to smartphone or not to smartphone

Posted on January 4, 2024 by Robert

Brian Matiash tests his iPhone 15 camera and accessories

Toronto. … with apologies to Will Shakespeare. Over many posts I have commented on using a smartphone camera. While I personally use the now out-of-date iPod Touch camera and its 8mp sensor; our Samsung smartphone sensor has a greater mp rating and currently exceeds the rating of any other digital camera I own these days.

I use the ‘Touch because it couples easily to my Mac via Airdrop. While better, the Samsung ‘phone needs a special cord connecting it to my Mac plus the ImageCapture app and more ‘clicks’. My other digital cameras need their SD card removed and inserted in my Mac.

Florida photographer Brian Matiash in his most recent newsletter (Lightroom Everywhere #7) features this article on the subject, “Can the iPhone Replace Your Camera?” Have a read and see how your smartphone camera can replace a digital camera when the occasion arises (I  know, I know, this is current, not historical – yet).

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Photographic Canadiana 49-3

Posted on January 3, 2024 by Robert

image for cover shot of Photographic Canadiana 49-3

Toronto. This is our third issue for volume 49. It rounds out the four issues for 2023. Once again David and Louise have done a fine job!

All Members WITH an email address AND a valid subscription to our MailChimp list have already received notice of this informative 21 page issue. Issue 49-3 of Photographic Canadiana is dated October-November-December  2023. Please note that MailChimp does not send unsubscribed/cleaned addresses on our list any of our notices or journal issues.

This is another fine issue assembled, augmented, and produced by our editors. There  are three major articles: “The Syndication of a Mrs. R. Maynard Haida Village Photograph by David Mattison”; “Treasures in a PHSC Box Lot by David Bridge”; and “Saving Lives On Wholesale Plan [more about Arthur Goss] by David Bridge”.

As  mentioned in earlier posts, drop me a line at info@phsc.ca if you are a member and haven’t received notice of any issue from volume 48 (4 issues), or 49 (first 3 issues) of the journal. Since COVID, we have produced all issues of Photographic Canadiana in pdf format. This allows us to use colour photos and vary the number of pages. Hard copied by mail are no longer available.

Not a member? Easy-peasy, just break out your favourite plastic (VISA, MasterCard, etc.), 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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sunrise, sunset

Posted on January 2, 2024 by Robert

striking sunset photo courtesy of Brian’s Lightroom blog

Toronto. A new post by photographer Brian Matiash discusses photos taken at the beginning and end of the day. His advice by and large applies to digital today as it did to film years ago.  As a kid wet behind the ears, I read that photos around the noon hour must be avoided as the light is too harsh and the shadows too short.

In Brian’s blog for Lightroom you can see the variety of landscape shots that can be recorded at sunrise or sunset. His article brings to mind the sunsets I took about 60 years ago with their riot of cloudy colours.

The title of Brian’s post brings to mind the famous song “Sunrise, Sunset” from play and film “Fiddler on a Roof”. I saw the play at the O’Keefe Centre here around 1964 and the movie on TV just recently. The play was far more memorable to me. I like the minimalist approach taken in a play; using light and shadows to great effect – like photos at sunrise and sunset.

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Happy New Year 2024

Posted on January 1, 2024 by Robert

Happy New Year 2024

Toronto. We at the PHSC wish you all a Happy New Year in 2024. The photo shown at left  is a New Year’s 1900 cover shot courtesy of the Edwardian Promenade web site.

Jan 1, 2024 begins our new membership year so if you haven’t renewed yet, please do so. Go to our web site and the right Hand Column as details and a link to PayPal for ALL to use.

Remember to include a valid email address as our journal (Photographic Canadiana), newsletters, etc. are all in pdf format. If you are a member BUT haven’t seen an email notice of our journal Photographic Canadiana being issued, drop me a message at info@phsc.ca. The latest issue (49-3) for the last quarter of 2023 has/is ready to go the end of 2023 or first week of 2024.

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smart lens …

Posted on December 31, 2023 by Robert

Victoria Fisher of U of T holds the century old ‘smart lens’ – Photo by Dan Falk

Toronto. We are familiar nowadays with smartphones, but what about a smart lens? Just over a century ago (1922), the lens shown here went to Australia to aid in proving a theory published in 1916. Another example of the valuable use of photography to the world.

Over a century ago in 1905 (special) and 1915 (general) a young Albert Einstein came up with his “Theory of Relativity“. Even today, it isn’t uncommon for a theory to precede proof by many years.

Young Einstein’s work was based on that of many of his  predecessors, including A A Michelson (this  biography I read back in the summer of 1962).

The U of T magazine for October, 11, 2023 includes an article by Victoria Fisher, the assistant curator of U of T’s Scientific Instruments Collection and Dan Falk, called “The Einstein Camera”. In this photo by Falk, Fisher, “holds up the lens that travelled to Australia and back more than a century ago. In May 2023, Fisher uncovered the lens in the David A. Dunlap Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics’ historic collections, where it had lain forgotten for decades.”

