Quote of the day: “Light makes photography. Embrace light. Admire it. Love it. But above all, know light. Know it for all you are worth, and you will know the key to photography.” — George Eastman
Sumac Leaves – print made with photo-sensitive paper and light
Last week I bought some photo-sensitive paper to make nature prints with the kids who are taking my Beginner’s Mind Photography for Kids class. Yesterday morning I tried it out and found myself in love with the magic of light and photographs in a whole new (or old) way.
If you’ve never used this paper, it’s coated with a chemical that is sensitive to the light. When you place objects on the paper and then expose it to light, the chemical causes the exposed parts of the paper to darken while leaving the unexposed parts white.
After a couple of minutes exposure in the sun, place the paper in water for about a minute to fix the print.
Prints made by kids in the class in background
In this digital age, it’s a nice way to remind yourself of the simple beginnings of photography. And it’s a great way to demonstrate how this art began.
If we look at the root meaning of the word photography, we see “photo” based on the Greek “photos” meaning light, and “graphy” based on the Greek”graphe” meaning writing.
Writing With light…
What a beautiful and poetic way to express what photography is!
As I read about the History of Photography on Wikipedia, I was amazed to learn that Aristotle and Euclid described a pinhole camera in the 5th and 4th centuries BC!
The story of photography is the story of many different people all over the world exploring different technologies, including a type of camera called camera obscura (Byzantine mathematician Anthemius of Tralles) and how light darkened different chemicals (Wilhelm Homberg and others).
The first known attempt to capture an image in a camera obscura using a light sensitive substance, was made by Thomas Wedgwood around the year 1800. From there, the art of film photography moved forward by leaps and bounds.
Today, with digital cameras and phone cameras, more people than ever can experience the joy of writing with light.
Michael Crouser, who taught a portrait photography workshop I attended, told me that he stayed a film photographer rather than switching to digital photography, because of the “magic” of working with prints in the darkroom. He loved the whole process of taking blank paper and watching images appear during the development process. This process felt so much more like “making” something than the digital darkroom process.
While I made film photographs as a child and young adult, I never developed my own prints and thus, never experienced the magic of the darkroom. I am looking forward to taking a basic black and white film photography class with darkroom because I believe that experiencing and understanding film photography will inform my work as a digital photographer.
I found a beautiful series of pictures from Life magazine of Pablo Picasso painting with light. Check them out HERE.
Photo safari in my house during photography class – seeing beauty
I had fun teaching my first kids’ photography class yesterday. I’m looking forward to 4 more weeks of fun. The great thing about teaching is that it forces me to learn new things and to get very clear about what it is I have learned.
Teaching kids is challenging in other ways. Kids are much more active in their learning. They want to do things, not just sit and look at photos or talk about photos. My adult classes happily sit for 2 hours, reviewing the photos they took, talking about photography concepts, etc.
Looking closely we see beauty in unexpected places
Yesterday, as I was teaching the kids, I finished everything I had planned for the day in less than half the class time. I still had an hour of class time to fill and now it was up to me to think on my feet! We took a photo walk and I used an exercise from The Art of Seeing by Freeman Patterson. I had each of the boys take 5 steps, stop, and make at least 5 photographs without moving from the spot where they stood. They could look up, look down, turn around, but not leave the spot. I love this exercise because it teaches us to see in a new way.
Photo Walk
Try taking a photo walk today. Count your steps. Stop, every 33 steps and find something to photograph. See beauty in unexpected places.
Write with Light!
Creative minds at work!
Birthday Giveaway Winner
Liane Petersen in the winner of a free 8×10 print! Congratulations Liane.
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