Landfall

Posted on December 9, 2023 by Robert

the PhotoEd LAND issue is now published

Toronto. Back in September we did post on the PhotoEd request for articles on LAND.

Our friend and favourite editor, Rita Godlevskis just announced the latest print issue of PhotoEd is now available. The issue shows the photos and articles selected from her request for submissions a few months back.

Pick up a subscription today – or visit a newsstand to see the wonderful content. Especially great for those new to the industry and ready to learn from photographs by others.

Rita also asked for two submissions: First for the Aids Committee of Toronto (ACT) and “Snap for Action” photos for their photo contest; and second, submission for the LIGHT issue of PhotoEd this spring.

 

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Exposing Photography: Anything But A Small Business

Posted on December 8, 2023 by Robert

Print from a glass plate negative in the
B F Childs Photographic Gallery collection

Toronto. My friend Cindy Motzenbecker sent me an email about an upcoming event coinciding with a current exhibit by the Marquette Regional History Center (MRHC). As this will be a ZOOM event, you will need the meeting link. Email me at info@phsc.ca  for the link.

Cindy writes, “MiPHS/Cindy Motzenbecker is inviting you to a scheduled ZOOM meeting:

“Exposing Photography: Anything But A Small Business/Marquette Regional History Center

“Tuesday, Dec 12, 2023 02:00 PM EST

“This presentation is free.  The actual presentation will start at 2:30. (The extra time is for potential “technology issues”.)  Jack Deo helped a lot with this exhibit, and is a long time Michigan Photographic Historical Society (MiPHS) member.  (MiPHS.org)   Jack was lucky enough to purchase the B.F. Child’s photographic Gallery including THOUSANDS of glass negatives of the area around Marquette and Lake Superior.  He and Don Balmer are the UP representatives of MiPHS.  (“UP” is for “upper peninsula” for the non-Michiganders.) ”

As Cindy mentioned, the images are from around Marquette in Michigan and the surrounding Lake Superior area. The images will interest many image collectors. Please join Cindy and our sister society MiPHS this coming Tuesday the 12th via ZOOM.

Continue reading →

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measuring sub-second time etc.

Posted on December 8, 2023 by Robert

lens/shutter from a telephone traffic camera once used to record trunk registers

Toronto. Those of us who once prided ourselves for shooting that special film moment know all about sub-second time; time measured by a shutter that allows light from the subject to reach the film for the prescribed fraction of a second.

Today, with cameras that literally do auto-everything, most would be photographers are not aware of shutter speed, or even care as long as the image of the scene ‘looks’ okay.  But what if the scene doesn’t ‘look’ okay?

The more sophisticated (or deeper pocketed) of us use a standalone camera with a setting for shutter priority and a means to set the shutter speed. Oh yes, and the knowledge of how to use the setting.

For everyone else, photographer Brian Matiash of Florida has a great explanation in his third ‘Lightroom Everywhere Newsletter‘ issue under the title of, “Important Shutter Speeds for Photographers“.

Have a read and learn about this feature of photo control. Brian’s words can both instruct and refresh. Looking at his photos may help you get a better shot, more in keeping with how you pictured the result would be.

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a cold winter’s night

Posted on December 7, 2023 by Robert

taken nearly a decade ago in late February, 2013 in Toronto

Toronto. Nasty weather is the bane of a human’s existence – unless he is a photographer. For a photo, inclement weather can create a memorable exposure – witness Henri Cartier-Bresson’s “decisive moment” when a French commuter jumps a puddle and all elements in the image’s frame come together.

The landscape photographer can frame an arresting scene and record it for history, but adding a weather element can create a far more interesting result. Since the birth of photography, photographers have captured the environment, sometimes to record a famous locale, and other times to capture both a locale and the effect of nasty weather be it rain, snow or fog (even fog in Labrador). Looking back, photographs can portray a person, a place, tools, war, weather all to the aid of our understanding of history.

In this particular post, we remember the legion of landscape photographers who have captured the world as it once was – including mother nature’s weather in both its charm and vengeance.

This post bring’s to mind a 1944 song, “baby its cold outside” sung here as a duet by Michael Bublé and Idina Menzel.

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zoned out

Posted on December 6, 2023 by Robert

turrets, turrets, everywhere and no place to go …

Toronto. Post WW2, a decision was made to divide Germany into four zones – American,  British, French, and Russian. To politicians, this was a marvellous way to solve occupation of the defeated country by many forces. But to some camera makers, the zones were not always practical.

In a February, 1947 issue of LIFE, a photograph shows the dilemma of one German maker of movie cameras.

The cut-line under the photo in LIFE states, “STYMIED MANUFACTURER of an advanced type of camera is a victim of the zone system.

“August Arnold [photo above left] has adapted the reflex principle to taking movies, only to find he cannot get lenses from the Zeiss factory in the Russian zone or the Schneider plant in the French zone. Meanwhile he examines turrets which are piling up.”

This photo is most likely related to the famous Arriflex cameras later imported to America and widely used in the movie industry. It serves as another  example of  photography aiding history – and the unintended effects of war.

Thanks goes to our good friend, George Dunbar, for sharing this discovery of a photograph in LIFE showing that at least one camera maker was ‘zoned out’ for a time after WW2.

