Cameras There has never been a time in history when so many cameras were in use. The first portable camera was actually designed by Johann Zahn in 1685 but ironically the first photograph was taken in 1814. It makes one wonder how one can say the Zahn device was even a camera. If you invent a camera and it is not capable of taking photographs, is it still a camera? The Zahn camera was the first portable, but cameras were being worked on before 1021. We know this because an Iraqi scientist and writer described a room size device in his book which came out in 1021. I guess these cameras were not successful either or we would have photographs from the last thousand years. The first practical camera was invented in 1829 by Louis Daguerre.
If it wasn’t for cameras, schools wouldn’t have been able to do online instruction. I always thought the stop motion camera was a little freaky. Have you ever seen the videos where they show you plant growth which took place over a year in only a minute or so? How about those videos of an animal carcass in the jungle which is devoured by insects over the period of a couple of weeks being displayed in minutes? Video after all is nothing more than a series of still photographs usually showing from 15 to 60 of them in a second. They are called frames. In the 19th century photographs of the Civil War and its carnage shocked the nation. It was the first-time battlefield photographs were taken throughout a war. Matthew Brady followed armies around taking photos whenever he could. He became incredibly famous. What a lot of people don’t know is most of his photos were taken by other photographers he had hired, that is how he got so many photographs. The common person became exposed to the horrors of war when they saw the photographs. Before that, unless the war touched you, all you knew about the war were from newspapers and people who passed on stories. Cameras have become incredible spy devices. Many of us have cameras on our computers and phones, along with tablets and such. We have been finding out computer hackers cannot only turn on our cameras without us knowing it, but they can also turn on microphones. It has gotten much easier to spy on people than it has ever been in the past. How many cases have we seen where cameras have been found in some very inappropriate places? Every once in a while, we see a story with some pervert has put a tiny camera in a bathroom or hotel room. It is getting much harder to spot these things because they are getting extremely small. In case you are wondering how small a camera can get I would like to refer you to a news article which talks about a tiny camera being put on a Beatles back so we can see what he sees as he walks around. A Japanese man has been credited with taking a big step forward in nutrition. All I can say is this man has far more patience than me. He has managed to photograph every meal he has eaten for over 44 years. That in itself is quite an accomplishment. Well if he ever has to testify anywhere when he is asked what he ate for supper seven or eight years ago, he would actually know the answer and not be like the rest of us who would have no idea. There are some people who take their photograph every day and have been doing this for decades. I personally don’t like this idea because it seems depressing to me watching myself age. I know some people would rather put a bag over their head than look in the mirror anymore. Some people have decided they want to monitor their pet’s activities. What better way to do this and use the new camera technology which is available? This can be done two different ways. You can either attach a camera to your pet which will record to a card or attach one which will constantly broadcast back what your animal is doing. For the second camera to work properly your pet has to be within range. There is no such limitation on the first camera. The question is, why do you care what your pet is doing? You might have a valid question because your animal comes back beat up. You know some people wondered why their cat never ate at home. This was before we had the small camera technology, but they found out the neighbor lady would feed the cat when it came over. Cameras are useful in many different areas. They can be used to track the habits of wild animals and to this end there is a type of camera called a trail camera. It is usually camouflaged and can be attached to a tree or even a sturdy bush. It will only take a picture when an animal goes by and saves that photo internally. Many unsuspected types of animals have been recognized and have surprised experts who never suspected they were in the area. After the camera is there a couple of days, somebody comes along and brings it back with them so they can examine the digital images. If it is concealed properly it is a good way of recognizing poachers. Cameras have been used in some very bizarre ways. One professional photographer believed he was creating art when he took a picture of 7000 nudes in one shot. Photography was very expensive at one time and families sometimes couldn’t afford any photos at all. In Victorian times we see photos of the dead usually in their coffins and some people believe this is very gory. What they don’t realize is usually these people had no money for photographs and when a loved one died a collection was taken up to get enough money for a photograph so the person could be remembered before they were buried. So even though they may look gory to us, they were an act of love. It has become popular in some instances for cameras to be used to track wayward husbands or wives. There are plenty of tiny spy cameras which could be inserted into clothing without the person wearing the clothing becoming suspicious. You might believe that button on your shirt is actually a button, but the button may not be a button at all, because it is a camera. Now I have probably made all the unfaithful spouses out there nervous, but I think you get the idea.
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