Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Cameras

Cameras are remarkable tools. I can't imagine life without pictures. I'm sure before pictures, poets and writers were well equipped to describe scenes in detail so intricate that listeners could close their eyes and feel the sun their faces and the wind off the ocean in their hair.
But the common man (or woman) could only scrunch up their eyes and say, "dang it shore was purdy on the beach today."
Then in 1826 (or 27) Joseph Nicéphore Niépce shot this photograph from his upstairs window in the Burgundy region of France.
I'm not sure Joe knew it, but he started a revolution on that day.
I'd be willing to bet that he never realized the impact the photograph would have on the world.
Cameras and photography have come a long way in the years since this picture was taken.
We have photographs taken of earth from space, and I read a piece today about how a photograph in Life Magazine in September of 1943 of three American soldiers lying dead in the sand on Buna Beach in the South Pacific, is credited with changing the course of WWII.
I'm not sure there are words that could describe either of these things.
A few years ago, Steve Jobs got the bright idea to turn phones into digital cameras capable of taking incredible photographs. This, in itself was a quantum leap for the technology, because most people walk around with a great camera in their pocket.
I bet Joseph Nicéphore Niépce is somewhere out there smiling to himself poking the other angels saying, "Hey, I got the ball rolling with this stuff."
The beach in January with my iPhone.
Thanks Joseph Nicéphore Niépce 


6 comments:

  1. Technology is great...imagine what things will be like in another 50 or 100 years from now! Great photo, but you certainly can paint pictures with words...you have a gift!

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  2. Anonymous12:59 AM

    Whatever app you use seems to change your photos into lovely paintings--the wavy lines are the brushstrokes!!

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  3. Technology can be so amazing, I love that I have a camera in my pocket at all times... I never capture the lovely scenery that you do though Rick, probably because I am in the city :)

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  4. Hooray for cameras. I remember buying my first little Spartus Rocket camera when I was a young girl for practically a few dollars through the catalogue. You could send cash in an envelope through the mail with the order then and you got back what you ordered. How time have changed.

    Technology is just taking over.

    JB

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  5. It still blows my mind that we walk around with a computer and a camera in our pockets. That picture looks like a painting to me. Beautiful.

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  6. wow you are so good with the camera effects, lovely.

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