Photography Stuff

I've been looking at the National Library of Australia's huge collection of pictures. I'm going through by decade.

I was getting a bit tired of looking at paintings and drawings. I started to wonder when photographs would begin to appear.

Well, today I started on the 1850's, and I'm seeing a few photos here and there.

So, did photography begin around then?

I'm horrible at technological history, so I've decided to research it a bit.  What's the point, though?   By next month, I'll probably have forgotten what I've learned.  

The National Geographic site has a history of photography thing.    

They say the first permanent image was done in 1826. It seems weird to me that it didn't happen until then.  I mean it's amazing that, in less than 200 years, we've come so incredibly far.

1839 was the first photo of a person.  Both this and the event above was done by French folks.

The rest of the website has the first of this and the first of that. I'm wondering more about when things became more popular and accessible. When did photography become commonplace?

Lord Wiki talks about how there were inventions way prior to the first permanent image of 1826.     An example of this would be the pinhole camera. From what I understand, this could produce an image, but the image wasn't permanent.

I'm kind of just skimming through here. But yeah. I'm getting the sense that photography kind of blossomed in the 1850's. However, it wasn't an easy hobby, and it seems it was left to professionals.

Photography for the everyday person came about in the very early 1900's. So I guess when I get to that century, I'll see a big increase in photography on the National Library of Australia site.

While we're on the subject of photography.....

I'll confess that I'm not a big fan of the bright rich photographs that seem to be popular these days.    Is it called saturated maybe?  

Let me try to find one on Flickr. Provide an example.

Crap. Now I can't find any.

Okay.  I found some but not on Flickr.  

I think I'm in the minority here. They seem to be very popular.  And I don't completely dislike them.  I've seen some that bloggers have posted, and they can be very beautiful.

HOWEVER, I personally prefer more washed out photography. I love old photos from the 1970's and 1980's.  I love when the color is sort of fading.

Here's an example from Flickr.

I'm thinking about our photos.  I think they're pretty middle of the road, for the most part.  They're not super saturated, and they're not especially faded....well, I mean the ones on Flickr. I'm sure I have faded photos around the house somewhere.

Now I'm playing around with a picture on Flickr.

Okay here.  This is from our time in Manly. The first photo is saturated.   



Then this picture is the original.



Well, I actually kind of like the saturated one in this case. It's kind of cool with the bright green shorts.

Maybe it depends on the photo?

Let me try another one.

Never mind. The program is all stuck.

You know, maybe it depends on the situation.  I think saturated photographs work well in certain environments.  They can make a beach scene look dream-like. I like that.  But if I'm looking at a photograph of the outback, I prefer it to look a bit more subdued.   

Oh. Good. It's unstuck now.  






That's Jack playing in the mud....the original version.

Here's the super color version.


You know. I kind of like that one too.

Shit.  Maybe I'm changing my mind.

Or...you know....maybe it's like 3D movies.  It's cool, but you don't need it all the time.  We don't need to be watching every movie in 3D (especially since it costs extra), and we don't need every photograph to be tampered with.  But it's a really cool effect to use periodically.  Well, some people love the effect, so they'd want to use it more than just periodically. That's fine.

All right.  I FINALLY found a photo in which I prefer the original.I was beginning to worry I had completely changed my mind.

You know, there's that old question. Do you dream in color?

Well, when I look at saturated photos of scenery they remind me of my dreams.  So maybe I not only dream in color, but I dream in saturated color.

I should like the saturated photos then.  I like my dreams. Hell, I LOVE my dreams.   

Here's the last examples.



That's the regular photo.


There's the saturated one.

Actually, now I'm thinking that I like both of them.

Crap. I'm too confused.