Tramp Art: Showpieces from the Scrap Heap

What the heck is tramp art, you may ask?

From yesterday's discards they are today's vagabond glories.

Odds are you have not heard of tramp art.

You may fall hard for its character and intriguing history, according to one article.

Part of the allure of this distinctive decorative art is its heritage, says Hanne Klein.

The original craftsmen often rode railway cards to create and sell their pieces, according to records.

The tramp art heyday started around the 1860s, probably in Germany, and lasted to roughly the early 1900s, although there are also Depression-era pieces in some collections, says research.

Pieces range from small frames to ornaments to major furniture, anything that these artists could build from scrap lumber and then notch and layer into intricate, often magical designs, says photographer Natalie Caudill.

Dallas, TX resident Mary Cates, interior designer, shop owner, and avid tramp art collector, says she knows what it can do for a room.

In her own home she has pieces on walls and tables throughout starting with a wall of picture frames in the entry hall, moving to a box topped with a mirror on a living-room desk, and extending to an intricately carved mirror that cover a bathroom medicine cabinet.

The most common items were the simplest to make: picture frames, doll furniture, and boxes used for everything from jewelry to clocks, said Jimmy Allen, a "picker."

But some people went beyond that to "spectacular forms," according to him.

Today's prices range from around $100 into the thousands, according to Su Ellen Compton, an antiques dealer and interior designer.

As Cates, who has been collecting for at least 12 years, comments, you know that "these things were made for someone."

Half the fun of adding tramp art to your life is the thrill of the hunt, said Charles Wyly, a Dallas philanthropist.

Bill Carmichael, who wrote a book on tramp art, said the pieces have a tradition of being despised by antique dealers.

"Loosely speaking tramp art is a colloquialism employed by many antique collectors to describe the odd-looking ‘dust catchers' or ‘gaudy junk' which professional vagabonds, hobos, gentlemen of leisure, prisoners, and just plain down-and-out bums carved out of bits and pieces of spare wood and gave to housewives in exchange for food and lodging," he said.

Sound in Film and Cinema

Sound plays a vital role in film and helps shape the way the viewer reacts and watches a motion picture. Sound influences and enhances what we see on the projector screen. Film critic and music composer Michael Chion breaks down sound into different groups which each play a role in the making of a film. 

Michael Chion describes sound and listening in three different types of modes: causal, semantic, and reduced listening. “Causal listening refers to the listening of a sound in order to gather information about its cause or source (Chion 25).” Semantic listening is listening for the purpose of gaining information about what is communicated in the sound and language. Reduced listening is listening for the purpose of focusing on the qualities of sound itself such as pitch or timbre, which is independent of its source or meaning. 

In the film Bad Boys II with Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, each of the three listening modes are used. In one of the last scenes of the movie, the two policemen gear up for a huge battle in which they rescue a hostage while under gunfire from the Cuban army. They enter a mansion surrounded by armored guards and men as they make their way through the house trying to find the hostage. They are able to successfully escape with the hostage as they leave in a car with the mansion exploding in the background. The sound first heard in this scene uses causal listening with miners digging an underground tunnel. The clang of the digging indicates that men are underground and are moving quickly. In addition, the semantic sounds of the policemen’s voices are heard as they instruct each other where to go. This is causal listening as well as semantic listening. The barking of instructions indicate that the voice is from one of the policemen and from semantic listening you can hear that the voice is from actor Will Smith without even seeing him in the picture. In the background, as the policemen prepare to enter the house, the reverberation of a drum is heard as a reduced sound to create suspense. Immediately, the explosion from a rocket launcher rips through the air followed by the panicked voices of the enemy soldiers. This fleeting moment uses all three listening modes. Causal listening is used to determine that the source of the explosion is the rocket launcher and reduced listening indicates that magnitude of the explosion and its effects on the building. Finally, semantic listening is used determine that the panicked voices belong to the Cuban soldiers who are under attack. Then the crash of shattered glass and windows is heard through reduced listening as well as the sound of the approaching enemy vehicles as the policemen make their way towards the hostage. As bullets and machine gun fire whiz by the policemen in another example of reduced listening, the clatter of footsteps and shouting is heard loud and clear to convey an atmosphere of chaos and confusion. The shouting of the men as they escape is another instance of semantic listening as the viewer realizes that it is coming from actor Martin Lawrence. 

Sound is able to influence what we see and affect its images by bringing to life the images on the screen. The sound of a grenade making a huge explosion magnifies it effects on the scene at hand. The noises make the scene and actions come alive and seem all the more real. The noise of miners digging tunnels makes you believe that you are really inside that tunnel with the characters in the film. Listening to sound in a film also makes the viewer react more to the action or scene. For example, the noise of a machine gun firing rapidly several rounds of bullets at a time makes it seem all the more remarkable of a feat when the actors miraculously escape a hail of bullets while running for their lives. Awed at such a scene, the audience thinks, “how did they do that” or “that was amazing.” Furthermore, the listening of sound captures the viewer’s attention and wraps them into the scene. The noise of several helicopter in the sky dashing across the ocean gives the impression that a huge action scene is about to occur or a crucial point in the film’s plot is on the brink.

10 Great Tips to Make Any DIY Winter Wedding Photography Successful!

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This winter many couples are choosing do it yourself wedding photography in an attempt to save money. Wedding photography is tricky because if not done right there will be no good documentation of the special day. My dad does wedding photography as an amateur hobby; wedding photography is not skill less, but can be done easily with practice by almost any amateur photographer. This article will take a look at 10 tips to make DIY winter wedding photography successful; however keep in mind DIY wedding photography takes copious amounts of editing after the ceremony.

1. Camera

Taking wedding photographs should be done with the right camera, not a regular point and shoot camera. I recommend using the Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi, it takes high quality pictures and is relatively easy to use. This camera can be found at www.buy.com for $569.95, but you should check to see if anyone in the wedding party can provide this camera or a similar model to save on money.

