Our very first OUTDOOR Auction is October 4th

Posted on September 10, 2020 by Robert

Toronto. If the current COVID-19 rules or better apply next month, the PHSC plans to hold its first OUTDOOR auction. This will be an ESTATE auction held at the Trident Hall. Details are shown here in the poster below created by our PHSC News editor:

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photographica c1925

Posted on September 22, 2020 by Robert

f/2 camera and bright projector of film stris c1924

Toronto. The magazine Science & Industry addressed the wide audience of tinkers and experimenters (mostly boys and youths) and as such it included a wide range of things. In this example article, a camera is shown, but unnamed. The take home was that it had an f/2 lens and could snap theatre and street scenes at night under the existing light in those environments.

The second article covers a unique projector. Again unnamed, this machine uses an “ordinary car headlight bulb” and a resistance to run on house current. Since such a bulb in 1925 took 6 volts and house current was 115 volts, the resistor would run quite hot.  The bulb is like a point source illumination so the result would be a very contrasty light. Prints were photographed on movie film and each frame could be shown separately.

A rather tedious conversion to save the size and weight of a stereopticon projector. We had a more sophisticated projector (by SVC) when I was a kid that showed both slides and film strips like the film used in the 1925 projector. A thank you is in order for friend George Dunbar who offered this tidbit of photographic history.

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who swiped my photo?

Posted on September 21, 2020 by Robert

Image courtesy of BBC News and Nell Mackenzie

Toronto. Today, people are uploading their photographs in droves. Sadly, while this offers a far wider audience over the internet, it exposes the excellent and unusual to easier copyright violation.

The BBC News via a column written on the 18th of September by Nell Mackenzie titled, ” ‘They used my picture and I should’ve got paid for it’ ” tells the cautionary tale of Sean Heavey who one evening found one of his storm shots used in a Netflix video.

So as a precaution, realize your work can be easily “borrowed” and reused commercially if it’s uploaded to the internet these days. Back when low resolution prints or books were copied, it wasn’t worth the time and effort to duplicate the material. Generally, as copying falls in cost and increases in quality, copyright violation grows too. Just think of all the fraud or nuisance phone calls you get now that long distance is so cheap for you to call friends and family far away.

Since we (PHSC) are an educational not for profit group, we do occasionally use an image from the ‘net, but we always try to give credit to the organization or photographer. Thanks to my friend Russ Forfar for sharing this piece of BBC News with me.

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making it better

Posted on September 20, 2020 by Robert

Ad in LIFE c1967 for the Perma-Cube electronic flash

Toronto. Flashcubes had four tiny flash bulbs and allowed four flash shots by rotating 90 degrees after each shot. Magic cubes looked the same but were ignited by mechanical energy instead of batteries. In 1967, Honeywell made two flashcube alternatives for five of the popular Kodak Instamatic camera line models.

They were both plug in replacements for the flashcube. The cheaper version used four AA size batteries for “up to 100” snaps while the pricier version used rechargeable batteries and included an AC charger for about 25% more and took about 30 snaps per charge.

Of course modern day smartphone users needn’t even think of flash. It’s all automated. Just use the internal digital camera and the flash goes off automatically when needed (unless you have it set to off ).

Once again my thanks to George Dunbar for sharing this bit of photographic history with me. You can see the ad in the November 17, 1967 edition of LIFE on page R7 just after page 103.

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a dash of flash

Posted on September 19, 2020 by Robert

Ad for Honeywell Strobonar 660

Toronto. In the early days of flash, these high speed demons  emulated flash bulbs – you set the aperture, and shutter based on subject to camera distance, film speed rating and shutter syncronization maximum speed. All this changed with Honeywell’s iconic Strobonar 660 (if you used battery power). The elegantly designed flash series used automation to control  the amount of light hitting the subject, stopping when the right amount was detected – whether on camera and directed at the subject or bounced off a light wall or ceiling to give a softer modelling light.

