In our first meeting we jumped into the history of photography starting off with KoKo the National Geographic cover gorilla and Nonja the orangutan in the Vienna Zoo at Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria, and established that the mechanics of photography is simple enough that an ape can do it with modern cameras.
It is not the camera who takes the picture, it is the photographer.
The evolution and development of cameras and photographic processes were looked at starting with the camera obscura, to the view camera, to the Kodak and Brownie consumer camera, to the large and medium formats like the Speed Graphic used by Weegee, to the Leica used by Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa, to the modern day 35 mm Single Lens Reflex, and digital cameras.
We looked briefly at work from Ansel Adams including his Manzanar Project, and the work of Matthew Brady who was the first war photographer.
Finally we ended by starting on exposure looking at f-stops (also called apertures) and shutter speeds and looked at examples of overexposed (those with too much light) and underexposed (dark photos that did not get enough light exposure). F-stops as we discussed are the openings in the lens which let in a determined amount of light, while shutter speed is the time the shutter is open letting in light making an exposure.
Links:
Article: Daguerrotypes by Photographer Chuck Close
Camera Obscura
History of Photography Timeline.
