take it and show it

Posted on September 6, 2020 by Robert

Home Movie Camera from MAy 1929 article

Toronto. One of the headaches facing the home movie crowd was the fact so many different gadgets were needed to take and show movies. One idea was to use just one instrument as both the camera, and with added illumination, the projector.

The camera and projector idea was touted in the May 1929 edition of the magazine “Science and Innovation“. The idea of a combined gadget never caught on. Wittnauer (the watch company) promoted this idea again in the 1950s and 60s selling in Jewellery stores, with the same degree of success … (A few years ago, Bob Wilson showed us a Wittnauer camera/projector at one of the Show and Tell sessions.)

It seems a bit like the ill fated Shop Smith – a machine that combined various power tools in one. Great idea; an even greater pain to use.Thanks to my friend George Dunbar for sharing this bit of history from days of old.

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shudder and stutter -our shutter supplement

Posted on September 5, 2020 by Robert

All About Shutters

Toronto. This special (Vol 1 No. 3 September 2020) is titled, “ALL ABOUT SHUTTERS”. It was sent out Friday to all current members with an email address. If you did NOT get a copy, please email me at info@phsc.ca and I will send you a copy after verification of your membership. Not YET a member? well, for Pete’s Sake! Grab your plastic and register via PayPal on the upper right of this page!

This is a reprint of a 1993 publication in California. The preamble inside the front cover states, “The advertisements and illustrations in this supplement originally appeared in The Photographist, number 97, the journal of the Western Photographic Collectors Association (WPCA) in 1993. The WPCA was affiliated with the University of California Museum of Photography and stopped publishing circa 1996, going into dissolution in 2001. For the story of the history of the WPCA, see the article in Special Supplement Vol. 1 No. 1.

“In an effort to make this material available to collectors, historians and those interested in the history of photography, this content was digitized by the Photographic Historical Society of Canada (PHSC) and Milan Zahorcak in 2019 and 2020 for distribution to PHSC members as a seven part series. The first two instalments were about magic lanterns. Subsequent issues of the series, forthcoming in the following months, are posing chairs, flash lamps and two parts covering early enlargers. If you have any questions or would like higher resolution scans of any of the images, please contact the PHSC at info@phsc.ca.”

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ZOOMin’ in the SIX

Posted on September 4, 2020 by Robert

Toronto. We held our sixth COVID-19 inspired exec meeting via ZOOM. A big thanks to Celio for arranging the meeting once again. Key changes are shown below. Toronto has entered stage 3, so we held our trunk show on August 23rd – it was a great success as pent-up demand helped fuel the excitement. Next month, we plan to hold our auction OUTDOORS at the same spot. Stay tuned for details and a poster. PHSC News will go out shortly for September. Remember to sign up at news@phsc.ca for a free pdf copy.

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illuminating and breathless

Posted on September 3, 2020 by Robert

camera and lighting in 1960 for a scene in the movie “Breathless”

Toronto. This is a photo of a cameraman slowly moving by a wheelie while the lighting and actors stay in place. The lady in the striped dress is none other than the tragic Jean Seberg with her French co-star Jean Paul Belmondo.  The 1960 film was called “A bout de souffle“. Or “Breathless“ as it was known to English audiences. Seberg died a few years later.

The photograph of the cameraman and lighting in 1960 are from an article by Rob Baker in July, 2018 on the website Flashbak titled, “The Life of Jean Seberg in Pictures“.

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colour home movies in 1929

Posted on September 2, 2020 by Robert

An Idea For Colour Home Movies in 1929

Toronto. Even today, we use ways to separate and re-combine primary colours to create realistic viewable colour images, be they prints, computer screens, smartphones, or TV. The concept itself is over a century and a half old. James Clerk Maxwell demonstrated this idea with a tartan ribbon in 1861.

This particular scheme uses a rotating series of filters on the movie camera lens to make each monochrome frame record the intensity of a particular colour. A second rotating filter on the projector lens is synchronized with the correct frame to project the colours as seen (more or less). The process and the need to use filter density to control the light level for the various colours is explained in the article, “HOME MOVIES – How Filters and New Color Attachment Enable You to Capture True Color Values” by Don Bennett in the October 1929 issue of the magazine Science and Invention.

