Thursday, January 29, 2009

I Think This is Really Neat

Last week Jackie was over and we got into a conversation about the art and science of photography.  If you haven't ever really thought about the way a photograph works you should talk so someone who does or find out through research.  The process is really really neat and it is really remarkable that someone figured out that we can capture an image on a piece of paper using this little box called a camera that works a lot like the human eye and the brain, chemicals, and light exposure. 

Well, this morning I found a really neat article on the National Public Radio website.  Keeping the Photography 101 course I had last week in mind, it was really mind blowing to see the quality of the images you are about to see from photos taken so long ago.  

Also, what is even cooler to me about these WWII era photos is that they have been shown to us in color!  I don't know about you, but when I think of "old times" I imagine them in black and white... because that is the only image we have of way back when.  I can remember looking through my grandmother's old photographs and wondering what color the women's dresses were.  I even asked my mom one time what color her dress in the photo from her childhood and being so shocked that what looked like gray was bright red!  So it is really really neat to me to look through these pictures and really see that people "back then" lived in color!

Go to this website and then scroll down to "A Vibrant Past."

5 comments:

The Howell's said...

that was so neat, thanks for sharing!

Anonymous said...

This is really interesting. We had a case recently in my Copyright class that was a HUNDRED years ago or whatever and was about whether a "photograph" was creative enough or showed enough "originality" to merit copyright. Of course today that sounds crazy. Of course photographers are artists. But, at the time, people just saw it as a replica of fact (which isn't artistic enough for copyright).

Anyway, just saying I've found photography interesting lately too.

Anonymous said...

my wifey is such a smart cookie. she's full of the good wisdoms and stuff.

Catie Murphy said...

Are you taking a class right now in photography? So neat! Thanks for sharing this!

Mary Tyler S. said...

by the way, whenever you and Nick get to D.C. you MUST check out the Newseum's permanent exhibit of all the pulitzer prize winning photographs. They have the story behind the photos next to the shots with quotes from the photographer. A-mazing.