Tintype Studio
Portrait Time again
Toronto. The guys at The Tintype Studio have announced that December 3rd 11 – 5 will be the next special portrait studio offering.
We had these folk do a program for us back on February 20th, 2013, over four years ago.
At left is a fine example of the studio’s portrait capability!
Drop by their studio next month and join in the festivities while getting a unique gift for your family!
1909 – The invention of Windshield Wipers for vehicles
Toronto. We make regular use of patent drawings in our various research endeavours and publications to illustrate and validate once new and unique objects and processes – cameras, lenses, darkroom apparatus, prints, etc.
Many days, the Globe and Mail, on page two of section A uses a fact and illustration to cover an event which took place on that day in history. The column, called, Moment in Time, is a favourite of mine and a source of little known facts.
For example, on November 10, 1903 the windsheild wipers we take for granted today were invented. In the story, Salmaan Farooqui, uses a patent drawing as an illustration noting that the concept was invented by a Ms Mary Anderson of Birmingham Alabama.
Initially, the idea was derided – even in Canada where it was rejected by a company in 1905. But around a decade after its invention, windshield wipers became common-place accessories on motor vehicles.
As a kid, I can remember vacuum operated wipers that stalled as my dad’s car lumbered up hill and just as suddenly flipped frantically back and forth as the car rolled down hill once again.
PHSC News November 2017
(vol 17-05 )
Toronto. Editor Sonja Pushchak has delivered another sumptuous edition of our favourite newsletter.
The 12 page extravaganza opens with a review of the 2014 book Homegrown by Julia Blackmon (titled Snow Jobbery). Page two covers a couple of rare Leicas we will auction this month – a Midland assembled IIIg from the first year of the model’s short life, and a rare 1937 model II in black enamel trim.
Both auction and image show posters are presented (both shows scheduled for this month). Regular writer for the newsletter, John Morden, discusses the tiny Gem Tintypes. The second edition of Making Kodak Film and its presentation to the PHSC this month by Robert Shanebrook is covered followed by an Equipment Review of a beater camera for use in poor weather like we had/are about to have.
These pages are followed by the usual bunch of one page columns by our regular writers, ending as usual with the ever popular The Classifieds. All in all 12 pages of inspiration and enlightenment!
WW2 Photographer Jack Ford at 95 courtesy of Fred Lum and the Globe
Toronto. The Globe and Mail on Friday the 10th featured this wonderful portrait of WW2 photographer Jack Ford taken in colour by Fred Lum. In the centre of section A, on crisp clay paper, are examples of Jack Ford’s work in WW2 including this sombre shot of a street in France late in the war.
In keeping with the Great War, we remember an event that took place a century ago – the infamous Passchendaele battle in Belgium. When I was a kid in high school, the second world war had barely ended a few years earlier and we looked to the great war each November 11th. I can still remember the Vimy Ridge memorial in the main hall of my school.
It is fitting that the Globe features 95 year old Jack Ford in memory of the veterans of these two significant world wars.
I hope you all took time for a minute of silence today at 11 am in memory of those who fought to keep Canada and its citizens safe.
Leitz Student Microscope in 1900. The model V stand cost $12 and was made for students and schools.
Toronto. In November of 1994, I bought this student microscope from Gord Reithmeier. Made about 1900, it is unusual in the excellent condition of the stand and its wooden box. Originally sold complete for $12 US, it is occasionally seen for sale. However, examples are often rather battered having been submitted to the hands of many careless and clumsy students.
What is unique about this model (and other old Leitz instruments) is the fact that its parts were interchangeable. No need to send it to the factory for repair, a broken part could be ordered and replaced locally.
In the mid 1850s, Carl Kellner in Wetzlar, Germany hired a young Ernst Leitz to improve his microscopes and other optical instruments. Leitz began a process of standardization so any part of a stand or lens could be interchanged without resorting to unique one-off hand creation in the factory. A few years after Leitz arrived, Kellner’s Optical Institute in Wetzlar became the Ernst Leitz Optical Institute, famous for its microscopes and after 1924, its Leica cameras and lenses.
