Category Archives: history

on stereo viewing

Posted on March 14, 2024 by Robert

Toronto. Our brain is a marvellous organ. Each eye sees a scene/person at a slightly different angle. The brain merges these two images to create what we see as a stereo or 3D ‘picture’ of the scene or person we … Continue reading →

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flying cameras

Posted on March 13, 2024 by Robert

Toronto. This photo of a Montreal landmark, St Joseph’s Oratory on Queen Mary Road, was taken by an Exakta and 135mm Steinheil lens on Kodachrome from a CJAD news helicopter. Aerial photos have been taken since the late 1850s when … Continue reading →

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flight of fancy

Posted on March 12, 2024 by Robert

Toronto.  The cut line for the photograph at left says, ” Raúl Pescara’s 16-bladed helicopter leaves the ground at Issy les Moulineaux, France, to attempt the world endurance record in January 1924. Pescara’s flight set a new record, staying airborne … Continue reading →

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down the line

Posted on March 8, 2024 by Robert

Toronto. One specialty by photographers is photographing trains, lines and train stations. In our January 2016 meeting speaker Ralph Beaumont and his ‘sidekick’ Rod Clarke presented the story of  “Heckman’s Canadian Pacific“. For many decades trains were the prestigious way … Continue reading →

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getting it there

Posted on March 7, 2024 by Robert

Toronto. I received further material on Women in the Air late on the 5th. George Dunbar sent me this photo and link. It ties in nicely with an American story of similar female pilots ferrying aircraft on the West coast … Continue reading →

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an interesting archive to our east.

Posted on March 6, 2024 by Robert

Toronto. The photo you see is from the Whitney Archive courtesy of the Pickering Library. You can see  many options here. The grid on the photos may be a newspaper halftone or a means to ‘protect’ these images. Associated with … Continue reading →

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flight history

Posted on March 5, 2024 by Robert

Toronto. I have made earlier posts about how history has been helped by photography. Recently I was reminded of this fact by a note from my good friend George Dunbar. George writes, “Some interesting book titles listed here for those … Continue reading →

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the tin men

Posted on March 2, 2024 by Robert

Toronto. The advent of the wet plate process provided a means to continue on with the cased images like the daguerreotype, create a negative for paper prints, or expose a black Japanned piece of ‘iron’ to be cased or mailed … Continue reading →

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the time before giant (cheap) TVs

Posted on March 1, 2024 by Robert

Toronto. The devastation of industrial facilities in much of the world brought a new class of adventurer/photographer to the forefront. In parts of the world, It was cheaper to abandon facilities ‘in-place’ rather than remove them after decommission, to repurpose … Continue reading →

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ambrosia

Posted on February 29, 2024 by Robert

Toronto. The “next big thing” in photography, after its announcement,  was the wet plate process developed by Frederick Scott Archer of the UK in 1851. Interestingly, the new process did not ‘catch on’ with all Daguerreotypists immediately. A few years … Continue reading →

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