Colwood’s rebuilt Speed Graphic
Toronto. In the latest Graflex Journal, subscriber Chris Cooper offers photos and info on the Colwood Camera Co. based in the UK. In business at least in the 1950s, Colwood offered rebuilt Anniversary Speed Graphics using factory spare parts.
Have a read and if you can share more info on Colwood or their rebuilt Graphics, drop me a line and I will pass it along to Ken Metcalf, editor of the Graflex Journal.
Polaroid ad in LIFE (1959) offering ISO (ASA) 3,000 film
Toronto. A half century ago if you wanted a fast film you went with Tri-X ISO (ASA) 400 B&W film. Tri-X was marketed around 1940 as a larger size film with an ASA of 200. In 1954 it was offered in 120 and 35mm format too at 320 (tungsten) and 400 (daylight) which could be pushed to 800 ASA with the right developers.
Polaroid beat the pants off Kodak with its ASA 3,000 B&W film, touting use indoors with no flash during the day and a camera mounted wink light (AKA fill-in flash) at night by indoor lighting with the wink light softening any shadows.
Today’s digital cameras easily offer an ISO of 3,00o and higher. My old Sony NEX-6 goes to an amazing ISO of 25,600! But in the days of film, Polaroid’s ASA 3,000 film was something to be proud about! My thanks to friend and fellow PHSC member George Dunbar for researching this historical ad in the September 28, 1959 issue of LIFE magazine (pp 21-23). Well done George!
the Three Stooges try to make a buck with photos
Toronto. Familiar faces to those of a certain generation, Larry, Moe and Curley are featured on the upper left of page one of the latest Graflex Journal for this year, issue 3 2019.
Click the link and browse and print Ken Metcalf’s latest newsletter on the famous Graflex and Graphic cameras. Ken always has an interesting little photo for the left of his masthead. This time it is a publicity still of that famous trio, The Three Stooges, trying to earn a buck by taking and selling some Speed Graphic photos at 3 for a dollar.
Seagate – back up before you regret losing images and fies
Toronto. As digital overrides film (analogue), the messy wet darkroom gives way to computer-based image correction and inkjet printing. Digital makes technically perfect images a snap while still demanding an artist’s eye to find a subject and take a photo that is more than just a snap shot! And the cost of materials is reduced to paper and ink for those shots deemed necessary as prints.
For film, negative sleeves offer a place to note the client/project, date, subject matter etc. This is greatly simplified in digital images through keywords, captions, etc. that allow fast searches on the computer. Such data are imbedded in image files (EXIF etc.) making every file’s background material portable.
But what about losses? Computer files are stored on a mechanical hard drive or a solid state drive. Backups to another drive or the cloud are a MUST to anticipate the inevitable error, goof, or failure that deletes the original file(s). I recently bought a four terabyte portable drive to back up my images and files. A failure of an internal drive years ago taught me how important it is to back up all critical files and images. I managed to recover my data but it was slow and messy without solid backup material.
Another issue with digital images is that the standard and means to view the images have a rather short life in the full scheme of things. Film negatives and prints can be viewed by the eye. Digital files need a suitable computer plus a viewer or editor application. The current file standard is JPEG (or JPG) but the advent of short videos and stills in smartphones has shifted the standard to something labelled HEIC.
Even RAW files vary. Camera makers bring out newer versions of their RAW files with newer camera models rendering older versions of RAW files obsolete. Adobe countered by offering to save RAW files as DNG files instead hoping DNG would last. Now competitors to Adobe Lightroom are arguing that you lose some fine detail and other critical data by converting from a RAW format by the camera maker to DNG format.
And as we see a shift in storage media over time from eight inch floppies, to 5 1/4, to “hard” case floppies, to hard drives, to DVDs, to SSDs, to the cloud, etc., it becomes potentially harder and harder to reliably save and view digital images across the years. As resolution increases, so do demands on the hardware. A couple of decades ago most digital images were around one megapixel in size. Today 60 megapixel images are not uncommon to professionals. Four decades ago I used a 10 Mb hard drive. three decades ago I used 40 Mb to 100 Mb drives. Today I have 2 Tb and 4 Tb drives.
