{"id":2124,"date":"2015-11-09T21:33:07","date_gmt":"2015-11-10T02:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnberryphotography.com\/?p=2124"},"modified":"2015-11-09T21:33:07","modified_gmt":"2015-11-10T02:33:07","slug":"camera-obscura-at-the-college-of-william-and-mary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnberryphotography.com\/blog\/2015\/camera-obscura-at-the-college-of-william-and-mary\/","title":{"rendered":"Camera Obscura at the College of William and Mary"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve known about this for a little while, I’ve followed its construction on Eliot Dudik’s Instagram feed<\/a>. \u00a0From his website, Eliot is<\/a> “….founding the photography program within the Department of Art and Art History at the\u00a0College of\u00a0William\u00a0&\u00a0Mary where he is currently teaching and directing the Andrews Gallery at the college.” \u00a0It’s really great to see, especially considering that I was on the College yearbook (Colonial Echo) staff as a photographer when I was a student there in the late 70’s and early 80’s.<\/p>\n

If you don’t know what a Camera Obscura is, here’s a little description from Widipedia<\/a>: \u00a0 “A camera obscura<\/b> (Latin for “dark room”) is an optical device that led to photography and the photographic camera. The device consists of a box or room with a hole in one side. Light from an external scene passes through the hole and strikes a surface inside, where it is reproduced, inverted (thus upside-down), but with color and\u00a0perspective preserved.”<\/p>\n

Also from Wiki: \u00a0“The earliest extant written record of the camera obscura is to be found in the writings of Mozi<\/a> (470 to 390 BC), a Chinese philosopher and the founder of Mohism<\/a>. Mozi correctly asserted that the image in a camera obscura<\/i> is flipped upside down because light<\/a> travels in straight lines from its source. His disciples developed this into a minor theory of optics<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

So, I finally went down to see it yesterday. \u00a0I’ve known about Camera Obscura’s for quite a while, but this is my first experience actually seeing one.<\/p>\n

\"November<\/p>\n

\"November
The photo above is of the back side of the camera. \u00a0This camera has three “lenses” that each focus the image onto a different plane inside the camera, giving a somewhat panoramic view of the scene you see above. \u00a0The photos below are what you see when you’re inside the camera…..once your eyes adjust :-). \u00a0It’s pitch black when you first walk in, you sort of have to feel your way in….and hope no one else is in there \ud83d\ude42<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"November<\/p>\n

\"November<\/p>\n

A class let out just before I left, so I was able to catch a few people in photos.
\n\"November<\/p>\n

\"November<\/p>\n

A little video “tour” (in this preview frame of the video, you can see one of the lenses on the right of the door):
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