The system may have proven to be impractical, since it seems to have quickly disappeared from the market place. A few years later, Kodachrome burst on to the scene. It was a process that worked and was backed by the mighty Kodak corporation.

My thanks to George Dunbar, a professional videographer, photographer, and member of the PHSC, for sharing this bit of photographic history with me. For much of the last century effort was expended to allow the humble camera to capture colour as we see it –  from the dyed potato starch grains of the Lumière Brothers to the sophisticated Red-Green-Blue pixels of modern day smartphones.

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most gifted

Posted on September 1, 2020 by Robert

Kodak Instamatic 104

Toronto. Today when someone says, “most gifted”, we usually think of a very bright child worthy of accelerated and/or in-depth learning. Today, when we think of compact cameras we usually mean smartphones.

In the summer of 1967, a Kodak advertisement in LIFE magazine called its Instamatic 104 camera both “the world’s most gifted” and “compact”. While emphasizing the price of a colour kit as “less than $20”, the ad neglects to mention (and rightly so) that the camera is both limited in use, and to many eyes (mine included) down right ugly.

The ad on page 41 in the June 2, 1967 Issue of LIFE does hit all the buzz words of the day: colour, flash, indoor, compact, easy to use, etc. A big thank you to good friend George Dunbar for sharing this historical note with me.

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girls of Dawson City

Posted on August 31, 2020 by Robert

Dawson City girls c1900

Toronto. We often heard of the gold rush and the men “who moil for gold” as Robert Service says in his poem “The Cremation of Sam McGee“, but we seldom heard of the girls of questionable virtue attracted to the “wild west”.

The Daily Mail in the UK carried an article titled, “The ‘soiled doves’ of the Wild West: Photos reveal the everyday lives of prostitutes in the brothels of the American Frontier” which includes the photo at left from Dawson City in the Yukon.

One of our members once had a studio in Dawson City and gave a talk on the Chilkoot Trail in September 2o15. It was about the realities of the Chilkoot Trail and the gold rush. Like so many things, it took money and good fortune just to survive let alone succeed!

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not only elephants have them

Posted on August 30, 2020 by Robert

Photo at our Trunk Sale this month courtesy of Lewko (Clint) Hryhorijiw

Toronto. Trunk and trunk sales that is. Ours was held this year on August 23 at the Trident Hall in south west Toronto and will be featured in our next journal issue.

Note that our journals are for members. Not a member yet? See the right hand panel and join/renew via PayPal. It’s easy, just have your plastic ready and we will pay the modest fee. Check here if you don’t think you are missing out!

In past years we have held camera fairs and auctions. Pandemic willing, we will have an image show this fall and hopefully an auction too.

 

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Photographic Canadiana 46-3 in PDF

Posted on August 29, 2020 by Robert

Photographic Canadiana 46-3 Cover

Toronto. I hope you have enjoyed the balmy swelter of summer as these cool evenings predict the fall. Yesterday, members WITH an email address received another delightful magazine via pdf. It  is  the Photographic Canadiana 46-3 dated September- October-November 2020.

This 26 page delight in full colour was envisioned by editor Bob Lansdale to create the excitement we all have as we await an end to the current pandemic which has dragged its heels all summer.

Drop me a line at info@phsc.ca if you are a member and haven’t received this special pdf edition. Not a member? Easy-peasy, just break out your plastic (VISA, MasterCard), follow the rules at the upper right of this page and sign up via PayPal (no PayPal account needed – we will pay the modest fee). Membership is an incredible bargain. Period!

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How to Take a Good Portrait Photo

Posted on August 28, 2020 by Robert

Portrait ideas by Harry Guinness

Toronto. Another great article appeared recently in the blog “How-To Geek” This article, “How to Take a Good Portrait Photo was written by Harry Guinness (he updated the article August 18th). Harry’s advice is just as solid today as it was decades ago for film.

Read the article and see how his ideas (aside from the models used) can materially improve your own worrk. Great ideas!

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