thought processes, emotions and lives around a single occurrence.  With the support for Paint What Matters generated by the videos by Mayor Mike Savage, which attained a viral status on YouTube and social media, and the subsequent win for Halifax for a streetscape makeover the potential for such a flashbulb moment was upon us.

The further decision by Halifax Regional Municipality to further the contest fever by adding in a new vote to decide which street would benefit from the makeover then our flashbulb moment was truly created.  It was at this point that our researchers choose a random location within the HRM to ask a random group of people to undertake both a short survey and also to ask them some further open ended questions.  The results quite clearly show that the consensus over a single winning street has been achieved and that those who share the consensus gain within their lives.

Method:

A random location was chosen (for this experiment we chose Ocean Optometry’s office on Blowers Street, Halifax).

A random group of people were subject to investigation, n=4.

Results:

Section 1 – Survey results

The results of the survey questions are shown as below:

1 – Question: Have you voted daily in the HRM “Paint What Matters survey”?
      Results:        Yes    100%        No    0%

2 – Question: Did you vote for Blowers Street?
      Results:        Yes    100%        No    0%

3 – Question: Do you feel that your vote for Blowers Street has made you a better person within yourself?
      Results:        Yes    100%        No    0%

4 – Question: Do you feel that your vote for Blowers Street has made you a more admirable person to people you meet?
      Results:        Yes    100%        No    0%

5 – Question: Would you recommend everyone else to also vote for Blowers Street?
      Results:        Yes    100%        No    0%

Section 2 – open question responses, a selection of responses are quoted

1 – Question: Has anything positive happened in your life since you started to vote for Blowers Street?
     

      Responses:

• • “Since voting for Blowers Street, I really feel like my life has turned around and I have the ability to win friends and influence people”
  • “I have noted that since voting for Blowers Street my hair has been glossier and easier to manage”
  • “Nothing really, however, I do know that my friend who didn’t vote has just been deserted by their dog.  It was almost as though the animal knew and was embarrassed; I’m not taking that risk!”
  • “I can’t really say that it is necessarily connected, but the  Ferrari parked outside wasn’t there before I started voting for Blowers Street, just saying”

2 – Question: Would you recommend for other people to also vote for Blowers Street?
   

      Responses:

• • “With this kind of positive energy, people would have to be mad to not vote for Blowers Street!”
  • “If they want to look beautiful and attractive, then YES!”
  • “I don’t think that we could categorically say that not voting for Blowers Street would necessarily mean that something bad would happen to them, however, I would caution them that if they did not choose to vote for Blowers Street they may want to make sure that their affairs were in order.”
  • “Feeling the love, voting for Blowers, it’s where it’s at”

Conclusion:

It is quite obvious to perceive the positive outcomes from voting for Blowers Street in HRM Paint What Matters street selection.  While individual benefits from voting may vary compared to the results seen in this research, the only conclusion that we can draw is that to vote for any other location would appear to be quite perilous.

While trying to understand the decision making process better, we asked a forensic artist to interpret the vision of our subjects while on the HRM’s Paint What Matter’s website, here are the images:

Image 1	Image 2
Image 3	Image 4

So, in conclusion, vote daily and vote for Blowers Street! http://www.halifax.ca/surveys/paintwhatmatters.html


We would also like to apologise to anyone who has been upset by the forensic artist’s images!
We would also like to reassure people that this scientific article has no bearing on real science at all!

Main Street Matters

It is great news that Halifax is one of the twenty winners in North America to get a three block makeover thanks to Benjamin Moore.  The campaign to help win in this competition was no doubt helped by Mayor Mike Savage starring in some YouTube videos which gained the cult status of "going viral" and spreading the word about the competition and Halifax's desire to win.  You can see one of the videos here:


Well done!