2. Flash

Relying on the built in pop up flash in any camera is a recipe for failure; you will want to use an external flash for low lighting pictures, such as a church or an evening reception. Winter conditions outside will not require a flash due to the reflection of the snow, but it can be used if done right; however inside you will want a powerful flash. I cannot give a recommendation because certain flashes work for different cameras; therefore the flash will be determined by your digital camera choice. www.ritzcamera.com has a good variety of flashes, lenses, and cameras.

3. Lenses

Unfortunately DIY picture taking is not cheap and requires the proper zoom lenses for great photos from anywhere in the room. Buying any secondary lenses is not necessary, but they will make the pictures better. www.ritzcamera.com has a good selection of lenses; it is where I purchased mine.

4. Go Digital

The hardest part of DIY wedding photography is getting professional looking shots. Going digital allows for touchups on the pictures after they are taken so that they come out perfect. Going digital also saves on prints since all the photos can be saved on a flash drive or a CD.

5. Choose an artistic guest for the job

Capturing the right moment is what photography is all about; having a guest that is willing to take pictures who has an artistic eye is the best way to get quality shots. Do not expect a gift from the photographer as it takes hours of work to take and edit great shots.

6. Be aware of lighting conditions

Winter is the hardest time of the year to take photographs outside due to the reflective nature of snow and the brightness of the sun. Be creative on the angles of your photographs; many high end cameras also show the contrast ratio on the photos taken, look at the contrast to make sure the photos are coming out correctly.

7. Be aware of where the sun is

Do not shoot towards the sun or objects that are in the sun, it can cause shadows and some funky looking pictures. Just be aware of the sun and preview one or two pictures before taking more.

8. Capture photos with the theme

If your theme is a winter wonderland then capture that theme in the photos! Try to include shots of the bridal party and newlyweds in the natural theme of the wedding; also try to include guests in the same theme. Be creative with the shots, you may have to shoot at different angles to get the desired results.

9. Use the flash

Even in snowy conditions you should experiment with the flash for better pictures, the bright the background the more the object you are photographing will stand out. This may not always be the case; therefore you should check the pictures being taken to make sure they are coming out professionally.

10. Edit, Edit, Edit

No DIY photography is complete up completion of the ceremony! There are countless hours of editing that must be taken on to get professional looking results. If you do not have the proper computer skills try to find a guest that would be willing to help edit in exchange for their wedding present.

This site has some extra DIY tips that can help during a winter wedding; I did not cover many these tips, so it may be a good read: http://www.squidoo.com/weddingphotographyguide

Sources:

www.ritzcamera.com

http://www.squidoo.com/weddingphotographyguide, DIY Winter Wedding Photography

Great Tips for Memorable Baby Shower Gifts

celtics baby clothes

I never realized how complicated buying a baby shower present could be.  I always loved to shop for the gifts before I had a baby.  Unknown to me, I actually thought I knew the best things to get.  You just pull up the registry and get something.  This is a full proof way o make sure you get something the new mommy wants.  However, let me propose another idea.

I have a 13 month old little girl.  When I was pregnant, I had 3 baby showers.  I was very fortunate and my friends and co-workers were very generous.  I didn’t have to buy any clothes or onezies for about 6 months.  I also found out, after my showers and registry completion, which I didn’t know what to register for when my daughter grew a little. 

These are some of my tips on baby shower gifts that I give friends when they ask:

1. How much I spend depends on how well I know the person.  If it is an acquaintance, I usually spend $20-$25.  If it is a close girlfriend, I usually spend a little more.  I also keep some basic stuff on hand and buy it when it goes on sale.  That way it is cheaper.  Those items are infant Tylenol and gas drops. 
   
   


2. I start buying for close friends when they are about 4 months along.  This way I can spend a little more and not feel it so bad in the wallet.
   
   


3. I always start out with a basic set for everybody. This consists of diapers, infant Tylenol, and gas drops.  Usually I can find a box of wipes on sale and include a couple of packages.
   
   


4. Other items I try to include off the registry are things that the baby will need later on.  Such items are usually spoons that change colors when too hot, sippy cups, other feeding items, and bibs that are for when the baby starts eating solids as opposed to the adorable drooling bibs that the new mommy will probably get a ton of.  I have found that these are very much needed and are usually not purchased off the registry as they are not “cute” gifts to give.
   
   


5. Filler items that I can usually find for $1 or less are teething rings, socks, generic bottles (make sure you get the right size nipple neck the new mommy registered for), and toys/rattles.
   
   


6. Things I don’t get are onezies, cute drooling bibs, towels, washrags, and outfits.  I have found by going to many showers and by my own experience, that the new mommy gets plenty of these whether she has registered for them or not.
   
   


7. Diapers are an item all to themselves.  I loved getting all kinds of diapers.  That way I got to try different brands without having to buy them myself.  I do have a confession, however.  I was so blessed that when I figured out that only Pampers didn’t leak or break out my little girl, I returned $105 worth of unopened diapers to Wal-Mart.  So I don’t worry about whether I look cheap or not when I buy different kinds of diapers.
   

Here are some tips I would give the new mommy that I learned the hard way.  I made the mistake of washing all my new clothes as soon as I received them.  I would whole-heartedly recommend not washing anything until you are all done with your showers.  I probably would have exchanged some onezies for other things I needed but didn’t get but couldn’t because I washed everything as soon as I got them.  I also received duplicates but didn’t realize it until I had washed both items.  I could have exchanged these as well.  I also saved all of my shower bags and have used them for other baby showers that I have been invited to since then.  This allows you to spend a little more on the gift since you don’t have to spend anything wrapping it.

I hope you have a great time buying for your baby shower.  It is one of my favorite gifts to buy.  New mommies are so appreciative of anything they get.  I know I was.  Not to mention that they are usually starting off with a clean slate and have nothing to begin with.  Maybe these tips can help you buy the best gift sets you know the new mommy will love.  I have gotten lots of complements even though I never buy the “cute” stuff.

