Light Writers We Are! Photons Unite!

Hey All!

I'm going to have a bit of literary fun today. I was on a flight the other day listening to a podcast (which by the way is the words best way to pass the time on and airline flight. Short of sleeping that is.) on lighting. One of the guys made the statement that he is a light writer, a photon worrier if you will. It got me to thinking and for some dopy reason I thought I would pass it on.

Photographer; Let's take a closer look at what that is exactly. It is derived from two Greek words,

phôs and graphein.

phôs, or φως (hey, it's all greek to me!) is translated as light which was where we get the word photon. Gilbert Lewis gets the credit for coining that term in 1926. Then there is graphein. This little jewel γραφειν (right!) was brought onboard by Abroham Gottob Werner in the late 1700's as the defining moment of graphite (yep, that black smudgy stuff in pencils), it further translates (it couldn't be easy) to draw or write. We also get the word graph from this also (that was extra but it doesn't cost anything).

If we look at a number of other related words derived from graphein we can further define and refine our word of the moment.

• Orthographer - An individual who has devoted his/her life to the correct (orthós) way of using a specific writing system to write a particular language.
• Cartographer (Greek chartis for map and graphein for write) is the study and practice of making geographical maps.
• Biographer (Greek βίος-bios or life and γράφειν-graphein to write) is an individual whom writes books about the life of a other individuals.

I could go on but I think the point is made. Photo=Photon=Light added to Graphein=Write and it all adds up to photographer. To go a step further the application of the of graphein can be extrapolated to convey the term documentation. 

We document recorded light when we capture those photons reflecting off of the subjects of interest. What we do to set that up by creating (flash), bending (diffusing), or modifying (reflecting) that light is in fact the art of Photography.

Wow, was that fun or what! Thanks for letting me blabber.

Take care... Doug