Camera is Latin for 'room'; obscura is Latin for 'dark'. Put those together and you get a dark room, right? Right! But where it gets interesting is when you use a lens to let light from the outside world filter into the dark room, projecting a picture on the opposite wall. It works in much the same way our eyes do.
It might sound kind of lame, but seeing it in person is incredible. And when we talk about Camera Obscura you can't leave out the master, Abelardo Morell. I had the pleasure of hearing him speak a couple years ago at Sac State and was in absolute awe of his work. You can see all of his work here, but this is just one example of his photos:
Beautiful right?
What Abe does is find a landscape or cityscape that he wants to capture then finds a room with a view of the desired landscape. He blacks out the windows, attaches a lens and a mirror to a small hole carved into the black-out sheets, and lets the image appear. Even though the room is very, very dark, he captures a lot of color and clarity using a tripod and exposure times of 2 or more hours. Sweet!!!
Naturally, I had to try this myself. I blacked out my windows and attached a lens to a hole in the black-out sheets. I didn't use a mirror to flip the image so it is upside down. Also, my walls at the time were painted black so for the image to appear I had to hang a white sheet on the opposite wall. Here are some pictures:
Light coming through the lens- you can see the grass and the sky.
I flipped the image in my computer so it's a little more clear.
Okay, so it's not quite as spectacular as Abe's photos, but it was still really cool to do. I made all of my family members check it out, too. My mom even went out and ran around the yard so I could watch it on my wall. It's like a movie!!!
If you ever feel so inclined, it's worth the set up!
That's it for today, hope you enjoyed the camera obscura! Have a happy Wednesday!
PS: The next two months are going to be extremely busy for me. I will try and keep posting once a week, but it might not happen. Just a heads up!
PPS: I totally forgot to announce the winner of the giveaway! Shayla Murchie has won herself either a portrait session or a print of a photo that's been posted on the blog. I will keep you updated as to what she chooses. Thanks to everyone who became a follower, I appreciate all your support!
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