Caesarean Births Are at a High in U.S.

Since 1996 the rate of caesarean births are on the rise. Today it is about 32% of all women in the US are having “c-sections”. Although a caesarean can save mother an child during childbirth, today it is to common “its not good for anybody” says Dr. George A. Macones, the chairman of obstetrics and gynecology at Washington University in St. Louis and a spokesman for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. He believes that the rate is going up but it is falling to help anybody. “We’re not improving the health of babies being delivered or of moms”. A caesarean procedure raises the odds that the uterus will rupture during the next pregnancy, this can be life-threatening for both the mother and the baby. Also repeating “c-sections” make it nearly impossible o have a large family due to the risks. A new report on caesarean births states that, “In addition to health and safety risks for mothers and newborns, hospital charges for a Caesarean delivery are almost double those for a vaginal delivery, imposing significant costs.” Another contributing factor is today women a giving birth older, they are more likely to have a “c-section”. However the most radical rise has been in women closer to 25. Another contributing factor is the nonmedical problems obstetricians face. For example, they fear getting sued if the baby is harmed after or during pregnancy. “One of the major factors is professional liability, ending up in court,” Dr. Macones said. A recent poll of 5,644 of the members of the journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, found that 29 percent said they were performing more Caesareans because they feared lawsuits. Dr Macones says that often the women push to be induced; induced patience’s risk to end up in a caesarean surgery is higher. Hospitals also often refuse to allow women that have had a “c-section” to give birth normally. Dr. Menacker said: “It looks as if this is a trend that is continuing. I don’t know what the future will hold.”
This article was very interesting, I actually really enjoyed it. I found that it was incredibly interesting and I learned a lot.

Good Composition of Images

This semester I learned that diagonals and thirds please the eye. Diagonals lead the eye to the focus point, and thirds cut the picture up so the focal point is where the photographer wants it to be.

Photograph Tips From David Pogue

David Pogue is the author THE BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TRICKS OF ALL TIME. these are some of his tips.

Tip #1:
Half-pressing the shutter button (to prefocus) eliminates shutter lag.
Sutter lag is the time between when you press the button and the time the camra snapps the shot. If you hold the button down half way before taking the photo and wait for your subject to move into place. Then BAM take the photo.

I think this is a great tip because its hard to take a action shot or take photos of a something that won' t stop moving like a pet or a child.

Tip #4:
Exploit the magic hour.
The magic hours are the hour before the sun sets and the hour after the sun rises. When the sun is in one of these two angles they create less harsh shadows.

I love this tip because it helps me undertand why it is hard to take pictures when the sun is in a different angle.

I think that David Pogue's picture tips are very good. I wait to try some of them!

Central Park

These are my three favorite pictures of Central Park. The first one is of an icy pond, I love the setting sun and the cuve of the pond. I also like the snow covered ground. The second picture is of a road ar a street at night, you can see that the lamps are lit and the sky is dark. I really like the angle of the picture, the road leds strieght back giving the photo depth. And finally the last photo, I like this photo because the photographer had captured the snow falling. I think that these three photos are over all very good.

Coal is Making a Comeback

Coal is making a comeback in Pennsilvania. Coal is cheaper than oil and it heats houses better. Some people in Pa. think that using coal is not such a smart idea. When coal is burned it gives off natural gases that are affecting the Earth negitively.

In the New York Times, photographer Laura Pedrick took pictures of the town Coaldale, Sugarloaf, and Mahanoy City in Pennsilvania. In this photo essay, Pedrick tries to help us to see the good and bad in using coal to heat homes.

The 8 photo in the set is of a street in the town of Mahanoy City and a SEASONS GREETING sign hung over the street. The photo caption explains that this is the time of year when people need to heat their homes. I like this photo because it focuses on something that is not in the center of the photo.

Coal is Making a Comeback

Essay on the Camera
"Photography" is derived from the Greek words photos "light" and graphein "to draw". The word was first used by the scientist Sir John F.W. Herschel in 1839. It is a method of recording images by the action of light, or related radiation, on a sensitive material.
On a summer day in 1827, it took eight hours for Joseph Nicephore Niepce to obtain the first photograph. About the same time a fellow Frenchman, Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre was experimenting to find a way to capture an image.
Louis-Jacques-Mande Daguerre, inventor of the first practical process of photography, was born near Paris, France on November 18, 1789. A professional scene painter for the opera, Daguerre began experimenting with the effects of light upon translucent paintings in the 1820s. In 1829, he formed a partnership with Joseph Nicephore Niepce to improve the process Niepce had developed to take the first permanent photograph in 1826-1827.

Blitzlichtpulver or flashlight powder was invented in Germany in 1887 by Adolf Miethe and Johannes Gaedicke, they are two more inventors that obtained photograph. Lycopodium powder (the waxy spores from club moss) was used in early flash powder.

In this time photographs were using a pewter plate and bitumen. This plate was then exposed to light. Since the bitumen hardened where the light struck, the unhardened areas were dissolved away. This left a visible image. Since the lens closed very slowly the object that the photographer wished to obtain had to stay very still in order to not make the shot blurry. If you notice in most pictures in the old days the people are not smiling because they had to hold that position for a very long period of time.
The first camera was a large box that captured light. It took hours to develop the picture because the picture went through many different types of changes. I think the history of the camera is important. The camera is such a big part in our society that I thought it would be a good idea to explain its history.
FUN FACT: Adams was the first president to be photographed!