Tag Archives: Dry Plate

lights out …

Posted on July 31, 2024 by Robert

Toronto. The photo at left shows closing day at Simpson Brothers in Toronto. The year was 1955 and it was the end of the skylight and dry-plate era. Since the 1800s, photo studios clustered around the Yonge-King-Queen corner of Toronto. … Continue reading →

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a one-eyed tropical wizard

Posted on June 23, 2024 by Robert

Toronto. In the early 1900s, various English companies made glass-plate SLRs. The idea was to use the same lens for both viewing and photographing. A mirror changed the direction for viewing (vertical) to photographing (straight through). In the tropics, the … Continue reading →

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powder … POOF!

Posted on May 15, 2024 by Robert

Toronto. The early light sensitive media were far too insensitive for dusk, night or  indoor shots (studios used long exposures, a means to hold the subject very still,  and large windows, ideally facing north, to let in copious amounts of … Continue reading →

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did ja ever …

Posted on January 30, 2024 by Robert

Toronto. … see any of deez? When photography began some enterprising folk opened studios to make and sell a ‘likeness’. People wore their Sunday best clothes and flocked to the local studio for a family portrait which was pricy but … Continue reading →

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pushing all buttons

Posted on January 25, 2024 by Robert

Toronto. The invention of the dry plate in 1871 opened the door to sub-second exposures in sunlight through a normal photographic lens. And with sub-second performance came a need for shutters. And with shutters came a need for shutter buttons. … Continue reading →

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for want of a board …

Posted on August 19, 2023 by Robert

Toronto. This is the famous English camera called the Lancaster ‘Instantograph’. The camera was made from c1886 to 1910. The name indicates a dry plate camera. The Instantograph used a revolutionary dry plate that was so much faster and neater … Continue reading →

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… and keep your camera dry

Posted on January 31, 2023 by Robert

Toronto. The wet-plate process became the primary process in photography for the next few decades until another Englishman, Richard Maddox solved its problems of slow speed, damp cameras, and the need for immediate exposure and processing. Maddox came up with … Continue reading →

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Photographic Canadiana Vol 47-4

Posted on March 3, 2022 by Robert

Toronto. This is our second issue by interim editors, David Bridge and Louise Freyburger who ably stepped up to the challenge of producing the journal after we lost our previous editor, the late Bob Lansdale, last summer. Members WITH an … Continue reading →

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Photographic Canadiana Vol 47-3

Posted on October 31, 2021 by Robert

Toronto. Sadly, we lost our editor,  Bob Lansdale, this past summer. Bob left much of this material to help our interim editors, David Bridge and Louise Freyburger who ably stepped up to the challenge of producing this issue. Members WITH … Continue reading →

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it pays to advertise

Posted on July 1, 2021 by Robert

Toronto, In 1921, the Mission Art Company, of South Spring Street in Los Angeles sent this  truck cum camera and its phtographers to promote its business. Mark Osterman, who along with his wife, spoke to us back in June of … Continue reading →

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