What is a Camera?

Camera is a tool. No different than a wood carver's chisels. The chisels do not make finely crafted artwork, the wood carver does. It is the same way with your camera. The camera does not make the photograph, you do. Never allow yourself to feel like the camera is in control. The camera is your tool and you must use it as a tool.

Broken down to its essential elements, the camera is a box that controls the amount of light that reaches a piece of light sensitive film or other surface inside. The original cameras did not even have a glass lens. The first cameras used a tiny hole in the front of the box to allow in light and to focus the image onto the viewing surface. This is the same principle as when children punch a pinhole into a piece of paper in order to watch a solar eclipse projected through the pinhole and onto the ground.

Today's cameras use glass lenses to focus and capture light much more quickly and to allow us to magnify images. Film is much more sensitive and finely detailed than the first film surfaces and now we also have digital sensors that sometimes take the place of film. Today's cameras also have shutters that control the light from reaching the film or sensor with the touch of a button and have powerful flashes to help illuminate scenes. The camera has come a long way from its humble beginnings, but it is still just a box that controls the amount of light that reaches a piece of film.