The History of Photography

Photo Credit: celtics baby clothes

Capturing and commemorating precious moments in time has been a need for humans since ancient times. All over the world Prehistoric men have meticulously painted countless cave walls depicting either hunting and sporting events or other significant moments of their time. Later civilizations across the globe operated in similar fashions constructing either elaborate paintings or laborious sculptures. Each painting or sculpture afterward would strive to appear more and more detailed as if attempting to attain that life-like quality of each moment being projected. Battlefield paintings are littered throughout countless history books and journals in multiple languages with the sole purpose of endeavoring to convey a message in which words alone could not express. It is impossible to imagine how much information has been lost in translation throughout time without the truly marvelous invention of the camera and photography. If important events such as the signing of the Declaration of Independence or the pilgrim's first Thanksgiving feast with Native Americans had been captured on film would they hold more important places in the minds and hearts than they do now? People may never know, but the importance and raw power of photography cannot be denied. Whether viewing a portrait or just a moment caught in time, never has the imagination been captured nor have emotions been pulled to the surface as by the captivating image of a photo.

It is important and necessary to understand and explore the origins, the historical figures, and advancements involved in photography's history before people can appreciate just how far this field moved and exceeded all expectations.

"Photography" is derived from the Greek words photos ("light") and graphein ("to draw"). The word was first used by the scientist Sir John F.W. Herschel in 1839. It is a method of recording images by the action of light or related radiation, on a sensitive material (Bellis, n.d.). Photography has played a crucial role in various societies the world over not only as an intricate art form but also as a significant part in our way of life. From its early beginnings to its key figures of inventors and innovators who ushered in the critical and the amazing technical advancements which have made photography the phenomenon it is today.

William M. Ivins was Curator of Prints at the metropolitan Museum of Art in New York from 1916 until 1946 and published a documentary on photography in 1953 which distinguished between the relationship of traditional techniques of hand-drawn printmaking (the woodcut, metal and wood engravings and lithograph) and photography. Ivins noted that historically, printmaking was not usually practiced as an art form as they are practiced today, but as a means of distributing visual information. Ivins argued that once you begin to examine prints (or pictures) in functional terms you discover that without them very few modern sciences would exist; technologies, archaeologies, and ethnologies. Each of these is dependent upon information conveyed by exactly repeatable pictorial statements (Crawford, 1948).

The idea of photography existed long before the camera was invented. The human urge to produce pictures that amplified the faculty of memory by capturing time is at the theoretical base of photography. Artist and inventors have sought after ways to expedite the picture making process and ultimately concentrated on how to repeatedly capture an image directly formed by light since ancient times. Around the fifth century the Chinese philosopher Mo Ti discovered that light reflecting from an illuminated object and passing through a pinhole into a darkened area would form an exact, but inverted, image of that object, offering a prototype of the pinhole camera. By the 10th century the Arabian mathematician Alhazen demonstrated how the pinhole could be an instrument and that images formed through the aperture became sharper when the opening was made smaller.

Leonardo da Vinci noted in 1490 the earliest surviving description of the camera obscura (dark chamber), which was a device designed to reproduce linear perspective. This was a prototype of the photographic camera and essentially a large dark room in which an artist physically entered. Light would emit through a small hole in one of its four walls and produce a distinct but inverted image onto the opposite wall which could be traced. The camera obscura was popular with artist because it could automatically modify a scene by compressing form and emphasizing tonal mass according to pictorial standards (Hirsch, 2000). In 1589 it was discussed that the use of mirrors could theoretically reverse the image that was reflected backwards into the camera obscura which is now the basis for modern-day single lens-reflex camera. By the 17th century camera obscuras were in frequent use by artist and also made portable in the form of sedan chairs (Bellis, n.d.).

Early in the 18th century the rising commercial class longed to procure the status of being commemorated in much the same pictorial style as of the rich. Multiple inventors had commercial incentives to harness the camera to portrait making, as less training would decrease the costs of making a picture. Machine-based systems for multiple copy production were on the threshold of replacing the outdated handmade methods. One such machine was the physionotrace invented by Gilles Louis Chretien in 1786. This device combined two inexpensive methods of portraiture, the cutout silhouette and the engraving. The operator would trace a profile on a glass using a stylus connected to an engraving tool which duplicated the gestures of the stylus onto a copper plate at a smaller scale. Although it was not a camera, the physionotrace reduced portrait making to a systematic mechanical operation and inevitably expanded the portrait market to the middle class.

In regards to the actual process of photography it was in 1727 Professor J. Schulze surmised that by mixing chalk, nitric acid and silver into a flask images would begin to appear in the presence of sunlight. He noticed a darkening on the sides of the flask which were exposed to direct sunlight and purely by accident was the initial creation of the first photo-sensitive compound (Bellis, n.d.).The first to experiment with in the production of images was Thomas Wedgwood from 1800 to 1802 using white leather impregnated with silver nitrate. It was known at that time that most chemical compounds of silver darkened on exposure to light. Wedgwood was able to produce reversed impressions of objects but was unable to make his pictures permanent by removing the unused silver salts after exposure. Joseph Nicéphore Niépce was the next experimenter and in 1816, even though he was able to produce reversed prints on this material and faint pictures on it in a camera obscura, he had little more success due to the paper eventually darkening. In 1822 he directed his attention to the problem of sensitizing metal plates. Niépce discovered that by coating a pewter plate with a varnish he could produce copies of engravings by placing them in contact with strong light and his coated plates and enabled him to etch his plates and them for printing. This process was later improved by his partner Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre who, after Niépce's death in 1833, established a workable process by exposure to the vapor of heated mercury.

"I have found a way of fixing the images of the camera! I have seized the fleeting light and imprisoned it! I have forced the sun to paint pictures for me!" These were the historical words of L. J. M. Daguerre spoken to Charles Chevalier at his Paris optical shop and reflect the driving desire to make permanent images through the action of light. (Hirsch, 2000, 10). Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, inventor of the first practical process of photography, was born near Paris, France on November 18, 1789. A professional scene painter for the opera, Daguerre began experimenting with the effects of light upon translucent paintings in the 1820s. In 1829, he formed a joint venture with Joseph Nicéphore Niépce to improve the process Niépce had developed to take the first permanent photograph in 1826-1827.