This was a terrific accessory for most cameras, allowing good exposure both at night and indoors. An ad from the November 10, 1967 issue of LIFE (page below page 80) illustrates this beautiful flash. I had an Ultrablitz Reporter IIa with a large reflector and lots of power but no automated control so subject to camera distance always had to be calculated and the aperture adjusted to control the light intensity. Most 35 mm cameras with focal plane shutters would only synchronize to flash at or below 1/25 or 1/50 second, sometimes leading to ghost images from natural lighting. So called focal plane flash bulbs (not electronic flash) allowed for faster shutter speeds by staying illuminated for a bit longer than normal flash bulbs.

My thanks to good friend and PHSC member, George Dunbar, for sharing this bit of photographic history and thanks to Mike Butkus for the flash manual. Be sure to check out Mike’s site for any photographic manual – both pdf downloads and paper copies.

 

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follow da money

Posted on September 18, 2020 by Robert

A free professional camera …

Toronto. When I was a kid, magazines were rife with ads offering ways to get rich. These ads made it seem so easy.

The ad at left, was aimed at wishful future photographers. The ad even promised a free “professional camera”, whatever that was. In 1925, when International Studios, Inc of Chicago ran this ad, $50 to $100 a week was a fortune earned by very few. In fact, three decades later, I made less than $25 a week in a small Ontario town (fresh out of school and with an amateur radio licence in hand). In the early years of the 1900s, Chicago was well known for its studios – all be it movie studios – giving credence to this advertisement.

Nothing is free. Companies like this made their money by selling the naive and gullible wanna be’s instructions. In this ad, the make and details of the free “professional camera” were purposely left unstated so the reader could  dream about this potential bargain. Sadly, the profession of photography took (and takes) SKILL, especially in 1925. A very intelligent person could learn the art free by visiting his local library and borrowing the photography books of the day. He would still need to have good salesmanship and business acumen to succeed – tough to get by answering an ad.

The money saved by the aspiring photographer was better spent on a good camera of his choice. Studio and darkroom could be set up at home initially and later moved to a more promising location once the business began to prosper.

A big thank you to friend and PHSC member (as well as photography historian), George Dunbar, for sharing this tidbit of history with me. Today such ads have been replaced with telemarketers and unsolicited emails – some valid, many crooked to put it mildly (I am a sceptic by nature).

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another dimension

Posted on September 17, 2020 by Robert

c1925 article on how we see stereo and how to take photos in stereo

Toronto. Paintings and regular photos are done in two dimensions. Careful use of shadows (lighting for photos) give a more modelled view of the subject.

Most humans have two eyes 2 to 3 inches apart giving two images of any view at two slightly different angles of view. The human brain fuses these two images to give a three dimensional (stereo) view.

This article in the May 1925 issue of Science and Invention magazine explains stereo and how to take and correctly align stereo photos taken with these inexpensive box cameras. The stereo fad seems to wax and wan. Every half century or so stereo interest peaks once again. c1900 stereo cards are popular collectible items again. Fake stereo cards exist. The same photo is used on both left and right making the result totally flat when viewed correctly.

In the 1950s stereo popularity rose again with special stereo attachments and cameras. The stereo fad seems to fade because, like movies, special care had to be taken and on top of that few people could “free view” stereo so special viewers were needed. Anaglyphs using two different colour allowed both images to be printed on one sheet.

Special books of stereo drawings using repeated symbols could be bought late last century and free viewed by many people but only crude drawings could be viewed. For a short time so called lenticular views could be taken with a four lens camera and special processing of the prints.

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the dark slide of the room

Posted on September 16, 2020 by Robert

Dark Slide partly open in film holder

Toronto. Plate holders and later film holders became common in the later 1800s and early 1900s to protect sensitized emulsions from unexpected exposure to light. These clever gadgets, which came with a dark slide that could be removed for exposure through the lens, were mounted on the back of the camera (room, etc in Latin). These holders held sensitized glass plates or cut film allowing the photographer to take many exposures by simply removing and exchanging the entire holder.

