Cameras; we take them on trips, to sporting events, to concerts, to birthday parties and we even take them on outings with our friends. The invention of the camera did not just develop over a few years, but through decades of research and evolution of optics and photographic processes. Al-Haytham, or Alhazen in Latin, was born in 965 AD in Basra, located in present-day Iraq. He later moved to Egypt and began writing scientific papers on the darkroom, how human eyesight works, how light passes through water, and how to determine the angle of reflection of a beam of light. His writings helped bring knowledge of optics to Europe (Cox). Leonardo da Vinci and Johannes Kepler were just two of the most famous Renaissance thinkers who used Alhazen's writings on obscura in their studies. The camera obscura continued to improve over time, and in 1568 Daniel Barbaro, a nobleman from Venice, Italy, developed a way to obtain sharper, clearer images by inserting a glass lens into opening the camera. Later, his Italian compatriot and scientist Girolamo Cardano explained Barbaro's idea in more detail using a biconvex (Cox) lens. In 1686, Johann Zahn was a monk who described and wrote about many portable cameras using lenses and mirrors. The box used could capture an image that appeared right side up to its viewers, but people still had to trace the images produced by the camera (Cox). The first known photograph was taken in Gras, France, in 1826. The photo was the view from a second floor window of the house of Joseph Nicéphore Niépce. Niépce was born in 1765 and survived the French Revolution. In his early photographic experiments he used paper dipped in a paper medium...... "A lively history of photography, from Camera Obscura to camera phones." PetaPixel. DISQUS, April 20, 2013. Web. April 27, 2014. Cox, Lauren. "Who invented the camera? | History of the camera." TechNewsDaily.com. Np, April 30, 2013. Web. April 27, 2014. De Castella, Tom. “Five ways the digital camera has changed us.” BBC News. Np, January 12, 2012. Web. April 27, 2014.Michael, Leigh. “How cameras changed society.” Mago Salute, The art of greeting. Np, April 6, 2013. Web. April 27, 2014.Spencer, Jackie. “Invention of the Camera – Cleveland Photography.” Examiner.com. Np, June 12, 2012. Web. April 27, 2014. “The Story of the First Photograph Ever Taken – Agonistica.” » Agonistic. Np, June 8, 2013. Web. April 27, 2014. Tolmachev, Ivan. "A History of Photography, Part 1: The Beginning - Tuts+ Photography Article." Photography tutorials+. Np, March 15, 2010. Web. April 27 2014.