A Tree Frog on a leaf in the Amazon Jungle captured on a night shoot.

Those of you who have been following me and my adventures, shooting and traveling around the world, know that I am also a professor at Florida Southern College. I have been teaching photography and design there for the last 17 years. School starts next week and once again I will greet a new bunch of students, excited to learn and chart their own courses in the world. I was trying to come up with an image, that to me, sums up new beginnings and looking towards the future. As I was wandering through my collections, I ran across this photo. This was captured at night, as we were hiking through the Amazon Jungle. This tiny little fellow is about the size of my thumbnail and looked pretty new to the world. He was looking up to the next leaf that he was about to hop onto and his next great adventure. So let the new school year commence and let’s see what new adventures await us!

Also, today is “World Photo Day”, so it only seem fitting that a new post should be in the offering as well. Below I have copied the description and reason of why we celebrate this date and its significance for photography. This was originally posted on http://worldphotoday.com/

The Origins of World Photo Day

The date behind World Photo Day originates from the invention of the Daguerreotype, a photographic processes developed by Joseph Nicèphore Nièpce and Louis Daguerre in 1837. On January 9, 1839, The French Academy of Sciences announced the daguerreotype process. A few months later, on August 19, 1839, the French government purchased the patent and announced the invention as a gift “Free to the World”.

It should be noted that the Daguerreotype wasn’t the first permanent photographic image. In 1826, Nicèphore Nièpce captured the earliest known permanent photograph known as ‘View from the Window at Le Gras‘ using a process called Heliography.

August 19th, 1839 was chosen as the date behind World Photo Day based on the following historical merits:

– The Daguerreotype as the first practical photographic process.
– The purchase and release of the patent by the French government.