bwuphoto.com

Instagram-worthy fields of blooming sunflowers are proving a big hit for farmers, thanks to visitors sharing their beautifully curated images on social media.

Content creator Stacey recently shared a photo of herself sitting on a swing in a field full of sunflowers – it quickly attracted more than 1,000 likes and scores of admiring comments.

“Whenever I post anything with sunflowers it always has huge interactions,” said Stacey.

The 36-year-old from Pontyclun, Rhondda Cynon Taf, said sunflowers made the perfect backdrop for a social media image.

“There’s that contrast of the yellow flower and the blue of the sky which is so eye-catching,” she said.

“You can’t look at a picture of sunflowers and not feel happy and it makes you feel joyful just walking around them.”

Stacey said she was thrilled if her social media posts encouraged others to visit.

“Getting out in nature is so good for our wellbeing and it’s a good way of increasing tourism… and then obviously they’re good for bees and insects,” she said.

Stacey’s photos were taken at Rhossili Sunflowers on south Wales’ Gower peninsular, one of the many sunflower visitor attractions that have sprung up across the UK.

It is run by fifth generation farmer Rob Morgan, who set up the attraction four years ago in a bid to “diversify to survive”.

He said it had been non-stop since opening their doors to the public on 10 July.

“People love the whole experience from leaving their car,” he said.

“The walk out to Rhossili Bay, then the multitude of different flowers and wildlife, the bees, birds, butterflies, the porpoises in the bay, seals, sea birds, choughs.”

He said the positive influence social media had had on his business was “huge” as it “motivates people to get out”.

“Some of the photos are unbelievable… people love posing for their pictures with their loved ones, dogs and children.”

He admitted there had been occasions where the beautifully curated images had not reflected the reality of the visit.

“I’ve had couples here who have argued, had a terrible time, and then all you see is this lovely picture on Instagram,” he laughed.

Portia Jones, a travel journalist and host of Travel Goals Podcast, said the success was down to farmers like Rob “understanding the social media appeal and then leaning into it”.

“They’re creating backdrops, plots, letting people pick their own flowers – it’s brilliant from their perspective isn’t it because the customers are doing the advertising for you,” she said.

“There are even guides online now about how to take the best sunflower pictures – what time of day, what you should wear.”

With sunflowers currently in full bloom, the flower is having its moment in the sun on social media too.

“People want to jump onto whatever’s popular and sunflowers at the moment are in their peak period,” said Portia.

But what drives so many of us to want to share our days out on social media?

“On a much deeper level I think we’re all moving towards ‘brand me’,” she said.

“Once upon a time social media was for seeing what your friends are up to and now it’s for telling people what you’re up to.

“It’s creating this image of a digital self. I’m just as guilty, I post loads of pictures!”

Every year, on August 19, we observe World Photography Day – a globally recognized celebration of the photograph and its history. What actually is World Photography Day, though, and why does it take place on this particular date?

This is the date that recognizes the invention of the Daguerrotype, a process that was devised by the French artist and photographer, Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre in 1837. His idea was then effectively sold to the French Academy of Sciences, which subsequently gifted the process to the world on 19 August 1839.

• 184 years later, these are the best cameras for photography

The idea to recognize World Photography Day as we know it now didn’t take hold until 1991 – and for that, we can thank respected Indian photographer OP Sharma.

“The idea came to me in 1988 when, over and over again, in various publications that documented the history of photography, I came across this date: 19 August 1839,” he told Harmony – Celebrate Age magazine. “It was recorded as the date on which the then French government announced the invention of the Daguerreotype process of photography as a ‘free gift to the world’.

“I proposed the idea to several masters and photographers around the world, about 150 of them, including the RPS and the Photographic Society of America (PSA)… by the beginning of 1991, everyone took a unanimous decision and we started celebrating World Photography Day that year.”

What is a Daguerreotype?

Louis Daguerre was an artist and physicist who also became a famous theatre designer. He was the business partner of inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, whose heliography method is the forebear of the photographic process. Niépce’s image View From The Window At Le Gras, recorded on a polished sheet of pewter plate coated with light-sensitive bitumen in 1826, is the earliest surviving permanent image from nature.

Daguerre, however, developed his own unique process following Niépce’s death in 1933. He invented the Daguerreotype in 1837, which was a positive image recorded on a copper plate coated with silver iodide. Latent images produced in-camera were developed by exposure to mercury vapor, and were then fixed by a strong salt solution.

Daguerre sold his process to the French Academy of Sciences in exchange for an annual pension of 6,000 francs, in addition to an annual stipend of 4,000 francs to the Niépce estate. The process was announced on 7 January 1839, and full details were given ‘free to the world’ on 19 August that year – except in Great Britain, where a patent was filed by Daguerre’s agent.