After several years of experimentation, Daguerre developed a more convenient and effective method of photography, naming it after himself - the daguerreotype. In 1839, he and Niépce's son sold the rights for the daguerreotype to the French government and published a booklet describing the process. The invention was announced to the public on August 19, 1839 at a meeting of the French Academy of Sciences in Paris and his process was used widely in Europe and in the United States. Daguerre's daguerreotype process required long exposure time and made portraits virtually impossible until in 1840 John Goddard cut exposure time in half by treating the plates with bromine and iodine. With this innovation and the development of new lens designs, made possible the idea commercial portraiture. The daguerreotype process went out of use to the general public in the 1850s due to tight patent restrictions which affected application and eventually became obsolete by 1860 (Coe, 1978).

During this time an English scientist, William Henry Fox Talbot, independently devised a camera based imagining process in 1834 using the light sensitivity of silver salts. He invented the salted paper print which was a printing-out process that allowed him to make images without the use of a camera of botanical specimens engravings, pieces of lace, and even solar photomicrographs. By first coating sheets of ordinary writing paper with sodium chloride, letting them dry, and then recoating them with silver nitrate he formed silver chloride which was more highly sensitive to sunlight and reduced exposure time tremendously producing spontaneous images without chemical development. In 1841 Talbot accidentally discovered a process for negative development that he patent under the name calotype. In this process, an exposed sheet of iodized paper was transferred to a darkroom and brushed with gallic acid until a potent negative was developed. It was then that the negative was contact-printed onto unexposed, salted paper in sunlight to form a positive. This process formed the foundation for silver-based photographic systems still in use today.

The negative-positive principle of the calotype process designed by Talbot and the popular daguerreotype were both truly remarkable for their times but not without limitations. A new process evolved from both but without their limitations and would eventually take their place and was referred to as wet-plate photography. It was a photographer's axiom that paper negatives advantages were outweighed by their disadvantages with their resolution limited of fine detail. It was realized that if glass was used the problem would not exist but it simply was not absorbent to carry the coating of light sensitive salts. In 1839 Sir John Herschel was able to produce an image on glass by precipitating silver chloride onto a glass plate and was later perfected by Abel Niépce de Saint-Victor in 1847 by using egg white albumen coated on the glass providing a suitable medium for sensitive salts. A new material for development called collodion was discovered by Frederick Scott Archer in 1851 formed through dissolving a form of gun-cotton in ether. A glass plate was covered with collodion and plunged into silver nitrate and then the wet-plate was loaded into and exposed in a camera. Immediately after exposure the plate was developed, fixed and washed. The collodion negative could record fine detail and subtle tones and also had the advantage of being more highly sensitive than either the daguerreotype and calotype processes. In contrast the gelatin dry plate was first developed by Dr. Richard Leach Maddox who used gelatin instead of ether vapor of the wet collodion plate due to his poor health. It was later perfected by Charles Bennett in 1878 by reducing exposure times drastically, retaining their properties, being easily manufactured and very sensitive.

Pertaining to film and photo depth, one of the most popular photographic novelties which went on display at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851 was the stereoscopic photograph. The mildly dissimilar vantage points provided by the eyes are combined in the brain to give an image in depth. If two photographs of a scene are taken from points of view separated by two about two inches, and are then viewed so that each eye receives only the image appropriated to it, the result is an apparently three-dimensional picture. This principle was first introduced by Sir Charles Wheatstone in 1832 but was not until Sir David Brewster in 1849 introduced an improved device using lenses that the stereoscope became really practical (Coe, 1977).

Another important milestone in photography is that of the photography of action. The early photographic processes were all relatively insensitive. It was impossible at that time to record moving objects without producing a blur on the plate. Specially designed lenses were utilized by Thomas Skaife in his cameras to pass 200 times more light than conventional landscape lenses. Skaife's 'Pistolgraph' camera was introduced in 1856 and after adding the required lens and a shutter powered by a rubber band allowed permitted exposures sufficiently brief to stop the action of slowly moving subjects. Sir John Herschel's name is synonymous with the term 'snapshot' which describes an instantaneous photograph. But it was Eadweard Muybridge who pioneered the process of motion picture photography using gelatin dry plates in the 1880s and eventually led the likes of Professor Etienne Marey and Ottomar Anschutz to document true animals in action. These individuals were often referred to as chronophotographers (Rosenblum, 1997).

Around the mid 1890s public interest began to peak over the publication of the results of chronophotography. This brought about the demand for the development of hand held cameras to replace the traditional and larger stand cameras. Even though small hand held 'detective' cameras were in circulation they were quite awkward and still required multiple cumbersome pieces of hardware that were an inconvenience to everyone but the most enthusiastic of photographers. Even though the dry plate relieved photographers from making their own plates they still had to process and print them requiring knowledge and necessary skills for the dark room. This was answered by the American bank clerk George Eastman who invented the Kodak camera. Eastman felt that photography was too complicated and stated that; "It seems that one ought to be able to carry less than a pack horse load."(Coe, 1978, 13). Though there were some 'detective' cameras that were reasonably small most were bulky. He developed a rolling mechanism and combined it with lightweight sensitive material and decided to construct a camera that would be small and simple to use. In 1888 the first Kodak camera with a celluloid roll-film was developed.

Around the 1850s, photography was viewed by some as a new medium of communication and became hard to discern between art and industry. Eventually it became apparent that photography was considered a business with a widening division of purpose between amateurs and professionals. The latter were motivated by market forces to develop profitable products while the amateurs pursued their personal inclinations and claimed the moral high ground of art, beauty, truth, relegating the professionals to the corner of crass commercialism. Many of England's most notable photographers abandoned their amateur status and turned professional. During the 19th century realism became a force in the arts. Realism sought to counter the idealized subject matter of Romantic and Neoclassical painting with direct and frank views of everyday life. As the public became acquainted with photography's veracity and ability to give significance to everyday experiences, their expectations about how reality should be represented and what subjects were worthy of depiction changed. Ironically photographs became artistic when they looked less photographic by utilizing retouching methods to appear more like a painting. Paintings, on the other hand, were thought to be more artistic if they portrayed more photographic detail. This contradiction resulted in neither medium being valued for its own inherent qualities. (Hirsch, 2000).

