Although the concept of the camera and the photograph has been around since as early as 4 B.C., the first photograph was created in 1826 through the use of heliography, the process of exposing a type of asphalt coated metal plate to light and then rinsing it with lavender oil to create a negative. Heliography was the precursor to the first camera, which was commercially available in 1839 and took about five to thirty minutes to develop an image; compare that to today’s millisecond shutter click, ten second upload to Facebook, and the instant global viewing. Like the evolution of the camera and the photograph, photography has been a large part of my life.

Growing up in Westchester gave me a unique opportunity to venture out and find gorgeous view, leading to my passion for landscape photography. Yes, getting around Westchester was nothing like getting around the city; I couldn’t just hop on the train and go borough to borough. But luckily for me, I was able to find interesting scenes close to home; all I had to do was walk out my front door.

I’m an introvert, and I always have been and will be. I’m much more comfortable locking myself away in my room to write a few lines of code, design my next circuit board, or screw around and get lost online. But hey, every introvert has to go for a stroll every once in a while, and photography got me out. Whether it was a solitary scout for a shoot, a walk around the block, or taking a trip somewhere to find a better scene, photography gave me a purpose to get moving, to get out, and to interact with the people and places around me.

I’ve had some of my most amazing and exhilarating feelings come out of a day of taking landscape shots. The most memorable is when I took a trip to see my family in Sicily. Comitini, the town they live in which has less than one thousand people living there, is small, rustic, and beautiful. The streets are cobblestone. The piazza is quaint. The people are friendly and all-knowing. And, the scenes are spectacular. On a clear day in the hilly town, you can see Mount Etna, a once active volcano roughly 130 miles away, like it’s right in your backyard. Every hill you saw in the distance was green and lush, and you could see for miles in every direction. The path to the greek temple ruins in Agrigento was just too awesome for words. And the best part of the whole trip was meeting people, coming across pick up soccer games, and roaming the hills just to find a good picture.

Cameras and photography sparked a lot of my interests that I have today. Taking apart cameras, fixing them, and putting them back together again inspired my drive to create things, whether they be robotic or bits of electronics. Editing pictures and finding a way to make them look their best inspired the programmer in me, and I’m not so sure that’s a good thing because since most of us are lazy by nature. Photography hasn’t just given me some tools to work with; it’s given me some drive, whether that drive be for creating things, writing code, or going out on long travels to take pictures and meet new people. I don’t know; photography brings me out of my introvert shell. I guess it’s a good thing.

image 1 taken from: http://bookdome.com/arts/Manual-Photography/Chapter-II-Heliography-The-Process-Of-M-Niepce.html

image 2 taken from: http://rustyoldcamera.com/