The dark slide could be removed for exposure, then flipped and reinserted to remind the photographer that the protected sensitized medium had been exposed in the camera. The  holder could contain one plate or two depending on construction. Once roll film took off  the holders and their dark slides disappeared.

The remaining outpost for many years were the venerable cameras like the Graphic and Graflex lines that continued to use plate holder backs long after roll film was common place.

NB. The post title is a riff on the epic 1973 album by Pink Floyd called, “Dark Side of the Moon“.

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anything you can do …

Posted on September 15, 2020 by Robert

A camera collector’s collector

Toronto. Camera collecting has no firm rules. Some folk collect quantity, some quality, and some both. The late Jim Matthew managed to collect some 3,000 plus cameras ranging from the inexpensive to the exotic. A marine engineer, Greater Manchester born Jim’s work took him around the world (including 12 years in Canada).

Jim began his collecting enthusiasm while visiting his daughter in Vancouver, BC. Jim retired to Scotland and on his death, his wife Dorothy emigrated to Canada. Steven Brocklehurst did a short review of Jim and his collection for the BBC Scotland News on September 11th of this year.

Thanks to my good friend and fellow PHSC member Celio Barreto (our programme secretary, Japanese photography expert, and, Instagram &  ZOOM meister) for sharing this piece on camera collecting with me. NB, the title of the post is also the title of a 1946 song composed by Irving Berlin for the Broadway musical, “Annie Get Your Gun“. Unlike the song, few collectors can claim to better Jim’s over 3,000 old cameras!

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if it moves, shoot it …

Posted on September 14, 2020 by Robert

Ad for Kodak in LIFE August, 1967

Toronto. An old military saying was, “If it moves salute it; if not, paint it”. My colour blind uncle was a painter on a military base after the end of WW2. He told me the paint tins were marked to say the house, room, and wall to be painted, so his eyesight was not an issue.

An advertisement in the August 18th, 1967 edition of LIFE magazine (p 85 – one page from the end), promoted Kodak’s super 8 movie cartridge, colour film, a new projector and a new palm size camera, solving two of the problems vexing would-be amateur home movie buffs – flipping a camera film reel and threading a projector.

The ads never mentioned the squinty results, lack of sound, cost, tedious editing, steep learning curve to accomplish decent results, cheap lenses, resolution issues, etc. After all, Kodak’s goal was to sell film, lots of film. Buy the projector and camera – and keep buying film.

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the importance of being a photographer

Posted on September 13, 2020 by Robert

Yonge St looking North from Temperance in Toronto c1903

Toronto. The internet, streaming services, and television have a voracious appetite for videos. A century or so ago it was magazines and newspapers with the heavy appetites for still images and drawings.

Any time before 1839, your ancestor had to have deep pockets indeed (or live in a ritzy area) to have any chance at all of a landscape painting or a good likeness by a competent artist. The longer photography was around, the cheaper and more popular it became . Many streetscapes, nature shots, and portraits were taken by professionals. In time, most folk had a family snapshot enthusiast who snapped family events, portraits, or perhaps even workplace photos.

After photography became commonplace, it was possible for most descendants to see where their ancestors lived or what looked like or even how they earned a living! An amazing change in an era of such rapid changes in travel, communication, education and entertainment.

Before its ill fated report was released, Google’s Sidewalk Labs collaborated with the City of Toronto Archives to produce an amazing website showing both vintage photographs and the date and location in Toronto where they were taken.

My thanks to our sports photographer, author, past PHSC president (and more), Les Jones  for sharing this tidbit of history with me. Old TO by Sidewalk Labs is a truly great website to browse around. What’s in your neighbourhood?

NOTE: The post title is a riff on the 1895 Oscar Wilde play called, “The Importance of Being Ernest“. (A favourite play of my Wife’s when she was a school girl.)

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