Photography

Posted on January 13, 2026

What is photography? Webster’s dictionary definition has an image taken by a camera and reproduced on a photo sensitive surface. Photography’s invention goes back to the early 1800 by Thomas Wedgewood of great Britian. In 1833 the inventor, Louis Daguerre, invented the Daguerre type of photo which is a photo taken with a camera onto a glass plate negative and developed with certain chemicals. In 1833, the first known recording of a photo was in 1833 where a street photograph was taken in Paris, France. Over the next 100 years many improvements in photography were invented. The next type of photo was what was called a tin type photo where a camera would take a photo onto a metal surface. Photography came into its own during the American Civil War by well-known photographer Alexander Gardner of New York City who came to the Gettysburg Battlefield after the three-day battle. New evidence that has been uncovered by two Gettysburg Historians of today which indicates that Gardner and his assistant started taking photos of the Gettysburg Battlefield on July 7th. After the battle, Gardner took his glass plate photos to New York City for a show of his photos of the War where folks could see firsthand what the carnage of battle looked like. President Lincoln, the Sixteenth President of the United States (1861- 1865), had several photos of himself during his lifetime. There is a famous photo of Lincoln on a stage with other dignitaries and the main speaker Edward Everett a well-known statesmen and orator of the day. There is another well-known photo of Lincoln at Antietam talking to Union General George McClellan.

Now let me talk about my own personal experiences of the art of photography. I think my earliest recollection of taking photos was a class trip to Washington, D. C. to Fords Theater and the Peterson House where Lincoln passed and a trip to Arlington national Cemetery. I have used different types of cameras in my lifetime. The first several cameras used film that were in a cartridge. Once you used up a roll of this type of film you had to send it to a film development company to have your photos developed. Once it was developed the photos would be sent back as 4inch by 6inch photos on special photo paper. I have what was called a brownie camera made by the Eastman Kodak company. It would only take black and white photos and belonged to my father’s father. Over the next several decades camera improvements will be made. You could have many types of lenses to take photos with, and they were more professional types of cameras. I prefer point and shoot types of cameras. Today’s point and shoot cameras have different settings to take the right type of photo you desire, and you also can record videos. Instead of using film cameras, you can now use digital mediums to record your photos and videos. What makes these types of cameras easy to use is to put in the digital medium into the camera and you are ready to shoot. These cameras also have lithium batteries which powers the camera. When the battery power is low or exhausted you can even hook up the camera with a power cord to your laptop or computer to recharge the battery.

Now there are regular cameras and professional cameras, but also your own cell phones have cameras to take your favorite photos. You can use settings in the cell phone to take good quality photos or videos. You can either download the photos to apps or to your computer or even share your photos with family and friends. You can easily download your digital camera. All you have to do is pop out the digital disc with your photos and videos and pop it into a slot in your computer. Most computers today have a photo gallery here you can download the photos and videos then once you download the photos you pop out the disc and put the disc back into the camera where you can delete all photos/videos to use your camera the next time. All the new technologies and updated photo taking abilities always amaze me. I know of one cell camera where you can take a photo and if there is a person or an object that you do not want in it, you can simply push a button, and the camera will automatically erase the person or object in the photo. Even camera lenses are getting better quality to make photos even clearer. With the use of cell phone technology advancing you really do not hear much about regular cameras being sold as much but they are still on the market. But you can still buy them!

From a young kid with his first camera having a film canister in the camera to today, a 64-year-old senior citizen using a digital camera and a cell phone, I have probably taken more than 20,000 photos both film and digital types. I have six photo albums full of 4 x 6-inch photos on photo paper and digital photos. I think photography is a good way of remembering special moments in a person’s life. I got the photo bug from my father he took thousands of slide photos over the years. He had a kodak camera with different types of lenses which would increase visual effects and distance. He would send away the rolls of film to be developed into slides which he would put into what were called ‘slide cubes.’ To view the slides, he had a projector so the family could view the slides on a large screen. He had a large case which would hold all the slides in slide cubes. I am not sure who has our father’s camera, projector, and screen now though. Today, I still enjoy taking photos. I recently took photos at the Autism Society’s community Christmas party plus I was chosen to do a special project for ASDNext for a self-advocate takeover on their social media which included some of the photos from the party. So, if you are interested in recording special moments in your life, taking photos is the best way to do it.