H. H. Bennett Studio

The rocky formations in Wisconsin Dells bring to mind images of the southwest like Antelope Canyon. The country was made aware of the place's unique beauty largely by the works of photography pioneer Henry Hamilton Bennett. Beyond having an eye for capturing images, Bennet was a innovator in the world of photography who developed the first stop-action shutter. Prior to this type of exposure, subjects of a photographic session had to remain still for minutes — fine for landscape imagery, but it made portrait-taking somewhat awkward. Aside from exposing the world to the beauty of the Dells, with this new shutter design, Bennett captured the first image of a spontaneous event: his son Ashley leaping across a formation called Stand Rocks. 

When touring H. H. Bennett Studio, now a site designed to celebrate the man's accomplishments in part by maintaining its original condition, one learns there were many who believed this first photo had to be a fake — an image of a person caught leaping mid-air was impossible! Which, of course, prior to this break-through would have been true.