The evolution of the camera has advanced beyond all expectations from the digital mega pixel masterpieces we have today to their most earliest ancestors, the camera obscura. Dating back to ancient times, the camera obscura consisted of a pinhole in a contained box. The pinhole would allow light to pass through and project an image on the adjacent wall thus allowing artist to trace the captured image as it appeared at that moment. Niépce, Wedgewood, Talbot are credited with the first portable camera obscuras but it was Daguerre who designed the first cameras to be commercially produced on any practical scale.

The folding box camera, T. Ottewill's folding camera, and portable "dark tent" cameras all gave way to user friendly handhelds such as the momentograph and detective cameras in 1886, the unusual photosphere with its bell-shaped body and hemispherical shutter, the American Tom Thumb camera in 1889, and the Key camera. These box-form cameras eventually became less popular after 1890 and were replaced with collapsing and folding strut cameras.

Kodak sold these forms of cameras in which glass plates or roll films could be used. For a brief time a type of camera was introduced to appear as anything but a camera. The first 'concealment' camera to receive any publicity was Thompson's Revolver camera in 1862 which resembled a pistol. Another was Marion's Parcel Detective camera of 1885 which was supplied in brown paper and tied with a string to appear as a normal parcel and Ross's Photo scope in 1892 mimicked binoculars. Kodak cameras are credited in 1885 with introducing the ingenuity and the marketing of film development roll-film designs. In 1908 still photography was made practical by Audobard and Baradat with 35-mm film due to its small size and handling convenience. The development of Kodachrome, the first multi-layered color film took place in 1936 as did the development of Exakta which pioneered 35 mm single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras. In 1963 Polaroid developed the first instant color film while Instamatic was released by Kodak. Also in this year Nikon released the first purpose-built underwater camera thus changing the way the world viewed oceanography. As the world approached the millennia major advances in the field of computer technology swept the many nations and major advances in film development also transpired in the field of photography. Computer programs such as Adobe Photoshop was released to the public in 1990 and changed the way photography was perceived by allowing users to edit their own pictures. In 1992 Kodak introduced PhotoCD which permitted users to store their pictures on compact disc. In light of this new technology and with the arrival of digital cameras Kodak ceased all production of film cameras. And most notably, the cutting edge technology most familiar to the public is that of camera phones. These multifunctional cameras hit the market from Japan in 2000 and are changing the field of photography and availability unlike anything seen before (Greenspun, 2007).

Through the course of time and painstaking trial and error, the expansive field of photography had grown immeasurably from the exclusive dreams of a handful of visionaries determined to rival the skilled painters and bring to the public what only was available to the wealthy at that time. Cameras and photography have transformed from an artful pastime into an essential way of life touching it in all aspects the public could have never envisioned nor can foresee what will be next in its future.

Through presenting the history of photography in this research it is paramount to stress the importance and necessary to understand the origins of photography and appreciate the many designs that the camera has undertaken since its birth. The field of photography would have undoubtedly fell short in practical use, technological discoveries, and the art community would most likely have suffered a tremendous amount without the inventors and innovations of its past. The advancements involved in photography's history are all but unparalleled in its ingenious technology and reigns as a true marvel for all inventions. Far though as foreign lands may be and alien that other cultures may seem, with a better appreciation of photography our world could be closer captured instantly in snapshot.

References

Bellis, M. Historyof Photography and the Camera. Retrieved June 24, 2008, from www.about.com

Web site: http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blphotography.htm

Coe, B. (1977). TheBirth of Photography: The Story of the Formative Years 1800-1900. New York: Taplinger Publishing Company.

Coe, B. (1978). Cameras: From Daguerreotypes to Instant Pictures. New York: Crown Publishers.

Crawford, W. (1948). The Keepers of Light: A History and Working Guide to Early Photographic Processes. Dobbs Ferry, NY: Morgan and Morgan

Greenspun, P. (2007, January). History of Photography Timeline. Retrieved June 24, 2008, from

http://photo.net Web site: http://photo.net/history/timeline

Hirsch, R. (2000). Seizing the Light: A History of Photography. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.

Rosenblum, N. (1997). A World History of Photography. New York, NY: Abbeville Press.

DIY Wedding Photography on a Budget

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So, your wedding is fast approaching and you want memories that will last a lifetime. However, you are on a budget and don't have a lot of money to spend for a professional wedding photographer. You can still get professional-looking, creative, memorable pictures with DIY wedding photography.

The first thing to do is to find someone who takes great pictures. This doesn't have to do be a professional photographer. Many people have a "great eye" and instinctively know how to take great pictures. Think of friends or family members who you've complimented on their photography from vacations, for example. Another way to find a cheap wedding photographer is to look on local college bulletin boards, or post on them yourself in the art department or photography department. Many students have amazing talent, but since they are still a bit inexperienced, will be your wedding photographer for a fraction of the price of a professional wedding photographer. Some may even photograph your wedding for free, for no more than a free meal and use of your wedding pictures for their portfolio. You can also consider putting an ad on Craigslist for a hobbyist who is not a professional wedding photographer, but has an artistic eye and loves to take pictures. Get samples of work and negotiate a price you are both pleased with.

Whether you use a talented stranger or an artistically-inclined friend or family member as your wedding photographer, make sure they have a good camera. You may even consider purchasing a good quality, digital camera that you can give them as their "payment". If you need to purchase a camera for your DIY wedding photography, make sure you give it to the wedding photographer in plenty of time for them to learn the ins and outs of the camera, so they can adjust the settings. Digital cameras also allow for easy editing, so you or your DIY wedding photographer can edit your wedding pictures. Also, digital cameras have a large capacity to store many pictures, with a memory card they can hold hundreds of pictures, so you will have plenty of wedding photos to choose from to preserve your special day.

