Category Archives: history

landscapes, streetscapes, and history

Toronto. The old landscapes and streetscapes bring visions of history that no one can see in any other way. Years ago, at one of our fairs, I bought some glass plates from Marlene Cook.  Most of the exposed plates came … Continue reading

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gilding the lily

Toronto. Post WW2, photography literally blossomed with new ideas. Flash bulbs became the rage for solving lighting problem allowing for snaps at night or indoors. Soon all cameras came wth flash synchronized shutters. Many included the soon to be ubiquitous … Continue reading

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flighty photos

Toronto. Some photographers use propeller driven aircraft in their activities. Exec member Wayne Gilbert often used a small aircraft as he shot views of buildings. This ceased when his friend and pilot retired. The use of a small aircraft circumvented … Continue reading

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what a find for the image collector

Toronto. I always enjoy emails from George Dunbar. George diligently researches photographic history and comes up with the darnedest things! This time it is a doozy for those of us who collect photos by long ago Ontario photographers. George writes, … Continue reading

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a baleful eye on historic events

Toronto. Not long after its invention, photography and photographers recorded exotic landscapes, famous people, disasters, wrecks, wars, etc.  Before the evolution of such photographs, we relied on wood cuts, steel cuts, and the written word to describe events near and … Continue reading

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… and everything nice …

Toronto. From the earliest days of photography to the invention of dry plates, shutter speeds were unnecessary – the media were far far too slow. A simple hat or lens cap (and verbal counting) served as a shutter. As to … Continue reading

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a Jolly Irishman makes photography colourful

Toronto. One of the goals of photography was to let light create natural colour. All the methods possible were recorded by the Frenchman, Louis Ducos du Hauron and based on the experiments of James Clerk Maxwell. Of course today with … Continue reading

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Christmas time and the giftin’ is easy

Toronto. Well this is either a few months late or a lot of months early for Christmas! My thanks to George Dunbar for sharing this piece of history with us – a December 1951 ad from Kodak in Popular Mechanics … Continue reading

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kalart to the rescue

Toronto. In the mid last century after WW2, flash bulb photography became popular for shooting the very slow media at night or indoors. This avoided using either very slow speeds, or the somewhat intimidating and restraining AC photo flood lamps. … Continue reading

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a short-lived fad

Toronto. George Dunbar sent along this article from Popular Mechanics in its August 1951 issue. The article is about a Vermont man who ‘light paints’ with his camera and a pen light. Shown are a flower and a caricature of … Continue reading

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