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showboating

Posted on December 5, 2023 by Robert

a bilingual Kodak ad at Expo67

Toronto. Do you remember Expo67,  a World’s Fair held in Montreal? It was a remarkable show in spite of the inevitable strikes. My wife and I enjoyed Expo and courtesy of a bus strike we were able to see so many more pavilions.

Kodak advertised their cameras (and indirectly their films) with tasteful ads such as the bilingual one shown here.

Expo67 was a wonderful opportunity for all photographers to show off their abilities. The Ontario pavilion had a multi-image slide show of provincial photos and videos – plus a now famous song. The show and song were eventually released as a film shown here.

The bilingual  theme song for Canada and the fair was written by Bobbie Gimby. We owe a thank you to our diligent photo-historian, George Dunbar, for sharing this piece of Canadian photographic history with us.

NB. The movie linked here is one our Toronto presentation showed some years ago in September, 1988 (Photographic Canadiana 14-4, page 12).

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not a good image …

Posted on December 4, 2023 by Robert

not a good way to promote the camera product line

Toronto. Kodak did show up in the last issue of Life (December 1972), but not in their own ad. Instead, a Kodak camera was featured in a colourful Raleigh cigarette ad as one of many ‘free’ items available with B&W (Brown and Williamson) coupons attached to each cigarette package. I wonder if the ad creator meant ‘three’ coupons, not ‘free’?

At the time, there was a huge issue over whether cigarettes caused terminal illnesses as stated much earlier in the medical press. Ultimately the case was settled with disastrous effects on the (American) tobacco industry.

At the time, I worked in Montreal for a company that like all companies at the time, permitted smoking in the work place as it had for many years previously and for some years later.

A thanks goes to our in house photo-historian, George Dunbar, for finding this example of the American tobacco industry trying to sway public opinion with ‘free’ goods (including photographic) while they tried to down play medical issues.

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a Johnny come lately

Posted on December 3, 2023 by Robert

1936 ad for the Contax miniature camera first marketed 4 years earlier

Toronto. Introduced in 1924, the Leica by Leitz was a flat out success. Two years later, in 1926, its competitor, Zeiss formed the Zeiss-Ikon group to rationalize the German photographic Industry. By 1932, the first Zeiss Contax reached market – eight years after the Leica.

To compete, the Contax needed to be more precisely made, and better in every respect (camera, lenses, accessories) than the Leica. Unfortunately for Zeiss, Leitz had locked down all the easy miniature camera solutions via patents. As a result, the Contax was more expensive, more complex, more difficult to repair, etc. etc. See Lipinski’s 1955 book “Miniature and Precision Cameras” for a discussion of the Leica and Contax .

This ad in the first issue of LIFE (Nov 1936) promoted the then 4 year old Contax as the camera for ‘news photographers and amateurs’. My thanks to George Dunbar for his patience in discovering the early Contax ad and sharing it with us. Leica is still made today, but digital format. Its famous competitor, Contax, no longer exists.

The Leitz organization has become Leica; the Zeiss corporation continues as well but no longer offers any cameras. Both companies were and are German optical houses of renown. A huge Zeiss surgical microscope was paramount in my surgeon’s world about a decade ago while a friend of mine had similar surgery – but his doctor used a massive Leica surgical microscope. Still competitors.

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wishful thinking …

Posted on December 2, 2023 by Robert

ad for Argus in the November, 1936 first issue of LIFE magazine

Toronto. Argus was a runner up to the mighty Kodak when I was a kid. Today, Argus is but an historical memory while Kodak continues on as a far smaller corporation, no longer the top dog of photography!

When LIFE was first produced in the fall of 1936, Kodak missed advertising in the new magazine, but not others including the International Research Corporation (IRC), then owner of Argus products.

IRC touted their cheap Argus A plastic body camera shown here as a solution  to underexposure and inaccurate focussing while copying (and dissing) “the expensive ‘miniature cameras'”.

This camera was said to have popularized the 35mm film size to the States while the low price assured high sales. Sadly, the tiny camera was little more than a box camera, made to look like a well designed and made European miniature camera.

Over the years the Argus C-3, fondly known as the brick, became the brand’s best seller by far.

Our thanks to George Dunbar for discovering this fabled bit of photo history and sharing the advertisement with us.

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in the thrill of the night

Posted on December 1, 2023 by Robert

a Kodak ad for their darkroom products in late 1954

Toronto. It’s hard to imagine the thrill of first seeing  a photograph emerge in developer under the gloomy illumination of a dim safe light.

As a kid, I can remember this thrilling event. At the time, film development was a bit more iffy so I had others develop each roll ready for me to print.

Kodak, in its effort to be omnipresent in photography, had its own line of darkroom products. This fall, 1954 ad in Popular Mechanics entices the reader to try his hand at darkroom work using Kodak products.

Thanks to good friend and fellow photo historian, George Dunbar, for seeing and sharing this wonderful bit of history. It brought back a lot of memories for me. My first goal, after seeing the image rise like Lazarus from the blank sheet of paper, was to learn how to make the images even cleaner and more realistic.

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