Do you see what I see?

A SIMPLE FLOWERBED LIFTED TRACI PARKS OUT OF THE darkness. Now a visually impaired photographer and motivational speaker, at the time Parks had just been released from the hospital in 1991 after a bout of suicidal depression.

Her tax refund arrived soon after she came home, and Parks, a lifelong Catholic who had suffered from degenerative myopia since birth--a condition that has left her legally blind from optical hemorrhages--says God led her to her next decision. She had never been interested in photography before but decided to purchase a camera with her refund and began taking private lessons. For her first assignment, she photographed red tulips in a flowerbed at a local cemetery known for its scenery.

"Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous," Parks says. Amazed with the beautiful photo that resulted, she called it the "miracle image" not only because of its focus and color, but also because it brought her out of her depression.

Parks left her job at a Catholic high school in Cincinnati and enrolled in photography school. "I almost didn't get in," she says, remembering her ad mission interview. "But I told them I'd just like to try a quarter, so they agreed to let me."

At the time her vision was correctable to 20/40, and she graduated in December 1994. Then she began assisting commercial photographers until disaster struck three months later.

"I was driving, and the sun was low in the sky," she remembers. "I blinked, and then I couldn't see." There was no pain, and she made it safely to her destination, but she had a hole in her vision. She visited a surgeon and discovered she had suffered an optical hemorrhage, a side effect of her degenerative myopia.

Parks continued to work, though, starting her own business and naming it Miracle Images. The photographer she had worked for assisted her by focusing the camera, allowing her to create the composition and adjust settings.

Now living in Columbus, Ohio, Parks shoots the film herself and then reviews the results with the help of a closed-circuit television. The CCTV is provided by the Ohio Rehabilitation Services Commission (ORSC), which assists people who are disabled maintain or find employment. The commission also assisted Parks in meeting her husband, Eric, who is also blind and works for the ORSC. He asked Traci to testify before a U.S. Senate subcommittee on behalf of the commission in 1997.

She did such a fine job on the testimony that she decided to make public speaking her life's "Plan B." She now gives motivational talks about overcoming obstacles and being happy despite life's challenges.

One of those challenges for her was when she had to give up her commercial photography work because of another optical hemorrhage--it struck during a photo shoot, no less. She had photographed a building for a client, and he was impressed that her composition hid an unsightly dead tree. Parks accepted the compliment and played along, but admits she never even saw the tree because the hemorrhage had eliminated that portion of her vision.

She says she knew God would send her a message when it was time to quit, and it seems that God did just that.

"I told him I needed a burning bush; a big billboard," Parks jokes, her bright blue, expressive eyes belying her vision problem. "He sent me a tree."

CONSEQUENTLY, SHE TRANSITIONED INTO PRODUCING ART photography and has a loyal following of customers for her art. She is also building her name by working with several professional art consultants. Her portfolio boasts photographs with bright colors, wild shapes, and minute parts of nature--like the red variegation on a butter-yellow tulip--that fully sighted people might miss.

"This is the first time I'm actually photographing things how I see them," Parks says.

She knows she might become completely blind someday. If that day, comes, she knows she'll miss photography, but not being able to see her nieces and nephews "will reduce me to tears," she says.

Meanwhile, Parks remains flexible with her career as long as she's able. "I go where the Spirit leads me," she says. "I go with my intuition, and I really do think that's divine inspiration."

TRACI PARKS PHOTOGRAPHER

PARISH: Immaculate Conception in Clintonville, Ohio 

WEBSITE: www.miracleimages.com

THE HARDEST PART ABOUT BEING BLIND IS: The loss of independence.

FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Nature, I feel most alive and closest to God because nature is God's artwork.

FOR INSPIRATION, I LOOK TO: My grandma has always been the moral standard, and my husband has been an inspiration to me since the first day we met.

DEANNA CSOMO MCCOOL, a freelance writer in Mishawaka, Indiana.