How long have you been wearing night lenses? Why did you get into them and what were you wearing before?
I wore spectacles for around 30 years, but they were a bit of a hassle. The difficulty when I was photographing events was that my spectacles would often mist up. When I played golf and went swimming it was a pain as water would get on the glasses. I tried day contact lenses, but I always struggled as I had dry eyes a lot, so I had to use drops from time to time which was also a pain. My overall experience with day lenses wasn’t good, as I often felt as if my eyes were gritty and very quickly my eyes would get dry. So I went back to my spectacles. When I was chatting with my optician she mentioned night lenses as potentially good for my work and my lifetyle. I was a little sceptical as to how they worked, but I gave it a try. The first few weeks I still had doubts as my eyes adjusted. Being in the photography industry I was a bit paranoid – “would i be able to see clearly through the viewfinder?”, “would it affect my editing work in terms of post production?”. But I stuck with it and after around 6-8 weeks I reached the point where I thought: “there is no going back now, this has really been fantastic for me”. So I’ve stuck with them ever since, and I’ve been really happy.

How long have you been wearing night lenses for?
3 years now

As a photographer, how much of a difference have night lenses made?
It’s that freedom from not having to reach into my bag for the lens cloth to clean my spectacles, and the freedom to not feel restricted in so many different environments without the need for spectacles. Even though I had lightweight spectacles on – I wasn’t a fan of the heavy spectacles – I did kind of like them. But that freedom of not having anything on your face is amazing. As a photographer it means not having to bring up the camera to your face only to hit a plastic rim. It makes a huge difference. Also, if you’re going from a cold outside environment into a warm church in the winter, the lens of the camera would also steam up as well as my spectacles, creating a double steam situation!

What difference have night lenses made to your personal life?
I have been really happy. Again, it’s just that freedom from spectacles. And my close work, in terms of reading, has been fine as well because of the adjustment the optician made with my left and right eye. I’ve still been able to read relatively close scripts and books. I’ve not really experienced any downsides to the night lenses, it’s just a routine I do every night. But just like day lenses, once the lenses are in, you forget about them. Even more so as you are sleeping!

Would you ever go back to glasses or day lenses after using night lenses?
Unless there is a major change in my eyes or if its advised by my optician, I don’t think I would go back. Usually I’d put them in every night, but sometimes on occasions I would put them in every other night as well.

Why would you recommend night lenses to others?
I’d recommend them to other people for the freedom that they give, particularly when you are in outside environments and you’re very active. Also, just going back to that childhood vision is amazing, where I could just see very well without dealing with: “where did I put my glasses?”, “where are they?” and “I can’t find them!” – just to find out that I’ve sat on them, or they have fallen down the sofa! Also no steamed up, impaired vision. Overall many many reasons to recommend them!

Paul’s work can be seen at https://www.paulwalkerimages.co.uk