2018 Christmas List

Since Christmas Questionnaires came along this seems redundant. I already had it started and a few things already laid out.  So I'll make a very short post as an addition to the questionnaire.

View & Share

If you have a minute viewing, commenting and sharing stuff I've made is always appreciated.
 
Flickr:  Summerfolk pics, Thanksgiving Pies , Christmas Tree Series (will start filling up Nov. 23) 

YouTube,  Vimeo,    blogger,  

Vintage Stuff:

If your looking for a challenge try some vintage radio memorabilia.
My favourite shows are Fibber McGee & Molly, Jack Benny, The Great Gildersleeve. Although there are specific examples below basically anything associated with these shows and even their sponsors would be pretty cool.

Johnson's Wax ad with Fibber & Molly (AKA Jim & Marion Jordan)

Every year they worked this into the
Christmas episode  and they
promoted the record on the show.

Gildy's Blade, a sort of a cross promotion
for the sponsors Parkay margarine.

Record of "The Gildersleeeve Song", part
of a contest promoting the radio show.

Finally

Bubble lights, not the reproductions, but the originals (40'&50's). 

These are basically impossible to find, but hey you never know.

Merry Chrsitmas

PoTd - November 1

Pic-of-The-day

Pic-of-The-day - "Ghosts of Halloween Past" part3.

These 3 are old black & white family photos from before my time.

I'm not sure who they all are but, to me, the costumes are classics.

The dog/wolf with his picture on his chest.
The super cool retro robot that, wasn't retro at the time &  must have taken a ton of work to create.
Finally the classic mask and unusual clothes . I think it was more important to NOT look like you than it was to look specifically like someone or something  else.

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PoTd - October 31

Pic-of-The-day

Pic-of-The-day - "Ghosts of Halloween Past" part 2.

Halloween photo from my childhood in the 70's.


Steve the Leopard


The earliest Halloween photo I have of my self. The room is my grandparents dining room before they installed the harvest gold linoleum & matching floral wallpaper. Ah, the 70's.

I assume the costume is homemade, but I'm not sure.



I don't remember that far back, but I remember the photo always being around. Today I use a version of it for my profile pic on most sites.

 Dad & The Vampires
 
Halloween photo from my childhood in the  70's,  gotta love that station wagon. 

The hoods and capes where home made  by my grandmother and worn for multiple Halloweens by different grandchildren. 

They are very closely associated in my mind with Halloween in general but more specifically with the idea of making Halloween, as opposed the the current view that Halloween is something you buy.







Jen the Witch


Jen posing in our Grandparents living room in front of heavy curtains that where drawn each night before bed and opened again each morning.


I think the witch costume got recycled a few times as well.

 Jen the Ghost

I wonder if we still have any of those Jack-O-Lantern candy buckets.

I like how the ghost is carrying another ghost. Is it like a doll or more like a pet?

 Steve the Swagman

 If I had to guess I'd date this one to around 1979, maybe 1980.

One thing I remember distinctly about this costume is that the blue pieces hanging from the hat, which should be cork, where made from the projectiles of a nerf gun.

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PoTd - October 29

Pic-of-The-day

Pic-of-The-day - "Ghosts of Halloween Past" part 1.

Halloween in the 80's.

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PoTd - October 24 - Happy Birthday Geoff!

Pic-of-The-day

Pic-of-The-day - "Happy Birthday".

Halloween in the mid to late 80's. By this time I was too cool to dress up for Halloween.
This is my Brother Geoff at his birthday party in October.
I remember a lot of Halloween themed birthday parties.

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PoTd - October 19

Pic-of-The-day

Pic-of-The-day - "Motor".

Artifact from the 2017 Marshville Heritage Festival in Wainfleet ontario.

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PoTd - October 16

Pic-of-The-day

Pic-of-The-day - "Spring".

Artifacts from the 2017 Marshville Heritage Festival in Wainfleet Ontario.
There are lots of demonstrators with vintage machines, vehicles & equipment.
Taken with a vintage manual lens.

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PoTd - September 13

Pic-of-The-day

 Pic-of-The-day - "Livestock 2017".

 These 3 are done with a 1980's manual lens to hear more check out my Manual Vintage Lens Post

 

Photos from the awesome Livestock Niagara.
Livestock 2017 was held on July 25th in & around Taps on Queen.
It was another great year, with too much good stuff to list here. Go to http://www.livestockniagara.com/

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My Journey with Vintage Lenses | Vintage View

This is my Favourite Macro lens (canon 50mm 2.5) taken with a 1980 vintage, manual lens.

I'm really starting to enjoy vintage lenses.

At first I wasn't sure what all the excitement was over vintage lenses. Sure they're inexpensive, but they're so much more work. It's not so much that you focus manually (I'm no stranger to pulling focus) it's the super small focus throw, combine with how stiff the mechanics can be that creates the difficulty.

Aside from that, the don't resolve at the same level as modern lenses*. It's also much harder to control light when using these lenses. Flairs and blown highlights are everywhere.

Sure, some of the flairs looked cool & there where some other effects I liked, but had no idea how to control. All-In-All I wasn't sure the benefit out weighted the work & missed shots.

Brick wall, Vintage lens,  I'm happy.

But, I kept trying and playing & even got a few more vintage lenses.  That's when things started changing. These additional lenses where so much easier to use than the lens I had been using. Turns out the Canon 50mm 1.8 FD (from my old AE1) wasn't a good place to start. These other lenses focused more easily & where generally easier to control.  So I played with them more & got a little better with them.

Hazy

An images that made me think 'these lenses CAN be useful'

Now I'm starting to see the appeal. They're not for every project, or even most projects, but they can really do some interesting things when used on the right projects. I wouldn't say I can control all of the 'vintagey goodness' & I'm still a long way from confidently using them on a paid gig, but I'm enjoying thier use a lot more & slowly getting better with them.

I went full funk on this shot taken with a 1980's vintage  lens.

More Bricks & Vintage

So for me the next step is to start using them more for motion (video) work with them. I'm a little daunted to start this.  When taking stills I can take the time to set up each image and change the exposure and manage flairs etc. This will be a little more challenging when shooting 24 images a second.  I'm going to have to find new strategies to get the images I want.

 

I like that it has the vintage characteristics of super smooth bokeh, really high highlights & a nice warm tone, while while not going to overboard

Sometimes when using Vintage lenses, I go too far and end up with a big blurry mess.  I've been told that this image isn't that, but I think it's pretty close to that line.   What do you think?

* As I understand it, the optics of these older lenses won't give you best levels of colour fidelity, contrast & sharpness that modern digital sensors are capable of capturing.

PoTd - September 8

Pic-of-The-day

 Pic-of-The-day - "Alley".

Another location in the photo challenge. An easily missed alley in Welland.

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PoTd - September 3

Pic-of-The-day

 

Pic-of-The-day - "Vintage Train Bridge".

There's so many reason to love Railways, aside from the visual appeal.

They are stoutly constructed entities from the past that still work as well today as when they started.

A railway brings so many things to mind. Adventure, industry, travel, & much more.  There's also nostalgia & a bit of loneliness or maybe isolation, that's mixed in with the entropy of an old railway.

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