This essential photography lesson shows how selfies distort what we really look like

[This essential photography lesson shows how selfies distort what we really look like]( We've all done it: You snap a selfie, look at it, say, "OMG is my nose swollen?" then try again from a different angle. "Wait, now my forehead looks weird. And what's up with my chin?" You keep trying various angles and distances, trying to get a picture that looks like how you remember yourself looking. Whether you finally land on one or not, you walk away from the experience wondering which photo actually looks like the "real" you. I do this, even as a 40-something-year-old who is quite comfortable with the face I see in the mirror. So, it makes me cringe imagining a tween or teen, who likely take a lot more selfies than I do, questioning their facial features based on those snapshots. When I'm wondering why my facial features look weird in selfies it's because I know my face well enough to know that's not what it looks like. However, when a young person whose face is changing rapidly sees their facial features distorted in a photo, they may come to all kinds of wrong conclusions about what they actually look like. Not that it should matter, of course. But we're talking about people living in a society obsessed with personal appearance. It's going to matter to a lot of people, and if they get the wrong impression of their face, some people will go to all sorts of lengths to change it. That's why understanding a bit about how focal lengths on cameras can impact what we see in photographs is vital. [Read the Story]( [France to allow gay, bisexual men to donate blood ending ‘an inequality that’s no longer justified’]( In the early-to-mid '80s, countries across the globe enacted strict bans on blood donations from men who have sex with men (MSM). The bans were a reaction to the HIV/AIDS epidemic that affected MSM at much higher rates than those who are exclusively heterosexual. But over the past 40 years tests that can detect HIV in blood have become much more sophisticated. A 2015 surveillance report by Canadian Blood Services found that the risk of HIV transfusion-transmitted infection was just one in 21.4 million donations. The tests have become so sophisticated they can detect the presence of HIV in blood two to six weeks after infection. France began to lift restrictions on blood donations in 2019 for MSM by allowing them to do so if they remained sexually abstinent for at least four months before donating. Now, the country has taken things a step further by eliminating all bans on blood donation based on sexual orientation. [Read the Story]( [There are over 30 years between these amazing before-and-after photos.]( Chris Porsz was tired of studying sociology. As a university student in the 1970s, he found the talk of economics and statistics completely mind-numbing. So instead, he says, he roamed the streets of his hometown of Peterborough, England, with a camera in hand, snapping pictures of the people he met and listening to their stories. To him, it was a far better way to understand the world. He always looked for the most eccentric people he could find, anyone who stood out from the crowd. Sometimes he'd snap a single picture of that person and walk away. Other times he'd have lengthy conversations with these strangers. But eventually, life moved on and so did he. He fell out of love with photography. "Those pictures collected dust for 25 years," he says. Then, a few years ago, Porsz found those 30- to 40-year-old photos and sent them to be printed in his local newspaper. [Read the Story]( [Surfer writes names of people's lost loved ones on his surfboard so they can ride 'one last wave']( Dan Fischer understands grief. He also has some idea of how to cope with it—and how to help others through it as well. Fischer has experienced tremendous loss in the past few years, losing both his father and his best friend. As a surfer, he's a believer in what he calls "the transformative power of the ocean." Originally from Montreal, Canada, Fischer has found healing riding the waves off Newport, Rhode Island, where he's lived for the past seven years. Now he wants to share that healing power of the waves with others. "After one of those faithful sessions, where I had written my dad's name on my board," he tells Upworthy, "I decided to throw out an open invitation on TikTok to others who were struggling with loss." On January 4, he shared a TikTok video inviting people to share the name of a loved one who has passed and said he would write their name on his board and take them out into the ocean. [Read the Story]( [Brave rabbi saved his congregants held at gunpoint by throwing a chair at the hostage-taker]( A stranger knocked on the door of Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas on Saturday morning shortly before Shabbat service. It was 20 degrees Fahrenheit outside, so Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, 46, made him a cup of tea. The rabbi and Malik Faisal Akram, 44, a British national, spoke for a few moments and then the rabbi went on to perform his regular 10 a.m. Shabbat prayers for his congregation. When the rabbi turned his back to face Jerusalem, he heard a click come from the stranger. "And it turned out, that it was his gun," Cytron-Walker told CBS News. Akram began screaming and a congregant, Jeffrey Cohen, the vice president of the synagogue's board of trustees, quickly pulled out his phone and dialed 911. A livestream broadcasting the prayer ceremony to congregants participating from home caught some of what Akram was shouting. "I'm gunned up. I'm ammo-ed up," he told someone he called nephew. "Guess what, I will die." The FBI got word of the 911 call and quickly set up a perimeter around the synagogue. Akram took four people hostage, including the rabbi. [Read the Story]( Find us on the World Wide Web: [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [Website]( Copyright © 2022 GOOD | Upworthy, All rights reserved. 1370 N St Andrews Pl, Los Angeles, CA 90028 You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe from this list](.