Another idea is to meet with your DIY wedding photographer to develop a plan of what you want photographed. Remember, since you will be saving a lot of money by not hiring a professional wedding photographer, you will have to do some of the work yourself. This includes providing the DIY wedding photographer with a list of what you want photographed. This may include photographs of the wedding rings, the wedding invitations, the bridal party, the groomsmen, the family of the bride, the family of the groom, the bride and groom's first kiss, the wedding service, etc. This will help you and your DIY wedding photographer be on the same page and know each other's expectations beforehand, so you get exactly what you want on your special day.

Also, encourage others to take pictures of your wedding. Some of the best wedding photography are those wonderfully candid moments caught by some of the guests. Some wedding couples choose to put disposable cameras on tables for guests to take photographs of, then ask that they leave the cameras when they leave the wedding reception. Some give the cameras out as wedding favors and ask that any great wedding photographs be sent to the married couple.

Lastly, consider the best of both worlds. You can hire a professional wedding photographer for a short period of time to take a few very specific pictures, then rely on your DIY photographer and wedding guests to take the rest of the photographs. This will eliminate a lot of cost for a professional wedding photographer. You can also opt to don your wedding attire a few days after the event and go to a studio to have a few professional pictures taken.

Remember, it doesn't take a professional photographer to take some amazing, creative, professional-looking wedding photography. Have a great day!

The History of Photography

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Capturing and commemorating precious moments in time has been a need for humans since ancient times. All over the world Prehistoric men have meticulously painted countless cave walls depicting either hunting and sporting events or other significant moments of their time. Later civilizations across the globe operated in similar fashions constructing either elaborate paintings or laborious sculptures. Each painting or sculpture afterward would strive to appear more and more detailed as if attempting to attain that life-like quality of each moment being projected. Battlefield paintings are littered throughout countless history books and journals in multiple languages with the sole purpose of endeavoring to convey a message in which words alone could not express. It is impossible to imagine how much information has been lost in translation throughout time without the truly marvelous invention of the camera and photography. If important events such as the signing of the Declaration of Independence or the pilgrim's first Thanksgiving feast with Native Americans had been captured on film would they hold more important places in the minds and hearts than they do now? People may never know, but the importance and raw power of photography cannot be denied. Whether viewing a portrait or just a moment caught in time, never has the imagination been captured nor have emotions been pulled to the surface as by the captivating image of a photo.

It is important and necessary to understand and explore the origins, the historical figures, and advancements involved in photography's history before people can appreciate just how far this field moved and exceeded all expectations.

"Photography" is derived from the Greek words photos ("light") and graphein ("to draw"). The word was first used by the scientist Sir John F.W. Herschel in 1839. It is a method of recording images by the action of light or related radiation, on a sensitive material (Bellis, n.d.). Photography has played a crucial role in various societies the world over not only as an intricate art form but also as a significant part in our way of life. From its early beginnings to its key figures of inventors and innovators who ushered in the critical and the amazing technical advancements which have made photography the phenomenon it is today.

William M. Ivins was Curator of Prints at the metropolitan Museum of Art in New York from 1916 until 1946 and published a documentary on photography in 1953 which distinguished between the relationship of traditional techniques of hand-drawn printmaking (the woodcut, metal and wood engravings and lithograph) and photography. Ivins noted that historically, printmaking was not usually practiced as an art form as they are practiced today, but as a means of distributing visual information. Ivins argued that once you begin to examine prints (or pictures) in functional terms you discover that without them very few modern sciences would exist; technologies, archaeologies, and ethnologies. Each of these is dependent upon information conveyed by exactly repeatable pictorial statements (Crawford, 1948).

The idea of photography existed long before the camera was invented. The human urge to produce pictures that amplified the faculty of memory by capturing time is at the theoretical base of photography. Artist and inventors have sought after ways to expedite the picture making process and ultimately concentrated on how to repeatedly capture an image directly formed by light since ancient times. Around the fifth century the Chinese philosopher Mo Ti discovered that light reflecting from an illuminated object and passing through a pinhole into a darkened area would form an exact, but inverted, image of that object, offering a prototype of the pinhole camera. By the 10th century the Arabian mathematician Alhazen demonstrated how the pinhole could be an instrument and that images formed through the aperture became sharper when the opening was made smaller.

Leonardo da Vinci noted in 1490 the earliest surviving description of the camera obscura (dark chamber), which was a device designed to reproduce linear perspective. This was a prototype of the photographic camera and essentially a large dark room in which an artist physically entered. Light would emit through a small hole in one of its four walls and produce a distinct but inverted image onto the opposite wall which could be traced. The camera obscura was popular with artist because it could automatically modify a scene by compressing form and emphasizing tonal mass according to pictorial standards (Hirsch, 2000). In 1589 it was discussed that the use of mirrors could theoretically reverse the image that was reflected backwards into the camera obscura which is now the basis for modern-day single lens-reflex camera. By the 17th century camera obscuras were in frequent use by artist and also made portable in the form of sedan chairs (Bellis, n.d.).

Early in the 18th century the rising commercial class longed to procure the status of being commemorated in much the same pictorial style as of the rich. Multiple inventors had commercial incentives to harness the camera to portrait making, as less training would decrease the costs of making a picture. Machine-based systems for multiple copy production were on the threshold of replacing the outdated handmade methods. One such machine was the physionotrace invented by Gilles Louis Chretien in 1786. This device combined two inexpensive methods of portraiture, the cutout silhouette and the engraving. The operator would trace a profile on a glass using a stylus connected to an engraving tool which duplicated the gestures of the stylus onto a copper plate at a smaller scale. Although it was not a camera, the physionotrace reduced portrait making to a systematic mechanical operation and inevitably expanded the portrait market to the middle class.

