Marsden Global

I have taken on the task of sorting, selecting and scanning boxes and albums of old photographs, going back to the 1940's and a few are from beyond that. All from my mother's house.

I do not know if this is an isolated example or not:
When film became cheap to non existent (or we became more affluent) many more photographs were taken, but in the pile of colour photos, a good picture of anyone cannot be found. Many of the pictures I see, are not worth the trouble to scan. Most of the photos are rapid snapshots taken at gatherings, and for the most part "candid" photos suck.

But in the 1940's and 1950's a photograph was an "event" not just a random moment. People got themselves lined up, in some sort of order, and good photographs of people are much more frequent in black and white than they are in colour.

Just my observation.

Quite a difference from today with selfies and phone-cam shots by the thousands.

Sunday afternoon I saw two folks in a hot-tub. They spent not less than 15 minutes taking selfies of themselves. But this seemed to get quite serious. Toward the end of the selfie session they were setting up and framing their pics as if they we a double set of Ansel Adams. lol

Ansel Adams and his selfie cam......

Hi David,

Hey I love that Ansel Adams selfie cam. One of my regrets is that I did not purchase a Speed Graphic that was for sale at Wongs Cameras and Flowers that was on Yonge street. It was brand new, and with a roll film back, it would have been a great camera to have. But everyone was going to these new 35 mm cameras.

I did not know at the time that the speed graphic camera could also be used as an enlarger. If I knew that then, I might have bought it.

I do have a 2X3 speed graphic, that I never shot a picture with. The roll film holder is rare, so I never had the roll film adapter, and it was a 620 spool,

One of my favourite stories to tell is the story of Ansel Adams and the shooting of "Moonrise" and my take on it. Perhaps, over a beer or two one day.

Cheers

John