When was the first photograph of a person?

Each daguerreotype was unique and couldn’t be reproduced except by re-photographing the image or the scene itself. Even so, they quickly became very popular.

Daguerre’s View Of The Boulevard du Temple, taken from the window of his apartment in Paris in 1838, is a unique example of early street photography that includes the first known recorded image of a human being.

It shows a busy Parisian street that would have been filled with people and carriages. However, the 10-15 minute exposure meant that none of them stayed still for long enough to be recorded. The one exception is a man having his shoes shined in the bottom-left corner. Has he appeared by accident, or did Daguerre ask him to pose?

Samuel Morse noted on seeing this picture in 1839: “Objects moving are not impressed… Consequently, his boots and legs are well defined, but he is without body or head because these were in motion.”

So, now you know where World Photography Day comes from, celebrate the occasion by getting out there and shooting your own images to ‘gift to the world’ – share them on social media with the hashtag #WorldPhotographyDay, and make sure to tag us on  Facebook, Twitter and Instagram!

You might also like to read: 

The best film cameras: cameras that recapture the magic of film
Learn how to apply vintage effects to photographs in Photoshop
Get the wet plate look in Affinity Photo using image layers and textures

When was photography invented? Frenchman Joseph Nicéphore Niépce is the person who takes the credit for taking the first permanent photograph in around 1826 – although he did not invent the camera.

After years of experimentation, Niépce succeeded in making permanent images from nature. He called his process ‘héliographie’, which translates as ‘drawing with the sun’.

The earliest surviving image (above) shows a courtyard at his house in Saint-Loup-de-Varennes in France. It was recorded onto a sheet of pewter plate, which was coated with bitumen of Judea, a light-sensitive compound.

An 8-hour exposure in bright sunshine resulted in a positive image, which was complete once the unexposed areas were dissolved in oil of lavender and white petroleum.

Niépce’s 1826 heliograph was dark and blurred and the plate had to be viewed from a certain angle for the details of the building to be visible. Nevertheless, it was undoubtedly a major breakthrough.

Niépce had previously made a copy of a 17th-century engraving using the same process. He also made another ‘heliograph’ in 1824 and described it in a letter to his brother: “I have succeeded in obtaining a picture as good as I could wish,” he wrote.

“The objects appear with astonishing sharpness and exactitude down to the smallest details and finest gradations. As the image is almost colorless, one can judge it only by holding it at an angle, and I can tell you the effect is downright magical.” This heliograph has not survived.

Niépce’s pioneering work was not recognized in his lifetime and he died in obscurity in 1833. It wasn’t until 1952 that the photo-historian Helmut Gernsheim discovered the image, stored in a London warehouse, and confirmed it as the world’s first photograph.

However, before his death, Niépce shared his process with his business partner, fellow Frenchman Louis-Jacques Daguerre, who went on to develop his own ground-breaking process – and is credited as the person who invented the camera.

The precursor to the camera

Niépce’s new invention used a camera obscura to create the image. This optical device could take the form of a light-tight box or a darkened room, with a small hole in one side that lets in light from outside. As light travels in straight lines, the resulting image of the exterior scene is projected, upside-down, onto the surface directly opposite.

The camera obscura had been in use for a long time. The term, first used in 1604 by the German mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler, comes from the Latin for ‘chamber’ (‘camera’) and ‘dark’ (obscura).

The first known use of a camera obscura was in around 400 BC, by the Chinese philosopher Mozi. It was later by the Greek philosopher Aristotle. In the 13th century, Roger Bacon described using one to observe a solar eclipse.

Rudimentary lenses were added to the aperture from the 16th century onwards, to give a sharper and more detailed image. By the early 18th century, wooden camera obscura devices were being made that had a distinctly camera-like design.

Images made by a camera obscura were regarded as a visual wonder, a scientifically interesting phenomenon, and a useful drawing aid. However, beyond tracing their outlines by hand, it was impossible to make these images in any way permanent until Niépce’s invention.

Thomas Wedgwood

Thomas Wedgwood (1771-1805) made the earliest documented experiments in recording images on paper and leather coated with light-sensitive silver nitrate – and therefore also has a claim to being the first photographer.

In a letter from the 1790s, inventor and mechanical engineer James Watt wrote that Wedgwood’s primary objective in these “silver pictures” had been “to capture real-world scenes with a camera obscura,” but those attempts failed.

The son of the famous potter Josiah Wedgwood, Thomas Wedgwood did succeed in capturing what Watt described as “silhouette images of objects in contact with the treated surface”, later called photograms. However, as Wedgwood lacked a means to make them permanent, the unexposed areas gradually darkened in daylight.

30 cameras that changed the world of photography

The history of photography dates back to 400BC