Sunday Quiz | As easy as a Sunday morning: On photography

1, On May 8, 1840, Alexander Wolcott patented his ‘mirror camera’, which became the first patent in photography. He and his business partner John Johnson actually made dental equipment. A year earlier, Wolcott had used a daguerreotype reflector camera to photograph Johnson. Seeing the results, he opened a business venture. What was Wolcott doing for the first time and what business were they both leading?

2, The company was founded in 1892 by George Eastman after he began selling leather-covered box cameras with 100-exposure rolls of film. Once done, you send the camera to the factory for print. Eastman and his mother wanted a name that was short and easy to pronounce for their company. It is said that the name he chose was the sound made by the camera shutter. Which company is this?

3, In the early days, photographers had to use mercury, silver nitrate and lye to develop images. These were dangerous chemicals that caused disease. There was one particular aspect of photography that was deadliest. To use this particular accessory, one needs to mix potassium chloride and aluminum which, if done incorrectly, can lead to an explosion. What was this accessory that we now get at the click of a button?

4, Scottish scientist James Maxwell was the first to describe electricity, magnetism and light as different manifestations of the same phenomenon. In 1861, during a Royal Institution lecture, he and Thomas Sutton took three photographs of tartan ribbons. Each time, he used a different filter – red, green and blue. Maxwell then merged them all into one picture. Thanks to this, what is Maxwell credited for in photography?

5, Thomas Sutton was an English photographer who first developed the panorama shot in 1859. He used a lens, which was a glass sphere filled with water. In 1861, he invented a camera that used a mirror and prism system that allowed a photographer to view the scene through a lens. It revolutionized the industry and is the most common camera to date. By what name do we know these cameras?

6, In 1878, the Governor of California asked the English photographer Edward Muybridge to prepare a portfolio of his favorite possession, the Occident. Muybridge was convinced that he needed to break down the action of the oxidant in order to get a complete rendering. Subsequently, he produced the first photographs on the movement which set the stage for the first motion pictures. Who was the oxidant that became the subject of the first movie?

7, In 1911, American archaeologist Hiram Bingham went in search of the last Incan habitat to fall to the Spanish. When in the Urumba Valley, a local farmer told him about the ruins on top of a nearby mountain. After hiking for six days he saw that a place was almost completely covered by forest. He mounted a camera and took a photograph, which became the first archaeological photograph. What picture did he take, which in mother tongue means ‘Old Peak’?

8, Captain Albert Stevens, an officer in the US Army Air Corps, was an avid balloonist. In 1930, he was flying over South Dakota prairie land when he took a picture with infrared-sensitive film for long-range aerial photography. The picture captured the horizon 482 km away and is slightly tilted down. This was the first photograph of which phenomenon, discovered mathematically by the ancient Greeks?

9, National Geographic has been a treasure trove of some of the greatest photographs in history, most notably its cover images. The cover of the July 1959 issue featured a 49-star American flag, which honored Alaska’s accession to the US. What was this first example in a prestigious magazine?

10, This photo, titled ‘Bliss’, is an unedited shot taken by Charles O’Rear in 1996. Charles was driving down Sonoma Highway, California, to visit his girlfriend when he stopped on a hill. Unusual for the area, it was not covered by a vineyard, so he took a picture. A company bought the picture in 2000 and it has since been considered the most viewed photo in the world. Where have you seen ‘Bliss’?