In regards to the actual process of photography it was in 1727 Professor J. Schulze surmised that by mixing chalk, nitric acid and silver into a flask images would begin to appear in the presence of sunlight. He noticed a darkening on the sides of the flask which were exposed to direct sunlight and purely by accident was the initial creation of the first photo-sensitive compound (Bellis, n.d.).The first to experiment with in the production of images was Thomas Wedgwood from 1800 to 1802 using white leather impregnated with silver nitrate. It was known at that time that most chemical compounds of silver darkened on exposure to light. Wedgwood was able to produce reversed impressions of objects but was unable to make his pictures permanent by removing the unused silver salts after exposure. Joseph Nicéphore Niépce was the next experimenter and in 1816, even though he was able to produce reversed prints on this material and faint pictures on it in a camera obscura, he had little more success due to the paper eventually darkening. In 1822 he directed his attention to the problem of sensitizing metal plates. Niépce discovered that by coating a pewter plate with a varnish he could produce copies of engravings by placing them in contact with strong light and his coated plates and enabled him to etch his plates and them for printing. This process was later improved by his partner Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre who, after Niépce's death in 1833, established a workable process by exposure to the vapor of heated mercury.

"I have found a way of fixing the images of the camera! I have seized the fleeting light and imprisoned it! I have forced the sun to paint pictures for me!" These were the historical words of L. J. M. Daguerre spoken to Charles Chevalier at his Paris optical shop and reflect the driving desire to make permanent images through the action of light. (Hirsch, 2000, 10). Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, inventor of the first practical process of photography, was born near Paris, France on November 18, 1789. A professional scene painter for the opera, Daguerre began experimenting with the effects of light upon translucent paintings in the 1820s. In 1829, he formed a joint venture with Joseph Nicéphore Niépce to improve the process Niépce had developed to take the first permanent photograph in 1826-1827.

After several years of experimentation, Daguerre developed a more convenient and effective method of photography, naming it after himself - the daguerreotype. In 1839, he and Niépce's son sold the rights for the daguerreotype to the French government and published a booklet describing the process. The invention was announced to the public on August 19, 1839 at a meeting of the French Academy of Sciences in Paris and his process was used widely in Europe and in the United States. Daguerre's daguerreotype process required long exposure time and made portraits virtually impossible until in 1840 John Goddard cut exposure time in half by treating the plates with bromine and iodine. With this innovation and the development of new lens designs, made possible the idea commercial portraiture. The daguerreotype process went out of use to the general public in the 1850s due to tight patent restrictions which affected application and eventually became obsolete by 1860 (Coe, 1978).

During this time an English scientist, William Henry Fox Talbot, independently devised a camera based imagining process in 1834 using the light sensitivity of silver salts. He invented the salted paper print which was a printing-out process that allowed him to make images without the use of a camera of botanical specimens engravings, pieces of lace, and even solar photomicrographs. By first coating sheets of ordinary writing paper with sodium chloride, letting them dry, and then recoating them with silver nitrate he formed silver chloride which was more highly sensitive to sunlight and reduced exposure time tremendously producing spontaneous images without chemical development. In 1841 Talbot accidentally discovered a process for negative development that he patent under the name calotype. In this process, an exposed sheet of iodized paper was transferred to a darkroom and brushed with gallic acid until a potent negative was developed. It was then that the negative was contact-printed onto unexposed, salted paper in sunlight to form a positive. This process formed the foundation for silver-based photographic systems still in use today.

The negative-positive principle of the calotype process designed by Talbot and the popular daguerreotype were both truly remarkable for their times but not without limitations. A new process evolved from both but without their limitations and would eventually take their place and was referred to as wet-plate photography. It was a photographer's axiom that paper negatives advantages were outweighed by their disadvantages with their resolution limited of fine detail. It was realized that if glass was used the problem would not exist but it simply was not absorbent to carry the coating of light sensitive salts. In 1839 Sir John Herschel was able to produce an image on glass by precipitating silver chloride onto a glass plate and was later perfected by Abel Niépce de Saint-Victor in 1847 by using egg white albumen coated on the glass providing a suitable medium for sensitive salts. A new material for development called collodion was discovered by Frederick Scott Archer in 1851 formed through dissolving a form of gun-cotton in ether. A glass plate was covered with collodion and plunged into silver nitrate and then the wet-plate was loaded into and exposed in a camera. Immediately after exposure the plate was developed, fixed and washed. The collodion negative could record fine detail and subtle tones and also had the advantage of being more highly sensitive than either the daguerreotype and calotype processes. In contrast the gelatin dry plate was first developed by Dr. Richard Leach Maddox who used gelatin instead of ether vapor of the wet collodion plate due to his poor health. It was later perfected by Charles Bennett in 1878 by reducing exposure times drastically, retaining their properties, being easily manufactured and very sensitive.

Pertaining to film and photo depth, one of the most popular photographic novelties which went on display at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851 was the stereoscopic photograph. The mildly dissimilar vantage points provided by the eyes are combined in the brain to give an image in depth. If two photographs of a scene are taken from points of view separated by two about two inches, and are then viewed so that each eye receives only the image appropriated to it, the result is an apparently three-dimensional picture. This principle was first introduced by Sir Charles Wheatstone in 1832 but was not until Sir David Brewster in 1849 introduced an improved device using lenses that the stereoscope became really practical (Coe, 1977).

Another important milestone in photography is that of the photography of action. The early photographic processes were all relatively insensitive. It was impossible at that time to record moving objects without producing a blur on the plate. Specially designed lenses were utilized by Thomas Skaife in his cameras to pass 200 times more light than conventional landscape lenses. Skaife's 'Pistolgraph' camera was introduced in 1856 and after adding the required lens and a shutter powered by a rubber band allowed permitted exposures sufficiently brief to stop the action of slowly moving subjects. Sir John Herschel's name is synonymous with the term 'snapshot' which describes an instantaneous photograph. But it was Eadweard Muybridge who pioneered the process of motion picture photography using gelatin dry plates in the 1880s and eventually led the likes of Professor Etienne Marey and Ottomar Anschutz to document true animals in action. These individuals were often referred to as chronophotographers (Rosenblum, 1997).

