Camera

Oddly, this isn't in the "photography" category. The etymology of the word "camera" comes from a darkened room -- only later did it come to mean a device to take pictures.The first thing you would call a camera in the more modern term is a "camera obscura" which is a darkened room that obscures the outside world -- or obscures all except a pinhole.Yesterday we had a partial solar eclipse. I'm not going to show you a picture of the outside world since it would look normal once the photograph had been taken. If I had a light meter I would be able to compare the amount of light, but I don't have one.

- = -

Yesterday I had a break in the day when I was able to see a friend from Cleveland who was dealing with Amazon. One the way back to another building to pick up my computer (which was getting a new hard drive) there was quite the downpour.When that was taken care of and I was walking across the street to Rufus, by building, someone was looking up at the sky asking if I could see it?"There's an eclipse going on!"I make a shadow with my hand and sure enough there was!  :-DA gathered a few folks from my team and some paper plates and went downstairs.

- = -

What I have -- or rather made -- was a pinhole camera.If you look close you see a partially covered round spot on the plate.Another plate a few feet away has, literally, a pin hole. Made with a real life push-pin!You're seeing an image of the sun with the moon in front of it.While the room wasn't dark (we went outside) the contrast is enough to get the image of the solar disc perhaps a third covered by the moon.  I know it's simple and everyone's done it... but it's still pretty cool for me.  :-)