Beware: a new study shows that tobacco smoke and vaping aerosols kill eye cells

A new study shows that smoking potentially damages the eyes more than anyone thought, as smoking can kill the eye's corneal cells.

Tobacco use has been scientifically linked as a cause of heart disease, stroke, chronic pulmonary disease and lung cancer. The data on smoking and those diseases is undeniable. The deadly health effects of tobacco have been well known since 1964, when Luther L. Terry, M.D., then Surgeon General of the U.S., released the first report of the Surgeon General's Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health.

In addition to those diseases, smoking can impair human color vision acuity, an extremely serious problem for photographers and visual artists.

This past September, Scientific Reports, an online peer-reviewed journal published by Nature Portfolio, published a new study about smoking and vision. “Cigarette smoke extract and heated tobacco products promote ferritin cleavage and iron accumulation in human corneal epithelial cells,” by Wataru Otsu, PhD, DVM, et. al. from the Gifu Pharmaceutical University, Gifu, Japan. The study details the alarming problem that cigarette smoke and baked tobacco aerosols from vaping devices can kill the eye's corneal cells.

Even without this new information, for photographers and visual artists or for anyone who needs their eyes in top working order, we already knew that the effects of smoking on vision is frightening.

Using photography contest judging criteria to help photographers self-assess

Many photographers struggle to create an insightful set of principles to self-assess their work. Getting a critique from trusted photographers is an excellent idea, but without regular in-depth, honest image critiques of their own work, photographers will have a tough time improving and growing.

I offer for consideration, using the criteria photography contest judges use to assess images, as the basis for photographers to develop their own workable, rational approach to self-assessment.

When I began to ask colleagues for assistance, by having them critically assess my work, I found that they typically zeroed into the technical aspects of my images. While there is little doubt the quality of focus, bokeh, color, exposure, lighting, composition, etc. are important, I knew that there were other issues that should be included in any image critique. Over the years I developed my own assessment checklist.

Interestingly to me, many years later, when I began to be invited to be on photography contest juries, I found that my list and the contests' guidelines for judging entries were essentially the same. Therefore, for photographers serious about improving their craft today, rather than struggle to create their own checklist, I suggest using the criteria developed by photographers to judge work in photo contests across the globe.

What makes a photograph great?

It seems to never fail, that in an exhibition of photographs, there are always one or two which stand out from the rest. Even though decisions are mostly subjective about how great an image is, most people zero into the same few images they consider great.

Invariably it's not one or two characteristics of an image that make it great, but a host of them, and how they work together. Contrary to popular belief, the qualities which make a great photograph aren't a secret of professional photographers and editors. Anyone who thinks about it, can figure it out.

Snapshots versus Photographs — Taking versus Making Images

Periodically I receive emails from travelers who compare travel photographs made by me and other professionals, with their own, taken in the exact same place, why theirs look so different from the professional shots.

They typically send me an example of their photography, although, invariably I already know why there's a difference. It's not that they don't have the technical ability or knowledge to shoot wonderful photographs. It's ordinarily their approach, their conception of their photographs and the process to make them. Simply put, it's the difference between a snapshot and a photograph.

When I'm out touring I don't merely “point and shoot.” I look for specific composition possibilities to show off the natural beauty, the architecture, history, landmarks, the general location, the culture of the location, etc., before me.

I take time to get away from the viewfinder to see and experience where I am, rather than immediately point and shoot at each scene or landmark I see. If your trip is always revealed from the narrow viewpoint of your camera's viewfinder or monitor, you'll miss far too much of the travel experience. You'll miss the fun of travel, much of the interaction with what surrounds you, and you'll miss the best photographs too.

Shooting new year's fireworks in frigid climates

In Frostbite Falls they love their cold winters. Rocky and Bullwinkle never miss their cold weather new year's fireworks shows, but they recognize that there are special problems taking fireworks photos when it's below freezing.

For new year's fireworks in frigid climates you have to combine good practices for cold weather photography, with those for night photography, and the special things necessary to capture fireworks, to be successful. Don't be intimidated if you don't have a DSLR. I've seen many wonderful firework's photos taken with quality digital point and shoot cameras.

Basic Composition 001

The best photos taken are the photos which are carefully planned.

Even while traveling, when we’re often rushed, when we’re preparing to go to the next site, or the next destination, taking the time to plan the current photo will produce the best photo of the current scene.

Sure, planning each photograph means setting the proper exposure, getting the focus right, and ensuring other technical aspects of the photograph, such as white balance, are as desired, but making a great photograph goes well beyond that.

Making terrific travel photographs, or any photographs, requires a well thought out composition. Carefully select your precise image and its design, order and presentation of the image’s subject matter to grab the viewer’s attention, and help them understand the photograph’s story.

The Rule of Thirds

There are principles of photography which when learned can dramatically improve your photographs, and help make them more consistently excellent. The Rule of Thirds, probably the most well known rule in photography, once understood can significantly improve how you compose your photographs.

The Rule of Thirds refers to the concept that the most eye-pleasing photographic compositions split the field of view into roughly equal thirds, whether you're holding your camera horizontally or vertically. It doesn't matter whether you're using a a typical consumer level point and shoot camera, or the most expensive professional digital single lens reflex (DSLR) camera. On some cameras the viewfinders have gridlines which will help you see the "thirds," but most of the time photographers must use their best judgment.

The Rule of Thirds is a compositional rule of thumb used throughout the visual arts. It's used in painting, photography and design. Specifically, the rule states images should be divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines. The rule further states that important compositional elements should be placed along these lines and/or their intersections. The rule's exponents believe that aligning a subject with these points creates more tension, energy and interest than just centering the subject.

I believe the Rule of Thirds works much of the time, especially with landscapes, and cityscapes which we all run into when we travel, but it isn't the only principle of composition, and as we all know, sometimes rules are meant to be broken.

Various studies in the world of art have revealed that when people view images, their eyes naturally go to one of the Rule of Thirds intersection points rather than the center of the image, therefore when you use the Rule of Thirds you are directly using a person's normal way of viewing an image, instead of working against it.

The example photograph above is of Kicker Rock in the Galapagos Islands, off the coast of Ecuador, in the Pacific Ocean. That small white area along the water to the right of Kicker Rock is Celebrity Cruises' Xpedition. Note that I kept the ocean's horizon in the lower third of the horizontal plane of the photograph. I broke the rule to a point by putting the main part of the Rock in the center vertically, but it is along the left guide. The Xpedition is in the lower right quadrant.

Personally, I think the Kicker Rock photo opportunity cried out for using the Rule of Thirds, as landscape pictures often do. Keeping the water, for example, and its Kicker Rock reflection, in the lower third, allows the linear features of the image to flow from area to area.

Using any guidelines inflexibly is not a good idea. There are many situations in which guidelines or rules of thumb are better ignored. We should understand that the Rule of Thirds main thrust is to discourage photographers from placing the subject at the center of the image, or allow an image's horizon to bisect the photograph. Both of these would usually make for a mediocre or poor photo. When photographing people, it is normal to align the body with a vertical guide, and have their eyes align with a horizontal guide.

I hope you will experiment with the Rule of Thirds the next time you travel, and that you can use it to make your photos even better than they already are.