You may wonder why this blog is called Obscura POV?
A little back story.
My father was a successful portrait photographer. Like many children, I developed an interest in my father’s work. One day, my father helped me make a pinhole camera out of a large Folgers coffee can for a Cub Scout merit badge. The process was quite simple. We sprayed the inside and the lid with a flat black paint and ever so slightly pierced a tiny hole mid-way up the can. We then put a piece of black electrical tape over the hole. Next, we found the darkest room in the house and took out an unexposed sheet of photo paper from a box and put it into the coffee can. Then with the tiny hole facing a candle on the table everything was setup. The tape was removed and counted to around 10 and quickly put the tape back over the hole. Later that evening in the dark room we developed that photo paper and it was magical and sadly very out of focus. But it didn't matter. I created my first photograph.
This YouTube video explains it very well.
A pin hole camera, in its purest sense, is a camera obscura. Obscura is derived from Latin, describing a small room with a single tiny hole through which light entered. It is only a small ray of light and anything outside of its viewing angle will not be recorded. To make things even more interesting the light, when it enters the tiny hole, inverts the image onto the photo paper. Painters, such a Vermeer, have been said to have used the camera obscura technique for their paintings. *
This blog title is a hat tip to my dad and his teaching his son the beautiful art of photography. Just as a pinhole camera captures light to create an image, I aim to shed light on wealth management strategies to help my clients achieve financial clarity. As a Certified Financial Planner™ with over 30 years of experience, now living in Portugal, I aim to share insights on wealth management, personal capital and behavioral finance. In my experience, working with clients has shown me that investing is both an emotional and financial journey.
Along the way I will be posting photographs of mine which may or may not have anything to do with the blog post. I just may have found them interesting enough to share. As you may have guessed, the photograph of my father was created my me.
Finally, consider my views as shedding light and giving you my perspective on navigating the world of personal capital and wealth, learning every day and sharing these experiences with you.
Be well.
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