My thanks to good friend and fellow photo historian, George Dunbar, for finding and sharing this article with us (I still have the book on Michelson).

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take a squint …

Posted on December 30, 2023 by Robert

St John’s NL, photo of the Logy Bay giant squid taken by Simeon Parsons and Sherburne McKinney on Water St

Toronto. … at the Logy Bay giant squid c1873. 150 years ago last month this photo of a giant squid put to rest the tales of sailors and fishermen, or so the CBC reported.

The beginning of the CBC article states, “Before one remarkable moment in downtown St. John’s a century and a half ago, the giant squid lived only in the tall tales of sailors and fishermen.

“Then, thanks to a single photograph, the massive cephalopod immediately moved from the realm of fantasy to reality. And today “squid spirits” — as enthusiasts consider themselves — continue to marvel at the fact that there’s still so much mystery and awe around the creature 150 years later.”

This CBC article as spotted by our PHSC president and my friend, Clint Hryhorijiw, reports how photography was able to put to rest all speculation of the existence of this strange being.  In the late 1870s, as stated in this article,  photographic proof was needed before any thing or event was accepted as existing/true.

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a disastrous time

Posted on December 29, 2023 by Robert

San Francisco (View along O’Farrell St. looking southeast toward Market St.) after the 1906 earthquake – W E Worden via Calisophere archives

Toronto. Do you remember 1906 and the massive earthquake that hit San Francisco? As I have often said, photography brings events and history to life down through the ages.

There is a fault line that runs all the way to the Queen Charolette islands and further. When I visited the indians over two decades ago, I watched seismographs in the local city area stutter and stagger as small shifts in the earth’s plates occurred. And as you can see here, earthquakes are not just a California phenomenon!

Here we can see the terrible effect of mother nature over a century ago. The Huntington Library On the University of California’s Calisphere has an online archive with photos taken after the earthquake.

Have a  browse at Calisphere and see the devastation as recorded in 1906 by …. photography! Please note that both the site and this photograph are courtesy of my very good friend, George Dunbar. Mr Dunbar discovered the link and photo while researching photo history. Like me, George is a member of the PHSC.

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remember Dr Barnardo?

Posted on December 28, 2023 by Robert

box of glass slides found in Glasgow and sent to Canada

Toronto. We see in this article another example of photography recording history. In the article, “British Home Children: Antique box tells heart-breaking history” reported by Eloise Alanna, a box of glass slides from Glasgow lands in Canada to complement the sad history of the Home Children (BHC).

Some of the orphanages for children of the poor were run by Dr Barnardo. Children from such orphanages were shipped off to various countries like Canada. Our April 2018 meeting featured Sandra Joyce. She explained the history and (often sad) progress of the orphans shipped to the Dominions and (hopefully) a better life.

This post is based on a story and link sent to me by both George Dunbar and Clint Hryhorijiw. A heartfelt thanks to both. The story is touching not only for Ms Joyce and her talk but that one of my wife’s relatives through an aunt was one of the BHCs who did manage to have a better life over here.

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a tasty treat

Posted on December 27, 2023 by Robert

a working ginger bread box camera

Toronto. This article is a followup to our boxing day post. We have all heard/made gingerbread houses, but what about a gingerbread [box] camera that takes photos?

CBC news the other day commented, “New Westminster’s Dmitri Tcherbadji loves film cameras so much, he decided to make one out of gingerbread.

“It took hours to draw blueprints, bake, and craft a lens out of sugar, but he successfully created an edible, gingerbread camera. He then turned his focus to the CBC’s Baneet Braich and showed her how it works.”

The link here includes a short video showing how the camera is made plus some sample shots. Besides the ‘sugar’ lens, a weighted paper shutter (gravity operated) is used. The film is the Fuji Instax alternative to polaroid film. Instax  eliminates separate development and printing steps. Yummy!

A quick thanks to my friend and our PHSC president, Clint Hryhorijiw, for sharing this piece of festive news with us. Well done Clint!

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boxer

Posted on December 26, 2023 by Robert

box camera in a lot from a recent auction

Toronto. And here we are once again at an official boxing day! To commemorate this event, at left is an old film box camera from a recent auction lot.

Box cameras are the basic camera design: a fixed focus lens with a stop fast (small) enough to give  fixed focus from a few feet to infinity (or using a couple of waterhouse stops to vary the aperture size) ; a sensitive media; a rigid means to correctly separate the media and lens; and a way to point/frame the shot.

A slow shutter speed(s) and daylight make sure the exposure is enough to give a decent negative. Steady hands and/or tripods were a great help in the days before optical stability mechanisms and fast media.

More elaborate camera designs allowed adjustments for aperture, speed, and focus as well as a means to view/frame the subject, measure distance to the subject and possibly collapse the camera or lens for carrying and storage. Or even focal length. Piece of cake!

Of course those who grew up in this digital era and its smartphones don’t see any need for collapsing means, light gauging, etc, etc. Just press and send …

Now off to the store for traditional boxing day bargains!

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