I couldn't find any photos in my stash that I could make fit this week's topic, so I cheated a little and browsed the web for a bit. You'll have to excuse me this week. I'll do better next week I hope. I found a few shots I liked for the topic.
This week we are celebrating photographers and artists - anyone who records aspects of life pictorially.
So my first find was of an old photo studio sign. Judging by the various names on my sepia collection there were many photo studios around at the end of the 19century and the beginning of the 20th. I guess photography was new technology and we all love that. It was a cheaper way of getting portraits done than having a portrait painted and people generally didn't own cameras like they do today.
And so to cameras. Here are a couple of pretty ancient ones, particularly the folding one on the right. I'm sure some of you could put an age on them. I remember getting a Box Brownie in 1950. Mine was a Kodak. This appears to be a Conway?
Standard Cameras Ltd. were a manufacturer based in Birmingham, England. They made a cheap camera range branded Conway. Most (if not all?) of these Conway Cameras took 6x9cm images on 120 film.
And then of course there were the photographers .
Liz Needle
Standard Cameras Ltd. were a manufacturer based in Birmingham, England. They made a cheap camera range branded Conway. Most (if not all?) of these Conway Cameras took 6x9cm images on 120 film.
And then of course there were the photographers .
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| Obviously it was important to wear a cap and sport a moustache. |
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Or a hat and a moustache Or just a moustache, but why the picnic baskets?  Or maybe a top hat without the picnic basket?  And of course the famous landmarks like The White House  |
Big Ben
And the Eiffel Tower
Liz Needle
I have a 'tache and a cap, and a hat, but can I take a photo?
ReplyDeleteOne can ony assume that it took so long to set up a shot in those days that it would be easy to miss meals unless one took along some sustenance. I supect they're really for toting equipment around.
ReplyDeleteI wonder whether picnic baskets were used to carry some of the camera gear. Or maybe the scene was a camera club picnic.
ReplyDeleteYou asked about the baskets. The camera pictured on the left in this stereoview is a wooden glass plate camera mounted on a tripod. The wet collodion glass plate had to be prepared more or less immediately before being used, and that's what they are doing. On the right is a portable darkroom sitting on another tripod - the plates are being prepared, and perhaps processed after exposure in the camera, there and then. Hence the basket for all the paraphernalia required, including bottles of chemicals, dishes, etc. After dry gelatin plates were invented in the 1880s, things became much easier.
ReplyDeleteTyhanks Brett for that interesting bit of info. What a rigmarole it must have been.
DeleteOh my goodness, you don't really always need to grab from your own stash, and what you put together here is just perfectly interesting and so right on theme. Nice photos, and your descriptions enjoyable. I pretty much have used most of my family photos up, not hardly enough were taken and those that were seldom hit on theme. I liked this very much!
ReplyDeleteThanks Kare. Have used most of my family stash too, though still have lots of unknown people/groups.
DeleteWith our well-known lack of rules, it is very difficult to cheat at Sepia Saturday for whatever you want to do is allowed. The reason why is that by allowing people to take whatever approach they care to you always come up with a great crop of fascinating images - as your post so clearly shows.
ReplyDeleteI hope it's true about old photographers. That looks like Brunel in the top hat.
ReplyDeleteOkay, now you've got me thinking, why did those photographers always have on hats or caps? LOL!
ReplyDelete