Is physical seeing much like a photographic/camera picture taking? Why?

Yes and no. The mechanics behind vision are the same for eyes and cameras: - A lens collects and refracts light, inverting the image. - An adjustable iris controls how much light passes through. - The lens focuses the image on a sensory plane. - The sensory plane transfers the image as a stream of information for processing. The major difference is that the retina of the eye is not even like a film sensor, but has a central area that is more receptive to sharp contrast and colors, and outlying areas that better detect motion and faint light. The eyes have much more 'dynamic range' than any camera or printable image. Meanwhile, cameras can be fitted with zoom lenses, special-purpose lenses (tilt/shift, close focus), and some can see in the infrared or UV wavelengths. more