In the 1850s, the earliest examples of "instantaneous photography" were made. Much was pioneered not by ambitious fine artists, but by commercial photographers catering to a public that mostly fancied affordable small formats, such as cabinet cards and stereo views. Subjects often reflected popular recreational activities of the time. As spending time at the beach had become a favorite pastime in pioneering countries France and England, seashore views became a very popular topic and the clarity of waves in such pictures illustrated the developing instantaneous techniques very well. Initially, practitioners were satisfied if they could capture something of the shapes of waves. An albumen seaside view at Boulogne-sur-Mer by Edmond Bacot was a very early example, supposedly made in May 1850. The experimental albumen glass negative showed many waves as an undefined white area in a picture with a relatively high contrast. John Dillwyn Llewelyn exhibited several early instantaneous pictures of the seaside, in London in 1854 and at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1855. These were well-received by critics, with detailed analysis of how well the waves were pictured. Llewelyn probably was an early adopter of the use of an automatic shutter, but it's uncertain when he would have started this practice.