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Creating life on
paper by painting a pet
portrait and sharing it with others is a gift I have been blessed
with and I cherish immensely. Also, capturing a moment in time on
film, provides countless hours of viewing pleasure and reliving
that one precise moment when one was lucky enough to be there. Please
take a moment and sit back, relax and enjoy a sampling of my paintings
and photography. |
Early Developments - The camera itself is based on optical principles
known at least since the age of Aristotle; indeed, a filmless
version was in use in the mid-1500s as a sketching device for
artists. Called the camera obscura (Lat.,=dark chamber), it consisted
of a small, lightproof box with a pinhole or lens on one side
and a translucent screen on the opposite side.
This screen registered, in a manner suitable for tracing, the
inverted image transmitted through the lens. The human eye was
the prototype for this device, which functioned as a primitive
extension of seeing. Most experiments in photographic technology
were directed toward perfecting the medium as a surrogate, more
sophisticated eye.
The Invention of Photography - The necessary first breakthrough
in photography was in a different, not eye-centered area—that
of making permanent photographic images. Employing data from
the researches of Johann Heinrich Schulze—who, in 1727,
discovered that silver nitrate darkened upon exposure to light
Thomas Wedgwood and Sir Humphry Davy , early in the 19th cent.,
created what we now call photograms. These were made by placing
assorted objects on paper soaked in silver nitrate and exposing
them to sunlight. Those areas of the paper covered by the objects
remained white; the rest blackened after exposure to the light.
Davy and Wedgwood found no way of arresting the chemical action
at this stage, however, and their images lasted only a short
time before darkening entirely.
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