The Advancements of taking a Simple Photo

///Under the Cap\\\

The Advancements of taking a Simple Photo

Written by: Aaron Wiggs

           Some people don’t notice how technology has changed the simplest things that we do. Taking photos, developing them and sharing them are dramatic changes. Before we used bulky or disposable cameras in the past and now we just need to take out our cell phones. Photos were something that took weeks to develop and now they only take less than a second. People would make copies of their photos, make album books and scrap books and share the physical prints with their family and friends. Now we tag the person, email or hashtag the photo so others can see it.


Humans have always love taking pictures of events, people and interesting things that happen.  We have always treasured pictures and shared them with our families and friends. From the rise of digital photos we have been making baby photo albums, disposable cameras, developing photos, putting pictures on our walls and on the internet.

Photography has develop new popular ways to share your photos. Instagram and Snapchat are one the most popular apps used. Both apps have great success and both are very similar but also very different in what the application is used for.

           "In 1975, roughly 155 years after the first cameras were being experimented with, Eastman Kodak Company invented the first digital camera. Eastman engineer Steven J. Sasson was tasked with building a complete camera using an electronic sensor to capture optical information and digitally store the captured images "(Gustavson, 2009).  

             In the early 90s, cameras were manufactured so that were easy to handle and had great picture quality. People were taking a lot of photos when cameras became more accessible to everyone. The film camera allows people to take a photo, and record the photo on film roll. Film usually had a number of photos that you could take. Usually you could take 24 or 36 photos. There was no way to review your shot until the film had been developed. Developing your films usually meant visiting a store and dropping off the roll. Then you had to wait a few days to collect your physical prints. You would get a single copy of each photo, plus the negatives of the film roll, which were needed if you wanted to make extra copies at a later date. Then you would send the picture by mail or physically hand them pictures you wanted to give to people.

With these photos people would make photo albums, share portraits of the children and show pictures of their vacation to others. Do you remember all the embarrassing baby pictures that parents won’t stop showing everyone? So embarrassing, but at most times it was enjoyable to be around your friends and family and talking about all the memories that these picture brought to light. 

“ I use Snapchat and Instagram a lot but I also print, develop my photos and take pictures with my Nikon D60 camera and Agfa Isola camera but I use my Nikon D60 more often because it doesn't need that much maintenance and it takes better quality pictures than my phone."

Later on we would use digital cameras that would let us put pictures on USB, floppy disks, CD, and computers. 20 years ago the process of taking, processing, and distributing a photo could take weeks or longer. Now, all you have to do is pull out your smartphone, snap a high-resolution photo and add a few filters to it. The evolution of new ways to share images kept on evolving.

               Photo sharing companies started to grow fast through the boom of social networking. The two biggest apps that I know of are Instagram and Snapchat. Instagram launched its app in the apple store to be available only on iPhone in 2010. This app helped our photos look very professional with many different choices to edit our pictures. Later on they would also allow people to share videos. It would grow to be really popular and be bought by Facebook for 2 billion dollars.

“The extraordinary success of Instagram corroborates the recent Pew report which states that photos and videos have become the key social currencies online” (Rainie, Brenner, and Purcell 2012).









Why is the Instagram app is so popular?  its square photos and easy it to use photo taking, filtering and navigation. The home bar on the bottom can take you anywhere need to go a from popular photos, to photos that your friends liked, to your profile or back home to you photo feed of all of your friends. With a clear white screen the page is very inviting and you can find time passing by faster when you are liking all those pictures on Instagram.










“Instagram is the app that I use more often because I can look at events, models, cars and celebrities that I’m interested in." 

Instagram can be compared to how we once kept scrap books. These pictures were events that we went to or pictures that we took with friends.

         In the summer of 2011 there was another photo and video sharing app that got just started. The name of this company was Snapchat. Two student of Stanford started this app; Evan Spiegel & Bobby Murphy made Snapchat very different from other photo and video sharing apps. This app would only show the photo for a specific time and then disappear like it was never there. This app was used for many different things. Teachers would send an assignment that was missed by absents students. People would send picture that show a quick gesture or just to tell some information right quick.

“It seems odd that at the beginning of the Internet everyone decided everything should stick around forever. I think our application makes communication a lot more human and natural.” – (Spiegel Billy Gallagher). 

You can navigate through the Snapchat app through swiping left to right and even down to get to the different screens. One screen you can see an individual picture feeds another screen is there for you to take the photo. Then you have a screen for you to search for more friends and to discover feeds from companies like ESPN, Comedy Central, CNN and other major networks.

“Snapchat is more of daily thing for me because I keep in touch with friends see what they are doing daily in their Snapchat story without texting them” 









Snapchat would be example of the individual photos that you would send to friends through mail or just handing to them.


              “Personally I love taking photos, I use both of these apps but still I am in love with taking pictures with a camera film rolls or even instant developing cameras like Polaroid.” 

These cameras are still used by many who love photography. It shows how we will never forget the past times and the techniques and uniqueness that it brought. It also showed how we have changed photography forever with our creativity and technological advancements.



Work Cited
Gustavson, T. (2009). Camera: a history of photography from daguerreotype to digital (pp. 334-351). New York: Sterling Innovation.

Rainie, L.; Brenner, J.; and Purcell, K. 2012. Photos and videos as social currency online. Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Billy Gallagher, 2012 No, Snapchat Isn’t About Sexting, Says Co-Founder Evan Spiegel. http://techcrunch.com/2012/05/12/snapchat-not-sexting/