The Basics of Cameras

With the point and click of a camera, even the most inexperienced photographer has the ability to freeze a moment in time. It wasn’t always that easy, however. The history of the camera began with the culmination of two scientific discoveries, exposure to light and chemicals.

Sir John Herschel was the first to use the term photography in the 1830s and made it possible for early photographers to capture memories of family and friends and document history. In the 1800s, because of the cumbersome camera and the skills needed to understand the process of developing, getting your picture taken could be costly and would take up to eight hours to develop.

Fortunately, a century later photography became a much more accessible industry, and many people began to enjoy photography as a profession and as a hobby. For years camera enthusiasts had the opportunity to learn how to develop and enlarge pictures using a myriad of liquids, chemicals, and a dark room.

Like art, the photographer could learn to shape their images with varying degrees of exposure to light. While more people began to have the ability to take pictures, developing them still required the necessary tools and space.

For those who weren’t interested in creating their own dark room, picture takers relied on companies that specialized in developing to turn their rolls of film into index card-sized works of art. Now, with ever advancing technology the most inexperienced novice can enjoy the art of picture taking.

If simplicity is of most importance and you don’t want to spend a lot of money you can purchase a disposable camera. Disposables can be purchased at many convenience stores in a multitude of varieties. After you’ve taken your pictures, just turn the whole camera in to your favorite developing shop. For a small fee they will develop the pictures and throw away the rest.

If, however, you are tired of rolls of film and prefer to see your picture moments after you’ve taken it, then you will want to get a digital. Digital cameras allow photographers to download pictures onto a computer, making it relatively simple to print out, save as a screensaver or email to a friend. Advances in the field of photography have made it economically affordable and relatively simple to take a picture. So the next time you experience a moment you wish could last forever, just point and shoot.