C is for camera first and foremost and there are more to choose from than you think. Film, Instant, Digital, smartphone, compacts, DSLR, SLR, full frame, Bridge, 360 degrees, CatCams (see below) mirrorless… I have a few of them :). You can read about them in this article which explains the differences. One of the first cameras ever to become public was made by Susse Frères to the specifications of Louis Daguerre in 1839, and called a Daguerrotype. Very rare to find one outside a museum, but in 2007 one was sold at auction for £500,000, and another in 2010 for about £700,000.

C is for Cats. Cats of Instagram, cats on Facebook, Twitter, cats on Youtube, cute cats, Grumpy cats, and (my favourite), philosophical cats. In 2007 a German-American dude called Jürgen Perthold turned his cat Mr.Lee into the photographer by inventing the CatCam, a small lightweight camera on the cat’s collar that takes continuous photographs for 2 days in a row. The cameras are now commercially available from Mr.Perthold’s website, and here’s an article about him and Mr.Lee, with links to the cameras, and videos and pictures taken by Mr.Lee.

C is for Cameron, Julia Margaret (1815-1879). When most pioneers of early photography were men, along came Julia Margaret Cameron. At the age of 49 she was given a camera by her daughter, and she embarked upon producing a huge body of work. Not one for technicalities she had a strong vision for portraiture and composition, and became well known for soft focus portraits of famous Victorian men, illustrative images depicting characters from mythology, Christianity, and literature and for producing sensitive portraits of women and children. The collection of her work in this link to the Victoria & Albert Museum is well worth a look.

C is for Carter, Keith. (1948-still here) is an American photographer known for his dreamlike photos of people, animals and objects. His work is beautiful and whimsical, and he sounds such a lovely person. His website with galleries of his work is a joy to look through. He uses many mediums, wet-plate, collodian, silver gelatin and digital to great effect. And here is a short documentary with him that is worth a watch.