This all came back to me when I saw in Wednesday morning’s Globe an op ed article “Where profit trumps peace” by Iain Overton. It was in part about the 1851 meeting between Samuel Colt and the Institute of Civil Engineers in London. Colt’s fresh egg, like that of Leitz was to standardize parts to make (in this case) hand-gun manufacture less costly.
In many ways, the transformation of industry by standardization and automation brought in to play the second industrial revolution. Cameras and photographic lenses from the late 1800s on benefited from this philosophy of standardization.
Special Canada Leica to celebrate our 150th anniversary – The Leica M-P 250 and 35mm f/2 lens. Red trim and neck srtap.
Toronto. Thanks to Bob Lansdale for this notice of a special Canada version of the famous Leica. Both Bob and I used the 35mm f/2 Summicron lens many years ago on the film versions of the Leica M series.
Beginning this December, a limited quantity (max 25) of this anniversary edition of the M-P 250 goes on sale in North America.
The black version of this camera and lens comes to just over $10,000.00 American! The camera is a 24MP full frame instrument. The lens is the latest ASP version of the 35mm Summicron, a lens marketed for well over a half century.
The Polaroid Project – an exhibit in Austria first
Toronto. Our friends at WestLicht in Austria announced The Polaroid Project, an exhibition from November 18th this year through February 28, 2018.
The press release for the exhibit begins, “Polaroid! The brand has long become a universal myth. The uses Polaroid initiated still inspire our everyday photography—as a quick check on Instagram suggests.
“For the first time, the exhibition explores the Polaroid phenomenon at the intersection of art and technology in its full scope. Outstanding artists—from Ansel Adams to Andy Warhol—seized the medium of instant photography to strike new paths and came to define the aesthetics of an era.
“The Polaroid Project combines their unique creations with ground-breaking technology—camera specimen, concept studies and prototypes—which made this visual revolution possible in the first place. Vienna, which since 2010 is the new home of the International Polaroid Collection thanks to the initiative of WestLicht founder Peter Coeln, is the first stop of the exhibition in Europe.”
Camerama This Sunday, Nov 12, 2017
Toronto. Take in Gary Perry’s latest show this Sunday.
<<= clcick the icon at left for details.
Edward Village Hotel information is on their web site as well.
You can add to your collection or sell off items to one of the many vendors at Sunday’s show.
Don’t miss the fun – free parking too!
Review of Oct 15, 2017 Fair
Toronto. Mark Holtz dropped by our fair on October 15th with his little daughter. Mark took the next couple of weeks and edited the video he shot at our show and posted to YouTube. Thanks for the review, Mark!
Louise Freyburger, one of our enthusiastic volunteers and PHSC Facebook page founder had this to say, “Mark Holze sent PHSC’s FB page this video from the “camera show” fair of Oct 15. He says his daughter had a good time too. [Now, this is an instance of drawing the younger crowd!]
“He and commenters speak with excitement about the event on Nov. 19th. [Our Auction] Commenters say that event might turn out to be a Sheridan reunion!
“Personally, reading such messages and dialogue comments made, I’m afraid this does indicate that “photographica” is maybe not so inappropriate to this segment of our market, but he says he’s into “vintage lenses” and camera gear. Yet he seems totally at home with digital.
“I actually do urge that people should take a look at Mark’s video–it’s just what’s needed! But, as is, it’s dated material.
“Anyway, those are a few thoughts about having been sent this video of PHSC’s October 15, 2017 Fair. David says he bought his kid some buttons… and David also says we should, ‘Sign that guy up!'”
Dual 12 MPx Cameras in latest Smartphone – the iPhone X
Toronto. The iPhone X was placed on sale last Friday. Included are three cameras! Two 12 MPx cameras for wide-angle (f/1.8) and a telephoto (f/2.4) plus some fancy imaging and portraiture apps. The third front facing camera is 7 MPx (f/2.2) and does 1080p HD video and Face ID.
The tiny marvels will accelerate the disappearance of traditional point and shoot cameras. I have a 16 MPx mirrorless Sony with interchangeable lenses and a 5 MPx iPod Touch. My wife has a Sony point and shoot with 3.3 MPx resolution and a 3:1 optical zoom.
The key thing is that the phone will be always with you while the higher resolution camera stays home for the most part.
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
