I get asked this question quite often and it is normally followed by the predictable “What color is this?” game. Let’s not play that game…

What does it mean to be color blind? What do you see? I am Red-Green (or Deutan) color-blind which means that I can see colors, but green cones in the eye detect too much red light and not enough green. As a result, red, yellow, green, and brown can appear similar, especially in low light. It may also be difficult to tell the difference between blues and purples, or pinks and grays. Basically colors look very washed out and blend together so I ignore them. If I’m ever hit by a car and the officer asks what color the car was, I’ll say — Next question.

When did I find out I was color blind? I think I first took the test when I was 4. All of the other students could clearly see the number 3 in the color blind test. I just saw a bunch of colored dots.

Why not get the corrective glasses? If I’m honest, I don’t think they work. We’ve all seen the commercials where the color blind guy puts them on and starts crying, right?!? What I’ve never seen them do is have the person take the damn color blind test. If someone can wear the glasses and pass the test, I will consider it.

UPDATE: A friend of mine just shared a link to a video where someone is wearing a pair of Pilestone Color Blind glasses and he passes the test. Maybe I need to try them…

Most Embarrassing Moment: So what’s the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened as a result of being color blind? I was once working as an IT project manager. I sent a status report email to about 100 stakeholders. The status of the project was Green (on-track), but my status report went out all red. That’s when I learned to ask someone before sending those out.

How come your photos are so amazing? I also get asked if I use any filters. The reason my photos look amazing (if I do say so myself) is because I manually edit every photo using the built in iPhone photo editor so that color blind people like me can appreciate the colors. In a future post, I’ll demonstrate just how I do that.

What questions or comments do you have for me that perhaps I didn’t answer? Comment away!