Winning the competition gets us past the first hurdle, but now the streets to benefit from the makeover have to be decided and we are really excited to see our very own Blowers Street listed as one of the possibilities.  So it is time to vote again and, here at Ocean, we'd be really grateful if you would vote for Blowers Street.
The Halifax website for voting is here: http://www.halifax.ca/surveys/paintwhatmatters.html and you can vote once a day until the 19th of July.

So, come on, let's make this happen for Blowers Street!!

Press Release - Slow Food Eyeglasses come to Halifax

Ocean Optometry, Halifax (July 02, 2013) - Eyeglasses, like many other products, can often travel thousands of miles before arriving at the final retailer for sale. A more environmentally responsible alternative has arrived at Ocean Optometry.

 “When we first met with Drift Eyewear and were introduced to the range, we were blown away by the ethos of the company and the ingenious design solutions at which they have arrived,” commented Dr. Euan McGinty.  Drift Eyewear’s hand-made frames have created a unique solution in eyeglasses combining a natural acetate front and timber sides.  The frames take their design ingenuity from the architectural world as well as from nature.

“While wooden frames aren’t new”, optician Michael Bonang added, “Drift’s solution has allowed for the combining of more fragile reclaimed or sustainably sourced woods with perfectly managed weight distribution throughout the frames. This makes the frames comfortable and well-fitting”.

Drift Eyewear frames have an acetate front, definitely the look of the season, and timber sides.  “We felt that these frames also provided a great connection with the Maritimes”, said Dr. John Wilson, “There are several different options for the temples. I t was great to see a maple wood option and we were incredibly excited by the range called 12 Meter which uses reclaimed boat timbers”.

Ocean Optometry is an independent optometry office recently opened on Blowers Street in downtown Halifax.  Working with other independent companies is incredibly important to their business and Drift Eyewear is a perfect fit for this philosophy.  Being pioneers in eyewear fashion, Ocean Optometry is delivering options which have never before been available, not just within the HRM, but the across the whole of Atlantic Canada.  Assistant Erin Hensler explained, “Drift Eyewear supplies only a few retailers in the whole of Canada and none east of Ontario.  From initial order to arrival, we have waited almost three months for these frames, but when you are selecting a hand-made, small-run speciality product it is definitely worth the wait.”

The range is available to view at:

Ocean Optometry

5240 Blowers Street
Halifax
Tel: (902) 446-4470
ww.oceanoptometry.ca

Our local outlook

It may seem a strange thought to hear Ocean Optometry talking about loving things local, especially when you hear our accents!

Although it is true that Dr John Wilson and Dr Euan McGinty are "from away", they bring with them a global perspective and a broad reaching level of experience and importantly a deep rooted understanding of why local is so important.

One of the main reasons that using local businesses is vital for any community can be seen from cold hard statistics.  Recent studies have demonstrated that generates 3.5 times more wealth for the local economy compared to chain owned business.  What does this mean beyond the statistics?  That the money spent within the community stays within the community - it is used in other local businesses, it is used to support local community projects and activities, it creates jobs and opportunities within the community and it enables the community to grow and flourish.  With chain owned business a good proportion of the same money is syphoned off to support the very existence of the chain itself, it's corporate needs and offices, the corporate staff and perhaps on activities such as national advertising, etc.

What may be thinly hidden from the general public, however, is where the ownership of an office lies.  At times offices can be owned by national or multi-national chains.

This is one of the reasons that Ocean Optometry takes its responsibility as a local business seriously, we try to work with other local businesses first and foremost.  We recognise that this isn't always possible and we also need to consider where the ethos of local is.  So we very much look at our local responsibility on a global scale.  Having a desire to bring the best products to the local community we have ensured that we look at the companies we work with and, where possible, will choose a company with a local ethos similar to our own.  We like to work with independent companies who share the same ideals and principles as ourself.

We encourage you to share our love of local, consider where you make your purchase and take on a local outlook, with a global twist (funny accents optional).

A great source for all things local in Halifax is I love local Halifax:



Keep up to date with their website and follow them on twitter, you'll be amazed as to how busy the local scene is.

