The first permanent photograph was taken in 1826 by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce using a camera obscura to capture an image of the French countryside that took eight hours to expose. In 1839, Louis Daguerre took the first photograph of a person, unintentionally capturing an image of a man getting his shoes shined in Paris due to his long exposure time. In 1847, Thomas Easterly took the first photograph of lightning using the daguerreotype process.