Category Archives: history

Canadian Photography magazine

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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aunt Tilly’s camera collection

  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

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 …

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

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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introducing a photographer to minicams in 1938

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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vive la France!

Toronto. The title of this post is a French patriotic expression. When Charlie De Gaulle visited Quebec in 1967, He used a similar expression on the Montreal City Hall balcony (the slogan of the Quebec independence movement) irritating the hell … Continue reading

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the buzz on filters

Toronto. We have it so easy today! The digital camera or smart phone sets the white balance; black and white is a ‘special effect’ etc. In the days of film, especially orthochromatic, filters were essential accessories. Dr Hans Clauss and … Continue reading

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tweet, tweet

Toronto. This camera was ‘for the birds’, or was it?  This advertisement by Direct Products Corp. in NYC appeared on page 125 in the June, 1950 issue of Popular Photography (about the only year the camera was around over here, … Continue reading

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revisit to an ERA

Toronto. Everett Roseborough became our journal editor back in 1987 and continued the task through 1997 when Bob Lansdale took over. Ev passed away at 98 in London, Ontario. Ev was a commercial photographer for many years and had studios at … Continue reading

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