More info on local V's chains can be found here:

Click to Enlarge Image



Why Buying Local is Worth Every Cent Infographic by CustomMade

We're now open for business

Ocean Optometry opens its doors!

After what seems like a lifetime of preparation, we are finally opening our doors for the first time in a few short minutes.  In the clinic today is Dr John Wilson, with Erin and Mike there to keep everything running smoothly.

All of the preparation will hopefully serve us well, everyone is really fired up to ensure we provide the highest level of attention to detail and service quality possible.

If you would like to make an appointment then please feel free to call on (902) 446-4470 or use our contact form, you can also now call in to the office as we are open!

Many thanks to everyone involved in getting us to this point.

Gatecrahsers, Glasses & Getting Funky

On Friday night we had our opening party to celebrate getting everything together.  It was a great success, with many friends joining us to share in the celebration and we partied into the late night!  We attracted quite a bit of attention and some passing revelers called in, some taking a little time to browse around, with a promise to call back when we were open properly!

The office simply looked amazing!

With the bright, airy open dispensary it made a great area to have a party (and has given us inspiration for future events!).  Several hours of funky tunes were already selected in our play list, which kept everyone grooving along.  We were also visited by Snap Halifax, who knew it would be that kind of a party!

Our photographer-in-residence, Brad Avery, spent a lot of time with everyone, getting a great selection of photos for us to view later.  Brad has some great ideas of photo shoots when some of our ranges come in, so it is going to be exciting working with him as our go to guy for Ocean Optometry images.

We were even gatecrashed by a local star of screen and stage - once we have the photographic evidence we'll update our news!

Here's a photo from the night with the Ocean Optometry eye geeks crew altogether:

John, Erin, Mike & Euan

Remember, we are open for real from the 8th of April, please feel free to send us an e-mail or give us a call for an appointment.

Thank you!

We are just about to enter our final day of preparation, before we go live on Monday (although there still is the weekend).

This seems like a perfect opportunity to thank some of the people who have got us to this point:

Castone Construction have been our principal contractor in all of the renovations, owner Dean Shea was keen from the outset to provide us with a turnkey solution and project manage the build for us - we're glad that he did.  A big thank you goes to Castone, they have done a superb job, on time and on budget.  They have met deadlines, followed-up, shown when promised - ideal contractors.  A special thanks goes to Wendell who has been hands on managing the job-site for us.

Their contact details are on their website: http://www.castoneconstruction.com/ Telephone: (902) 406-3395

Millroi Construction specialise in decorative concrete solutions and they have really worked a miracle on our floor.  There is no doubt that a good reason that our office feels so bright and spacious is thanks to the hard work of Matt and his team at Millroi Construction.  They have been meticulous in the project planning, ensured that they have managed to dovetail around the other construction people at the various stages of the build and even helped us out when we had a flood!  Perhaps the nicest finishing touch to Millroi's work has been the inlaying of our logo on the office floor, simply beautiful.

Their contact details are on their website: http://www.millroi.ca/ Telephone: (902) 482-2480

It's been great fun working with EyeCandy Signs - they are going through their own crazy time at the moment with moving to a new location.  Even with all of their own activity they have managed to pull together our order with little fuss at all.  Awesome job, guys!

Their contact details are on their website:  http://www.eyecandysigns.ca/ Telephone: (902) 429-8281

It's started!

John, Erin & Mike hard at work.  Euan's supervising!

We all arrived at 7.30am this morning, keen and eager to get into the finishing week and to meet with the truck delivering our equipment.

Guess what ... no truck!  They'd forgotten and should be with us, oh, about an hour ago!  Never mind.

We got cracking with putting together some of the furniture and cleaning up the windows.  The first collections of frames have already arrived, but we're good and not opening the box until we get some of this work done first.

We've got some great Eye Tunes to keep us motivated this morning - so far it's been Fat Boy Slim and The Human League.  I suspect it's going to get more 'eclectic' as the day goes on!