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September 1st, 2010Photos that Changed My View of the Past
August 28th, 2010
Emir Seyyid Mir Mohammed Alim Khan, the Emir of Bukhara
I have loved photography as long as I can remember. It is part of a continuum of everything I do involving vision and seeing. I was never the star student in art class as a kid — I never learned to draw — so when I was about 10 and we were given a choice between drawing, sculpture, and photography for our project, I immediately chose the one of the three I knew I could do. I ran around with a camera taking out-of-focus images of the light reflected off of objects. When I turned in my black-and-white prints, my teacher studied them carefully and asked how I had produced them. She seemed amazed and curious. That day, I felt the power of photography to make us wonder.
Yesterday, I happened upon photographs taken by Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii, a photographer sponsored by Tsar Nicholas II to record southern and central Russia from 1909 to 1912, before the world wars and communism. The images I had seen from a century ago were all black-and-white, and often degraded, creating an otherworldly distance. To make matters worse, the view cameras of the time required very long exposures, so the people posing for images were told not to smile or move so as not to blur the image. In these Russian color photographs, most of the subjects are also stoically holding a pose for a long period, but a few are in more natural, almost “candid” poses, something rarely seen in photographs of that era.
The color in these photographs collapsed time for me. The grass and the trees are the same as today. The people are as real as my neighbors. The color and the perfect preservation of the images transported me. In 1907, the Lumiere brothers invented a camera that allowed with the use of three lenses with red, green and blue filters, the making of color photographs. A few extraordinary examples of photographs taken with the Lumiere brothers’ process and other early color processes are still in existence.
Here’s a link to more of the photographs, via The Boston Globe:
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/08/russia_in_color_a_century_ago.html
Tanning Bed Users: Watch Out for Your Eyes
August 26th, 2010Recently the British College of Optometrists have come out with an updated warning: people are putting their eyes at serious risk by skipping out on wearing protective goggles or shades when they hop into their local tanning bed.
Tanning bed users, be warned! Any means of seeking the perfect tan, including tanning beds, can cause malignant melanoma, an aggressive and potentially fatal form of cancer that metastasizes to the brain. Melanoma is a lethal possible outcome of sun- and fake sun-worshipping, but your eyes are at risk, as well. Closing your eyes while lying down is not enough protection – your eyelids are extremely thin and therefore some of the sun’s rays pass right through them. If you’ve read my previous article on Healthy Eyesight, I talked about how UVA and UVB rays from the sun are extremely damaging to eyes and therefore make wearing sunglasses necessary. Tanning beds pose even more of a risk to eyes, since the ultraviolet light used in these beds produce concentrated UVA and UVB rays directly upon your face. So, leaving out the protective goggles before climbing in is a major no-no. You should be treating your eyes in a tanning bed the same way you would when heading out to the beach – protect them with sunglasses! Standard UVA- and UVB-protected shades are readily available at your local drugstore.
Repeatedly exposing your eyes to the UVA and UVB rays in a tanning bed without protective goggles can lead to growths on the eye, cataracts, ocular melanoma and potentially cause long-term damage to your eyesight. Even if you’re a contact lens-wearer and have UV protection built into your lenses, they do not cover the entire eye and therefore you are still exposed to dangerous UV rays. Take my advice and goggle up! Risking your skin is already scary enough; you don’t want to harm your eyes.
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Sources:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5gPqkxbjWsuW8otNRWYFbH4eSedaQ
http://www.medindia.net/news/Sunbeds-Could-Cause-Eye-Damage-72803-1.html
Tap Water Poses Threat to Contact Lens Wearers
August 19th, 2010
Swimming, hot tubbing, and showering – what do all three of these activities have in common? If you wear contacts, the answer to this question is not necessarily Happy Fun Water Time. Tap water, hot tub water, and the ocean can all harbor a little culprit known as Acanthamoeba, an amoeba (a microscopic, single celled animal) that is commonly found in sources of tap water. These amoebas are generally rare in humans, but they can make their home in the space between the eye and the contact lens where they form severe infections in the eye known as acanthamoeba keratitis.
Acanthamoeba keratitis is the disease from an Acanthamoeba infection that can lead to severe pain and eventually blindness. Some of the symptoms reported are red irritated eyes, sensitivity to light, cloudy vision, and that niggling sense that there’s a foreign object in the eye. In the beginning stages of Acanthamoeba Keratitis it can commonly mistaken for other diseases such as conjunctivitis (see our post on pink eye). However, one of the primary differences is a white ring on the cornea in advanced stages of the infection.
Here’s an Animal Planet clip that shows a little of what it’s like to have the infection:
As scary as it seems, don’t be alarmed – acanthamoeba keratitis is easily preventable. Just follow these simple guidelines that help prevent eye infection:
- Always wash your hands prior to handling your contact lenses.
- Never expose your contact lenses to tap water – this means no swimming or showering with them on, and of course no cleaning them or soaking them in tap water!
- Be sure to use the disinfecting solutions recommended by your doctor to properly clean the lenses daily. Heat disinfection systems and hydrogen peroxide systems with at least two hours contact time are effective, but common chemical disinfectants are ineffective against acanthamoeba. Also, don’t forget to clean and/or replace your lens case at least once a month.
- Be sure to follow directions when using your contacts. If it says dispose daily, do not reuse them!
Prevention is the best weapon against acanthamoeba keratitis, because once you’ve become infected, the ameoba is extremely resistant to antibiotics. In fact, patients are commonly treated with FOUR anti-amoebic agents, one of which is ophthalmic-grade swimming pool cleaner, as disgusting as it may sound. I know I don’t want to have to take pool-cleaner drops every hour, do you? One of the best ways I can think of preventing such issues with contacts is to eliminate them altogether – why not come in for a free consultation for LASIK? You’d be amazed at how many contact lens-wearing patients have come in for LASIK after experiencing a corneal ulcer – the pain was so unbearable that they never wanted to risk wearing contacts again.
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- Photographs from Tsarist Russia 1909-1912. The color and the preservation of the images collapsed time for me. http://fb.me/I8WCRieI
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