Digital images are sweeping, fast, easy, and complicated all in one.
girl on father’s lap in fall 1959 – by Ron Laytner
Toronto. … said my little friend Harry as he puffed away. It was the 1940s and Harry was ahead of me in school in spite of his shorter stature. This all came back to me when my fellow PHSC member George Dunbar sent along this photo snapped by the late Ron Laytner from here in the big smoke (and no, the child isn’t smoking – her dad is).
Laytner’s photo was featured in the MISCELLANY column of LIFE magazine in its September 7, 1959 issue on page 106 .
Dr Robert Wilson
by Robert Lansdale
Toronto. The Globe and Mail has a column called Lives Lived on the obituary page to celebrate those who have passed on earlier.
The column on Bob was written by his partner May Maskow and a family friend Philippa Campsie.
If you missed the Globe on Wednesday. November 20, 2019, take a moment to read the column here.
Issue 28-4 of PHOTO News arrived Wednesday morning in the Globe.
Toronto. I opened Wednesday’s Globe at breakfast and to my delight I found my latest Photo News. As I went through the magazine, I realized that the best thing was that every article included useful ideas and tips with professionals sharing the way they made the illustrations in the magazine.
I read Peter Dulis’s article on creating B&W prints carefully and discovered there was more to correct monochrome printing than choosing a button on my printer options. And the choice of printer paper was critical as well. Great article. Great ideas.
I enjoyed reading the article by Viktoria Haack and agree with her that her photograph of the model Emily taken outdoors in cold weather really emphasizes Emily’s hair colour.
Even the ads were attractively photographed as shown by Nikon’s back cover shot of the Z 50 mirrorless camera and its two zooms.
M. Daguerre sits for a Daguerreotype c1844
Toronto. On November 18th, 1787 – a mere 232 years ago, Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre was born. And in January 1839 the most important announcement was made: Daguerre (yes this Daguerre) had invented photography. His process created the daguerreotype, a contrasty high resolution process that made one off positive images from the action of the Sun.
Within days, a startled Englishman, William Henry Fox Talbot announced his negative/positive process which he had been sitting on for years. For about two decades the Daguerreotype reigned supreme around the world, but in the end the negative/positive process prevailed and lasted well over a century since one negative could make as many positive prints as desired
Speaking of these old processes reminds me that THIS SUNDAY our very own PHSC Image Show will be held at the Arts and Letters club, 11 Elm Street in downtown Toronto. My thanks to George Dunbar for reminding me of Louis’s birthday and to Sonya Pushchak for the delightful posters announcing the Image Show.
Hartmann – Gate at Kiev
Toronto. Modest Mussorgsky was a well known Russian composer, famous for his series called Pictures at an Exhibition in English. He wrote the series in June 1874 but it wasn’t released in print until 1886. He composed it after visiting an Art Exhibition. Of the series, I most enjoyed his Great Gate of Kiev.
Join us this Sunday at our PHSC Image Show being held on Elm Street at the Arts and Letters club. Mussorgsky would have loved it – you will too! (Admission is free … .) Just click this PHSC Image Show link for details.
PHSC Image Show Sunday – click above to read or print
Toronto. It is said that a picture is worth a 1,000 words. How about a hundred pictures? A thousand? Ten thousand? I don’t know either. What I do know is that you will find thousands of pictures at our image show ranging from early daguerreotypes to modern prints and posters.
Come along this Sunday and check out our tables of images. This small but classy show has been an annual event for a few years now. It is down on Elm Street at the Arts and Letters club. Drop by and pick up a new image or more for your collection or wall!
Click the tiny poster icon at left to see a bigger version. Thanks to Sonja for the icon and poster.
EVENTS
Click the above icon to download the form and mail a copy with your cheque. You can include your donation with the join/renew form too.
Stan White – Poems & Photos
Mise Au Point – sur la photographie Quebecois
