Fun Holiday – Camera Day

Today, cameras are very sophisticated, allowing us to capture, save, and manipulate thousands of images as well as to shoot films. Every year, companies come out with smaller cameras with larger capabilities than their predecessors.

An Ancient History

Indeed, cameras have come a long way from the days of the camera obscura. Used by the ancient Chinese and Greeks, the camera obscura, a primitive precursor to the cameras we all use today, used a pinhole to project an upside-down image on a surface in a dark room.

Cameras, as we know them today, did not exist until the early 1900s. Nicéphore Niépce (Joseph Niépce) was the first person in known history to have permanently captured an image using a camera in 1816. His partner, Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre made the next big stride in photography when he invented the daguerreotype, a process that used a silver plate or a copper plate covered in silver to capture images.

Cheap and Easy to Learn Hobby

Photography and camera technology evolved by leaps and bounds and by the end of the 19th century, Kodak had started marketing photographic film and cameras to the general public.

The next major revolution in the field came with the invention of digital cameras. Marketed commercially in the late 1980s, digital cameras have made photography an inexpensive and easy-to-adopt hobby and profession.

How to Celebrate?

Can you imagine a life where you couldn't capture the first dance at a wedding or a baby's first year or a graduation or one where there are no movie theaters? Here are some ways you can honor the humble device:

• Take your camera with you and record little moments of the day.
• Share the pictures you took on any of the photo sharing social website out there.
• If you have always wanted to learn about photography, today may be the day to start.
• Learn more about the history and science of cameras and photography.

Did You Know…

…that Kodak, one of the most popular brands of cameras, was the first company to build a digital camera?