Category Archives: history

Stanley, I presume?

Posted on November 4, 2020 by Robert

Toronto. About three years ago I did a post on Stanley park’s beautiful and massive old trees showing an ancient (today) automobile nestled in the trunk. Here you see another huge tree, this time shrouding a horse and rider! The … Continue reading →

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what’s leaves got to do with it

Posted on November 3, 2020 by Robert

Toronto. Falling leaves. Cold. Damp. Windy. November in the city and winter is about to rush in. As I write this post on the 1st, we are seeing our first snow flurries of the coming season. Leaves have a lot … Continue reading →

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1932 – Technicolor and Doctor X

Posted on November 2, 2020 by Robert

Toronto. The first time I saw a Technicolor two colour process colour film was the other evening when I viewed the 1932 film “Doctor X” via TV courtesy of TCM who ran the UCLA Film Archive recreated version on safety … Continue reading →

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electricity to the rescue

Posted on October 30, 2020 by Robert

Toronto. Whenever a new technology or process was announced people found ways to use it for profit. A few decades ago photographers set up multi flash units to light large areas when a shot was taken. The idea of harnessing … Continue reading →

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those wonderful old home movies

Posted on October 27, 2020 by Robert

Toronto. I recently did a post on “1839 and all that” featuring a short video on daguerreotype restoration from MoMA in New York City. This post borrows from MoMA magazine once again, this time a 10 minute video showing home … Continue reading →

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copy, copy that!

Posted on October 26, 2020 by Robert

Toronto. In  the early 1900s, some American companies sold fancy copy machines, that relied upon photography, to prosperous companies. Their machines snapped and recorded material directly to photographic paper, which was sometimes developed and fixed automatically. But not everyone could … Continue reading →

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simplicity again

Posted on October 25, 2020 by Robert

Toronto. In the late 1960s, Kodak aggressively pushed its ads to capture the low end of the home movie market. My October 14th post, “eulogy for simplicity” showed one ad Kodak used in this approach. This teaser ad shows another … Continue reading →

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1839 and all that

Posted on October 21, 2020 by Robert

Toronto. The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) Magazine in the Big Apple offers many interesting talks about photography. In this one, conservator Lee Ann Daffner of MoMA thoughtfully treats the tarnish on a c1842 daguerreotype by Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey. Listen to this … Continue reading →

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a fine balance

Posted on October 20, 2020 by Robert

Toronto. Modern day smartphone cameras have editors with colour balance and other colour effects built-in. The tiny cameras automatically set the colour balance to white as a starting point so few images need any editing unless the image creator wishes … Continue reading →

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what were they thinking?

Posted on October 16, 2020 by Robert

Toronto. Today, we all take photography for granted. Images are shot endlessly to record things once written, or capture family moments, or pets, or property changes, etc. We leave news, tv, political, formal portraits, etc. images to the professionals. With … Continue reading →

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