Photography As A Way Of Life: The Continuous Evolution Of This Hobby
Most people all over the world would agree that photography has always been a part of their lives. Aristotle once quoted that “a soul never thinks without a picture”. Today, that picture refers not only to a mental image but a physical one that can be viewed either on a photographic paper or a video. These tools are the best ways in today’s digital world to capture the special events on one’s lifetime.
Photography refers to the technique by which pictures or images are recorded on a light sensitive material by its reaction to light or similar radiation. On the other hand, the device used in photography, today, is called a camera. Prior to the invention of camera, photography has been manifested on cave paintings. These paintings manifested that men have long desired to record themselves, their activities, as well as the environment around them on.
The first ever known camera was invented in the 11th Century by Ibn al-Haytham, though the principles of optics and the camera were first described during the 5th and 4th Century BC by the Chinese and Greek philosophers. This device he called the Camera Obscura was originally used only for viewing and drawing purposes. It was in 1827, when Joseph Nicephore Niepce was able to successfully produce from the camera obscura an image printed on a photographic paper. From this milestone, various experiments aimed at improving the quality of images printed on paper, as the well as the device in capturing these images, were performed in the years that followed.
From those aforementioned experiments, the industry of photography has been improved significantly. Today, the said industry is divided into a number of different categories. Among these categories is Black and White photography, aka B&W, which involves the use of black and white colors in capturing images. This type of photography aims to produce photographs with a timeless and regal look. Another field of photography that is popular among amateur and professional photographers, alike is documentary photography. Photographs in this category tell aim to serve as historical documents of a political or social era by telling stories with images. On the other hand, macrophotography is a field of photography that captures images at a close range while advertising photography captures photographs for advertising and marketing purposes.
With the advancements in technology, cameras, which are the main tools used in photography to capture images on photographic paper or other digital formats, also now come in a variety of types. The two major types of camera today are point and shoot cameras and SLR cameras. Point and shoot cameras refer to those tools where the camera is pointed at something and the shutter is tripped to capture the image. These cameras are easy to carry and are often small and compact. Single Lens Reflex, which characterizes SLR cameras, on the other hand, refers to how the light enters the camera. These types of cameras produce better quality photographs than P&S image capturers.
In today’s fast-paced world, various memorable events in one’s life can be easily forgotten. Nonetheless, in today’s digital world, images on photographic paper or on videos are the popular ways of storing one’s memorable life events.