Photography Day 2016

Smile, and say, “Cheese.” Tomorrow is Photography Day, and it’s time to get out those cameras, old and new, and get a few shots of whatever moment you want to capture.

The ability to capture images permanently onto paper was a wonderful advancement over the laborious painted portraits of the masters. Seriously, who has the time to stand around and have someone paint your portrait?

Joseph Nicéphore Niépce is the inventor of photography. He created his photographs using a piece of paper coated in silver chloride in the early 1800’s. Unfortunately, his pictures darkened and turned black because he had no way of removing the chemical from the paper. He later tested other chemicals and soon was able to develop a photograph, on a pewter plate, using Bitumen of Judea.

It was a far cry from the digital pictures we have today, or even the Polaroid® photos of the past, but it gave us a wonderful gift. Now we can take photos of landscapes, important people and events, and even our pets—kitten and puppy pictures are just so heartwarming.

With the development of digital cameras, you don’t even need to develop anymore. Nope, you don’t have to drop off your film at the Kodak® booth. Now you can take shot after shot, and not have to load more film. Well, you might need to free up some memory from all of those selfies you took.

Photography has allowed us the chance to capture a moment in time, share it with others, and relive it at a later date. You can look back through time with iconic pictures of the flag raising in Iwo Jima, during WWII, and the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969, or simply reminisce with the family picture of you in that ugly Christmas sweater from last year. Photographs hold on to the memories that can fade from our minds.

So take some time tomorrow to focus on an amazing invention. Get a group selfie to immortalize the moment. Make your day picture perfect by celebrating Photography Day, and feel free to share those shots.

Here is one I took at Allegheny State Park. I thought the little mushroom was cute sitting high on the log.