World Photogrpahy Day takes place every year every year on 19th August to celebrate the history of the photograph and its history. As this weekend was World Photogrpahy Day, it seems like a good place to start my blog. Although it's nothing to do with wedding photography or Waterlooville, I guess without the events of this particular day I wouldn't be here as a wedding photographer at all! So what actually is World Photography Day all about and why does it take place on 19th August specically?
the 19th August is the date that recognizes the invention of the Daguerrotype. this was the photographic process devised by the French artist and photographer, Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre in 1837. A process he then sold to the French Academy of Sciences, who subsequently gifted the process to the world on 19 August 1839.
Louis Daguerre’s 1838 photograph of the Boulevard du Temple, Paris is a street scene shot from an upper story window, showing a man standing on a street corner getting his shoes shined. This Daguerrotype photograph is widely believed to be the earliest photograph of human figures. Daguerre used a silver plate, or silver-covered copper plate photo process which required an exposure time of around seven minutes. This means the passing carriages, horses and pedestrians were all moving too quickly to be caught by Daguerre's camera but that one man who was stood perfectly still for the duration and the blur of the moving shoe shine boy can be seen as they stayed in the same place long enough for the camera to catch them. Of course this is exactly the same technique that we still use now to remove the people from busy locations - a long exposure time, often with a filter to reduce the light entering the camera and hope that nobody stands still for too long!
So a little bit of history, not necessarily relevant to wedding photography but an important event in the history of photography as a whole! As an aside, the link to Paris is also relevant to me. Paris is one of my favorite cities to visit and to photograph, and when I'm not being a wedding photographer it's also one of my favorite street photography locations. If you are planning a Paris wedding and looking for a Paris destination wedding photographer to get the Paris wedding pictures you want, then why not get in touch? I'd particularly like to do a destination wedding in Paris and so could come to an arrangement that just covered costs. Here's a little taste of my PAris street photography ....
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