Could This Be The First Photo Of A Human? (NPR)

This image appears to show two people at the edge of the Ohio River. The photo was found in a set of daguerreotypes of Cincinnati from 1848, which would make them among the first photographed humans.

Almost Perfect.

I like the number 99 because I feel it's the epitome of "almost". I like it even more because as a written number, it actually looks more perfect and balanced to me than 100. One with OCD might even itch to rearrange 100 it so it would read 010. Of course, doing that would take away it's validity. Would it? Maybe not to the person who just fixed a very unbalanced item. I guess what I mean with all of this is that what's perfect to one person might not be perfect to another, etc, etc. I really have no idea where I'm going with this, and I'm not going to nerd out and start giving Latin root meanings of the word perfection. However, deeming something as perfect basically represents finishing or bringing an end to something. Therefore, if something is perfect...well, that's all. It needs no more work...no more improvement.

To me, imperfection is more desirable. Recognizing the flaws in ourselves and the world around us, being humbled by those flaws, and spending a lifetime making improvements are what help us to grow. We follow this pattern on individual levels all the time, and especially through art. Art is imperfect, but art can be beautiful. It can also be ugly, yet force us to think about why we feel it's ugly. If art were perfect, there would be no art. I used this picture to represent these thoughts. When I took the shot I got really excited because my first thought was that (at least) symmetrically I had taken the "perfect picture". In reality, it was just the way the scene lined up, along with the way the center line was created at that very second to make the single shot look like two separate ones fused together. I got lucky. Furthermore, though I still love this image, I can look more closely and find flaws. This is why photography is my therapy. Photography is never about the perfect photo, but about the perfect moment. I have to be given the perfect moment, no matter how incredible the subject may be. Therefore, so much of it is out of my control. Even when everything comes together to create an amazing image, it's still almost perfect.

Every now and then, our bulb just needs to be replaced. The amount of people needed to screw it in...now that's wherein the complexity lies...