Around the mid 1890s public interest began to peak over the publication of the results of chronophotography. This brought about the demand for the development of hand held cameras to replace the traditional and larger stand cameras. Even though small hand held 'detective' cameras were in circulation they were quite awkward and still required multiple cumbersome pieces of hardware that were an inconvenience to everyone but the most enthusiastic of photographers. Even though the dry plate relieved photographers from making their own plates they still had to process and print them requiring knowledge and necessary skills for the dark room. This was answered by the American bank clerk George Eastman who invented the Kodak camera. Eastman felt that photography was too complicated and stated that; "It seems that one ought to be able to carry less than a pack horse load."(Coe, 1978, 13). Though there were some 'detective' cameras that were reasonably small most were bulky. He developed a rolling mechanism and combined it with lightweight sensitive material and decided to construct a camera that would be small and simple to use. In 1888 the first Kodak camera with a celluloid roll-film was developed.

Around the 1850s, photography was viewed by some as a new medium of communication and became hard to discern between art and industry. Eventually it became apparent that photography was considered a business with a widening division of purpose between amateurs and professionals. The latter were motivated by market forces to develop profitable products while the amateurs pursued their personal inclinations and claimed the moral high ground of art, beauty, truth, relegating the professionals to the corner of crass commercialism. Many of England's most notable photographers abandoned their amateur status and turned professional. During the 19th century realism became a force in the arts. Realism sought to counter the idealized subject matter of Romantic and Neoclassical painting with direct and frank views of everyday life. As the public became acquainted with photography's veracity and ability to give significance to everyday experiences, their expectations about how reality should be represented and what subjects were worthy of depiction changed. Ironically photographs became artistic when they looked less photographic by utilizing retouching methods to appear more like a painting. Paintings, on the other hand, were thought to be more artistic if they portrayed more photographic detail. This contradiction resulted in neither medium being valued for its own inherent qualities. (Hirsch, 2000).

The evolution of the camera has advanced beyond all expectations from the digital mega pixel masterpieces we have today to their most earliest ancestors, the camera obscura. Dating back to ancient times, the camera obscura consisted of a pinhole in a contained box. The pinhole would allow light to pass through and project an image on the adjacent wall thus allowing artist to trace the captured image as it appeared at that moment. Niépce, Wedgewood, Talbot are credited with the first portable camera obscuras but it was Daguerre who designed the first cameras to be commercially produced on any practical scale.

The folding box camera, T. Ottewill's folding camera, and portable "dark tent" cameras all gave way to user friendly handhelds such as the momentograph and detective cameras in 1886, the unusual photosphere with its bell-shaped body and hemispherical shutter, the American Tom Thumb camera in 1889, and the Key camera. These box-form cameras eventually became less popular after 1890 and were replaced with collapsing and folding strut cameras.

Kodak sold these forms of cameras in which glass plates or roll films could be used. For a brief time a type of camera was introduced to appear as anything but a camera. The first 'concealment' camera to receive any publicity was Thompson's Revolver camera in 1862 which resembled a pistol. Another was Marion's Parcel Detective camera of 1885 which was supplied in brown paper and tied with a string to appear as a normal parcel and Ross's Photo scope in 1892 mimicked binoculars. Kodak cameras are credited in 1885 with introducing the ingenuity and the marketing of film development roll-film designs. In 1908 still photography was made practical by Audobard and Baradat with 35-mm film due to its small size and handling convenience. The development of Kodachrome, the first multi-layered color film took place in 1936 as did the development of Exakta which pioneered 35 mm single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras. In 1963 Polaroid developed the first instant color film while Instamatic was released by Kodak. Also in this year Nikon released the first purpose-built underwater camera thus changing the way the world viewed oceanography. As the world approached the millennia major advances in the field of computer technology swept the many nations and major advances in film development also transpired in the field of photography. Computer programs such as Adobe Photoshop was released to the public in 1990 and changed the way photography was perceived by allowing users to edit their own pictures. In 1992 Kodak introduced PhotoCD which permitted users to store their pictures on compact disc. In light of this new technology and with the arrival of digital cameras Kodak ceased all production of film cameras. And most notably, the cutting edge technology most familiar to the public is that of camera phones. These multifunctional cameras hit the market from Japan in 2000 and are changing the field of photography and availability unlike anything seen before (Greenspun, 2007).

Through the course of time and painstaking trial and error, the expansive field of photography had grown immeasurably from the exclusive dreams of a handful of visionaries determined to rival the skilled painters and bring to the public what only was available to the wealthy at that time. Cameras and photography have transformed from an artful pastime into an essential way of life touching it in all aspects the public could have never envisioned nor can foresee what will be next in its future.

Through presenting the history of photography in this research it is paramount to stress the importance and necessary to understand the origins of photography and appreciate the many designs that the camera has undertaken since its birth. The field of photography would have undoubtedly fell short in practical use, technological discoveries, and the art community would most likely have suffered a tremendous amount without the inventors and innovations of its past. The advancements involved in photography's history are all but unparalleled in its ingenious technology and reigns as a true marvel for all inventions. Far though as foreign lands may be and alien that other cultures may seem, with a better appreciation of photography our world could be closer captured instantly in snapshot.

References

Bellis, M. Historyof Photography and the Camera. Retrieved June 24, 2008, from www.about.com

Web site: http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blphotography.htm

Coe, B. (1977). TheBirth of Photography: The Story of the Formative Years 1800-1900. New York: Taplinger Publishing Company.

Coe, B. (1978). Cameras: From Daguerreotypes to Instant Pictures. New York: Crown Publishers.

Crawford, W. (1948). The Keepers of Light: A History and Working Guide to Early Photographic Processes. Dobbs Ferry, NY: Morgan and Morgan

Greenspun, P. (2007, January). History of Photography Timeline. Retrieved June 24, 2008, from

http://photo.net Web site: http://photo.net/history/timeline

Hirsch, R. (2000). Seizing the Light: A History of Photography. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.

Rosenblum, N. (1997). A World History of Photography. New York, NY: Abbeville Press.