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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Merry Christmas 2023 from all at PHSC

Posted on December 25, 2023 by Robert

Christmas 1966 in Toronto on Kodachome

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t’was the night …

Posted on December 24, 2023 by Robert

what a wonderful gift in 1972 – if you had and used a Polaroid camera

Toronto. Christmas eve again. That magical night loved by all children when ‘Santa’ drops by with gifts for all the children on his list.

We at PHSC wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year wherever you are and whenever you celebrate the season and the new year.

Our post title is from that famous 1823 poem tentatively written  by Clement Clarke Moore and known by those old and young.

The image at left is from a Christmas 1972 issue of LIFE magazine. In it, Polaroid makes two big assumptions: The recipient owns a working Polaroid; and all ‘gift’ photos will come out perfect. Typically, many of my family had a Polaroid camera – used a few times then tossed to the back of a shelf or closet after the delighted owner discovered the cost of having ‘instant’ prints and that many of the costly prints might be ruined as the Polaroid camera is adjusted to work best and the subject is finally suitably posed and alert.

Those of us today born in the digital era think all photos are full colour, cheap, and instant – or what is a smartphone for???

My thanks to very good friend and fellow PHSC member, George Dunbar, for finding and sharing this timely Christmas eve advertisement from years gone by.

 

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a subjective choice

Posted on December 23, 2023 by Robert

Niagara Falls c1974 using Kodachome transparency film

Toronto. We are about an hour’s drive from one of the world’s most famous falls – Niagara. The photo at left is from the late 1970s on Kodachrome transparency film. In spite of its slow speed and high contrast, Kodachome was used at the time to capture events to be saved for the future.

Since the beginning of photography, people and Niagara Falls have been popular subjects. Collectors of photos are certain to have at least one ‘falls’ shot in their collection. We have had many talk about the falls including ways to date photographs by the background and how the falls were used to generate hydro-electric power.

As photographers we have a wide choice of subjects. Colour and framing make the subject appealing, In landscapes capturing a falls can turn an indifferent shot into an eye-catching photograph. Photographer Brian Matiash talks about water falls in his latest LightroomEverywhere blog, “Why I Love Photographing Waterfalls“. Brian lives in Florida these days (more flat and swampy) but at one time he lived in the American west where water falls abound. Have a read!

Think about your subject and a photo’s impact the next time you are off on a shoot or busy searching indoors somewhere for that special photograph to add to your collection!

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