Clint officiates the evening
I was a bit late arriving at the December meeting but I had an enjoyable evening. Doug Napier’s wife provided some home baked cookies – delicious! Oscar Li attended to the coffee machine in the absence of Bob Wilson and after a few other events, the Show and Tell began with Clint officiating the evening.
Carter with Zeiss and Photography book – picture by Bob Lansdale
Zeiss. Bob Carter. To my immense surprise I was first up – no glasses, no notes. Yes I was prepared… I eventually sorted myself out and presented a draft review copy of Larry Gubas’ latest book on Zeiss history: Zeiss and Photography. Larry’s close ties with our exchange society, Zeiss Historica, as current president and webmaster were noted. I reviewed the status of his book along with its massive size. I promised to post the price on our web site as soon as it is made available to me. (Note: since the meeting Larry advised me his original printer declared bankruptcy delaying printing and a firm price until February 2014 at the earliest.) I reviewed the detailed and thorough history of Zeiss and Zeiss-Ikon in the book along with the many cameras and engineers it covers. I finished my talk by showing my Leitz Stereoly, serial 3037 with details are posted here on our web.
Manual speaks on improvising and re-using.
Home-Made. Manuel Nunes. Manuel always has an interesting home made accessory to show us. Tonight he featured a diffuser for his flash made from an inexpensive translucent water bottle. He encouraged members to make and reuse rather than buy new. He demonstrated his decision by showing an old film camera viewfinder mounted on a recent vintage digital camera.
Felix Russo recaps his PhotoEd magazines
PhotoEd – 2013 in Review. Felix Russo. Felix went through this year’s issues and told us just a few of the many interesting background stories. For example, while creating his second edition for 2013 on Street Style, Felix became involved with bloggers. In his presentation, he mentioned the value of a blog varied from a few thousand dollars to some half million or more depending on how many visitors the site attracted. For today’s blogger, high traffic means high financial value. Felix wrapped up his talk with a preview of an issue for next year while encouraging the audience to suggest favourite themes for future issues.
Mark passed this strange film reel to the audience.
9.5 Cine. Mark Singer. Mark always brings a strange item for discussion. This year, he brought an old Bolex Paillard G3 projector. The G3 was first sold in 1937 although Mark’s example seemed a bit newer. This strange looking machine runs three amateur formats: the 9.5mm format so popular in Europe, and the 8 and 16mm formats used in North America. Mark explained to us that it took some mechanical skill and patience to switch amongst the three formats. Mark also showed a 9.5mm editor and he passed around a sample of a 9.5mm film.
Blake shows his Rockies Tintypes taken last summer.
11×14 Tintypes. Blake Chorley. Blake made it out to our meeting to the delight of Clint (Blake will be our January speaker). Tonight he showed a teaser for his planned talk using three of the large tintypes he captured in the Canadian Rockies this past summer. Blake spoke about the challenges he faced in making such epic photographs using the wet-plate technology of the mid to late 1850s. His camera was an old view camera and lens purchased from our VP John Kanymir.
Ed and his goofiest camera.
Goofiest Camera. Ed Warner. As usual, Ed gave an interesting and detailed talk. Tonight he brought two cameras with him. The first camera, which he named the goofiest, looked like an over size, modern SLR with a flash but was actually closer to a pin-hole camera with a puny but working flash. Ed noted that these cameras were given to cruise ship vacationers so they could take souvenir pictures. The camera seemed to make usable pictures, but only in bright sunlight. His second camera was a beefy Nikon Df digital SLR which has a retro film-style look with lots of knobs. This modern Nikon DSLR can use most Nikon lenses although older ones are reduced to manual focus.
John explains why this postcard is important.
Postcards from the Edge. John Linsky. John was one of the PHSC founders in 1974. He has had a table at our fairs for many years and is very knowledgeable about non-Kodak Canadian cameras. John surprised us tonight with a postcard album and some loose cards (postcards have been a minor collecting interest of his for a few years). Showing some of his postcard treasures, John gave a bit of background history on each one and explained why it was of interest when originally released.
Lorne and his poster. He is pointing to the camera on the bicycle.
French Poster. Lorne Shield. All evening I watched a large framed poster sitting on the side lines by the wall. It was a French poster featuring a young lady riding a bicycle with her camera mounted on the handle bars. I thought it was in the silent auction. Then Lorne picked it up as he walked to the microphone. It turned out to be a rare poster and his show and tell for this evening. While describing the illustration, Lorne noted the camera mounted on the handle bars. While he had some bicycle camera mounts over the years, he never had one on a bicycle with the camera included. When asked how hard it was to find the poster, Lorne mentioned a contact of his in New York who came up with the poster in just two days.
John shows his strange little “Brass Thingy”.
Brass Thingy. John Morden. John wrapped up this part of the evening by showing a strange little device he found for a dollar in a flea market last summer. I recognized it as a small brass cylindrical field microscope like the “eye-looker” I too bought in a little antique yard sale many years ago. The little brass tubes seemed to be popular at one time and occasionally show up in antique and garage sales. On the web they have a surprisingly high price.
John’s dainty brass gadget wrapped up the show and tell part of the evening and we proceeded on to the gift exchange and Mark’s little silver Christmas tree. Happy holidays, everyone!
