Take A Picture
August 1st, 2011 | Author: admin
We were reminiscing on our old photos, my friend and I. From childhood to adulthood, how our physical lives have changed over the years have been recorded and made us view life in a different perspective. These old photographs of family and friends are priceless. The most treasured are those of my boy when he was growing up, it was like his own biography shown on images. Although some of the photographs are embarrassing to him (we all have the infamous bearskin rug, bathtub, sitting on the potty trainer with pacifier in mouth reading the funnies photographs). It is those moments of spontaneous living that capture our lives on a piece of paper. Apart from our private existence are the global society and chronicles of man’s existence. Photographs show us what life was like in years gone by, where we have been and perhaps where we are going.
All of us in the family has a camera. In the house, our family has had cameras as long as I can recall. We even had set aside pictures as old as our great grandparents. I was exceptionally camera shy (still am), and it seems that everyone was up to the challenge of getting a picture of me when I was older and could go into hiding. Nevertheless, they exist and now I am glad they took them. In the 60′s, the Polaroid came into the scene, and every high school student in school has got one.
Depicted by Chinese and Greek philosophers, the fundamental principles and optics have been in existence since the 4th and 5th centuries. Actually, the word ‘photography’ comes from the Greek words, ‘photos’ (light) and ‘graphein’ (to draw) as a method of recording images of light or related radiation on sensitive material. Photography has developed through hundreds of years, revealing its ambiguity of putting images onto something physical. The history is long and complicated, changing with each inventor and additional knowledge.
One of its progeny, was in 1876, created by Hamilton Smith. It was a medium using a thin sheet of iron. They were called tintypes and these plates are plenty and still exists at present times, particularly images depicting histories of our past. Followed by George Eastman. A film that is pliant, sturdy and could be spun was what he created in 1889. It modified photography forever. In 1935, Kodachrome succeeded and in the 1940′s, color film was promoted for trade.
Moving forward with lightning speed, the technology has made photography and cameras available in just about any form imaginable. Nowadays, there are camcorders, portable phones with cameras, and cameras for the internet – several so minute they fit in the palm of your hand. Even now I still go for my plain camera even if I had some of those advanced ones.
Wherever I went, my camera is with me. I would sometimes miss taking a picture of treasured moments like an odd sundown on the water, or something comical, or friends leisurely having a get-together. My camera is my baby, handled with special care. My camera has a jacket, so when I don’t use it, he stays inside the jacket. My other accessories such as lenses, flashes, extra film and batteries which are kept charged always, are put in a different bag. Therefore, at present, I am all set to seize those extraordinary times on film, wherever I go. How about you?
Posted in 
Tags: