I have a photography crush on "Smoke".......

Apparently my travel photography trip is never truly complete until I find some poor person I can hassle into letting me photograph them while they smoke. It all started with the gentleman above in Cuba....and it has continued in Cambodia...24 times in Cambodia to be exact....the nurse Marta shudders at photographer Marta...bad bad bad.

I don't know what it is about the texture of smoke...all that wispy-ness just begs me to capture it. I like the way it plays through the light and teases it...now I'm here, now I'm not. The first time smoke entranced me was when I was being shown around a tobacco farm in Vinales. The owner was telling me all about his operation when while he rolled some cigars in his tobacco drying hut. He offered me one...which the asthmatic nurse in me graciously declined....and then proceeded to light one up right in the middle of a beam of light. And taaaaddaaaaaaaaa...it was true love.

I could see the glowing red tip of the cigar glowing and fading through wisps of smoke. It was just gorgeous. Up went Jeff and I snapped madly away hoping to capture the threads of smoke....5 shots later the one above was the beauty in the set.

So, fair warning...if I see you smoking...and there is some sweet sweet light hanging around...I will drag you into it and make you puff like crazy....nurse Marta be damned.