Category Archives: history

leaf it to beaver

Posted on November 4, 2023 by Robert

Toronto. The landscape photographers recorded the great outdoors over the years allowing us to see the changes – by season and by time. Mountains change, leaves fall, forests are lost. All carefully recorded by landscape photographers over the years. Without … Continue reading →

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time after time

Posted on November 2, 2023 by Robert

Toronto. In the glass plate/film era, a latent image was captured and developed. If necessary. the resulting image could be reversed and enlarged. The earlier media were insensitive to many visible colours created by less energetic light rays. These media … Continue reading →

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a supporting stand

Posted on November 1, 2023 by Robert

Toronto. In this day of smartphones and digital cameras with maximum  ISO settings beyond our wildest dreams in the film era, camera supports are seldom necessary (other than to take selfies or closeups where framing is critical). In the early … Continue reading →

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tossed upon cloudy seas

Posted on October 31, 2023 by Robert

Toronto. Cloud photography was a challenge in the earlier years of our art. The media were mainly blue light sensitive. Both sky and cloud showed dark on the negative material when the landscape or person was suitably exposed. To correct … Continue reading →

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the best of times

Posted on October 30, 2023 by Robert

Toronto.  to quote Charles Dickens and his book, “A Tale of Two Cities”. The 1970s was when the PHSC was formed (1974). In the 1970s  camera collecting, image collecting and photo history were growing in popularity. Collecting clubs formed, books … Continue reading →

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moonlighting …

Posted on October 29, 2023 by Robert

Toronto. … by the dim ruby red light. One thing the digital crowd misses in photography is the darkroom. Digital photo files are corrected – developed – either in the smartphone or on a computer, then printed on an inkjet … Continue reading →

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gooey stuff

Posted on October 28, 2023 by Robert

Toronto. The positive/negative process most common in plate/film photography uses a characteristic of silver halides (silver salts). This characteristic is a sensitivity to light. The more light, the more silver halide bonds that are broken leaving more tiny atoms of … Continue reading →

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a darkening day

Posted on October 27, 2023 by Robert

Toronto. Today, we are rather blasé about solar eclipses. but how were they handled over a century ago? A dark shield was still needed to protect eyes, but the cameras as shown here were far different. This scene of a … Continue reading →

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a Kodak projector – I swan

Posted on October 26, 2023 by Robert

Toronto. Here is another pre-carousel projector from Kodak as shown in this rather wordy ad from the October, 1955 issue of Popular Mechanics. To promote the line of 2×2 transparency slide films,  Kodak made and sold well-designed and well-built 35mm … Continue reading →

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rhymes with rhinos

Posted on October 25, 2023 by Robert

Toronto. This article in one of the fall of 1955 issues of Popular Mechanics magazine is a puff piece for Bushnell binoculars. The article notes how the binoculars can be attached to a camera as a telephoto lens creating a … Continue reading →

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