Photography has come a long way since Niepce and Fox Talbot first starting fixing blurry images to glass and metal plates in the 1800s. They could never have imagined the way photographic images fill our world today or the number of ways that the camera and the printed images it produces have been used.
Most people now carry a camera around with them all day; it's built into their mobile phone. Images fill the high street in the form of advertising, instructions and information. It's hard to think of anywhere that the camera hasn't had an influence, from magazine advertising and book covers to digital aerial photos and space exploration, the camera is now an integral part of almost every activity we involve ourselves in.
Everywhere we go we are bombarded by images that give us the information that we need to go about our daily business. Some we notice more than others. How many traffic signs do we read each day without actually looking at them in those terms? Most people read a paper during the day, often in the morning on the way to work, the images used in those papers to tell a story can all be traced back to those early experiment s with silver nitrate and albumen.
Photography has now been turned into a digital process and most applications have changed accordingly, from home printing and family snapshots to other more significant areas.
Aerial photography has a long and distinguished history. It has been used for both leisure and recreational purposes but has also played an important part in the mapping of countries and the collection of important data that would not otherwise have been possible. The advances in technology over the past few decades have seen the emergence of digital aerial photos. They are much more detailed and more of them are able to be produced, but it wasn't always the way.
The earliest photography of this type, long before the advent of digital aerial photos using sophisticated means, used various means to get an elevated position from which to take the photo. Balloons were used in the very early stages of the process but the results, although fantastic at the time, very not what we'd call great. Everything conspired against these early photographers including the basic materials and even the weather.
Aerial photography started to become more important due to the advent of World War I. The Generals in charge recognized that it would be a good way to identify where the enemy were positioned and give them the upper hand in any combat situation. The first major battle where it played a significant part was the Battle of Neuve Chappelle and Artois. The entire German front line was photographed from the air making their position extremely vulnerable.
During the inter-war period, many advances were made in both camera design and airplane construction. The results was that at the start of World War II much of the major cities and countries of the world had been mapped very accurately using aerial photography techniques and those that weren't very soon were. Out of a necessity to map terrain that was inaccessible to troops or was already occupied great leaps were made in the science behind the camera and the quality of the images it produced.
Today digital aerial photos are the result of an equally important leap forward. Digital images provide even more detail and quality to images taken from the air and they have also opened up the possibility of night time aerial photography.
The most common digital aerial photos we see today are taken by satellites from space. The process is still used for both leisure and more important reasons just as it was over 100 year ago. Google Earth is one of the most used sites on the internet while aerial photos help pinpoint military targets in locations across the globe.
Author Resource:-
Dominic Donaldson is an expert in the photography industry.
Find out more about digital aerial photos and the history of photography.
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