Author Archives: Robert

Canadian Photography magazine

Posted on October 9, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. Do you remember Canadian Photography magazine? It was a skinny magazine that survived for a few years around the 1970s against the thick American magazines which had a far greater range of advertisers available plus lots of writing talent. … Continue reading →

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Generation Homeless – October PHSC Talk

Posted on October 8, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. Toronto-based filmmaker Jason S. Cipparrone pursues the emotional truths behind living on the streets in Toronto. He has worked with the city’s homeless during the COVID-19 pandemic to document and reveal their stories. Join us on October 20th, 2021 … Continue reading →

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aunt Tilly’s camera collection

Posted on October 7, 2021 by Robert

  Toronto. Back in the 1980s, Don Douglas and I put on a dog and pony show to represent the PHSC. I did a slide show on milestones in the history of B&W photography up to the roll film era, … Continue reading →

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how to make good pictures in 1936

Posted on October 6, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. 1936, what a great year! Mind you, I wasn’t around back then, but my dad upgraded his picture taking skills to a Kodak Junior Six-20. Kodak had reached the pinnacle of the photographic industry by mid last century – … Continue reading →

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something else we no longer need …

Posted on October 5, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. Photographs taken with any metal/glass/film based positive process have to be retaken or duplicated to make an added copies. Those of us who embraced the digital era have no need for such things – the digital process creates a … Continue reading →

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through the wet-plate camera

Posted on October 4, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. Being a photographer – and a good one – in the mid 1800s took exceptional skill and a fine, artistic eye. Author Lewis Carroll (A.K.A. the reverend Chas. Dodgson) was one such person. In Bruce Downes’s column (Let’s Talk … Continue reading →

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dating those tiny Photomatic photos

Posted on October 3, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. You can pick these little portraits up at one of our events. Nowadays, photo booths give us a few portraits in a short strip of prints. Sean Nolan has taken the time to date the Photomatic portraits using the … Continue reading →

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introducing a photographer to minicams in 1938

Posted on October 2, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. When Leitz announced the Leica mid 1920s, most photographers used larger cameras and rarely needed to enlarge their negatives. In 1926, the German government arranged for Zeiss to form the mighty Zeiss-Ikon conglomerate in Dresden to rationalize the German … Continue reading →

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the old camera collector

Posted on October 1, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. When the late Bill Belier was near retirement, he used to haunt garage sales for cameras and other photographic ephemera. Anything that was not for his collection, he would buy and sell at one of our meetings. If no … Continue reading →

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collecting on the cheap

Posted on September 30, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. Not all of us can or want to collect expensive articles. One obvious way is to get in on things early. When this society was formed, camera collecting was growing in popularity but cameras and old photographs were still … Continue reading →

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