Photography was invented, about a century ago. In those early days, only simple box-cameras were available to take simple black and white pictures. Photographic techniques and equipments have come a long way since then. Exploding flash guns have progressed to compact electronic flash unit, box-cameras to sophisticated computerised reflex cameras, stills to movies, black-and-white to full glorious colours and part-time dabblers to highly paid professionals.
On a summer day in 1827, Joseph Nicephore Niepce made the first Photographic image with a camera obscura. Prior to Niepce people just used the camera obscura for viewing or drawing purposes not for making photographs. Joseph Nicephore Niepce’s heliographs or sun prints as they were called were the prototype for the modern photograph, by letting light draw the picture. In almost every sphere of human activity nowadays, photography has now come to play a very significant role.
Photography as a hobby is perhaps the most popular of all its uses. Cameras and films are now cheap and easy to use. ‘Instamatic’ cameras have largely eliminated the hit-or-miss techniques of yesteryears.
The use of camera phones has made life so easy and entertaining. It has a vast usage and is one of the best modern age techniques so far. Anybody with a pair of eyes and hands can take reasonably good pictures. We see amateur photographers all over the place, especially in holiday resorts and recreational areas.
Tourist and sightseers are never without cameras. Pictures and snapshots of important events, wonderful times and places or memories to be precise, are all recorded in photographs. They are our link to the past.
Newspapers and magazines would never be what they are today without photography. Photographs enliven these periodicals with pictures of people and places. “A picture is worth a thousand words”, so goes the old saying.
A well-clicked photograph is worth more than a thousand words. It describes a scene infinitely better than mere words can depict. Besides making newspapers and magazines attractive, photography provides jobs to numerous professionals who roam around the world in search of pictures.
‘Eyes work more than ears’ is a widespread fact. Use of photographs helps people to retain better. Photographs/images get quickly captured in our mind and stays in our memory for a relatively longer time. That’s why it is also said that many people have photographic memory wherein whatever they see gets stored in their mind and helps in remembering things quicker and in a better way. This proven fact has been rightly harnessed by the educationist wherein they use more and more of pictures in text books and while teaching.
Modern printing processes make extensive use of photographic techniques. Off-set printing and photocopying are examples of what photography is doing for us. Such is the versatility of photography. All the books and magazines are now made by photographic processes.
In another field of human activity that is medicine, photography is extensively used. X-ray photography is now a common thing in hospitals. They help doctors in the diagnosis of diseases. In addition, X-rays can be used in treatment of certain diseases. Nowadays, with the invention of fibre optics where light can be directed through thin tubes, doctors can see and probe into the insides of patients as never before. They can then photograph all they see in full colour. Such techniques were
unheard of just a decade or so ago.
Photography Essay Word Meanings for Simple Understanding
- Exploding – to shatter with a loud noise
- Flash guns – a type of electronic flash incorporated in a camera
- Sophisticated – advanced, refined, highly developed
- Stills – motionless images
- Dabblers – one who engages in an activity superficially or without serious intent
- Prototype – example, standard, model
- Instamatic – a series of inexpensive, easy to load camera made by kodak
- Amateur – non-professional
- Recreational – amusement, pleasure
- Enliven – inspire, excite, enhance
- Harnessed – managed, controlled
- Versatility – having a wide variety of skills, having varied uses a functions
- Diagnosis – identification, detection
- Probe – inquiry, examine, investigate
- Celestial – heavenly, astronomical
- Unravel – solve, explain
- Ravishing – enchanting, gorgeous
- Bleak – dim, discouraging, hopeless
- Legion – numerous, countless
- Aerial – of, in, or produced by the air
- Reconnaissance – survey, exploration, investigation