Packard Veteran

At a sales office, for a new condominium near my house, they had a display of antique cars for over a year. They have been prepared for display using a new technique (to me) where they sand down the layers of paint  to deliberately show them. It makes for an interesting photographic experience. I chose a sunny Saturday morning to take a few shots of them.

After handing the folio to Steven Lederman, at a Tim Hortons in Scarborough, I saw the same cars, now parked to promote a different condo building.

Velvia 100 in my TL120.

 

Big Yellow Taxi

The Toronto Police always have a display at the Toronto Indy, and most years, they have this 1957 Chevy Police car. They had this yellow colour until some time in the 80’s. I seem to remember this particular car dressed with eyebrows and blinking eyes, made from fiberglass, over the windshield, as Blinky the Police car. It was taken to schools and to community events.

Anyhow, the title “Big Yellow Taxi” is from the Joni Mitchel song, of the same name, which she wrote when she lived in Toronto (stop me if you have heard this before). The idea of the police car, which looks like a taxi cab, leaves the song making more sense, than if you didn’t know it was supposed to be a police car, taking away her “old man”.

Shot on Provia 100f in my TL120.

Bridges

Charles Bridge Hyper

This is the famous Charles Bridge(Karluv Most) in Prague. I have photographed this bridge from many angles, finally in hyper.

This was shot with my Lubitel rig, although this one was done cha-cha style. It is on Provia f100 film, but shutter speed, aperture and stereo base are long forgotten. This slide was a challenge to mount, but had I cropped it a bit more, I probably could have saved some serious frustration.

 

 

Charles Bridge Prague

Another hyper shot of Charles Bridge (Karluv Most), probably on the same day, from my Lubitel rig. My bar maxes out at about 18″ which this could be.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stag Bridge in Pisek, South Bohemia.

This bridge is older (late 13th century) than Charles Bridge in Prague (early 15th century), but built in the same style. The river Otava, which it spans, flows into the Vltava river, so a riverboat traveling downstream will arrive quickly in Prague to pass under the younger cousin Charles Bridge.

TL120 on Provia f100 film

 

 

 

 

 

Rural Scarborough Suspension Bridge

Keeping with the bridge theme I decided to include this image from last fall. It was intended as a fall colour shot but I decided to also include this rural bridge in suburban Scarborough (a suburb of Toronto). This area is difficult to develop, so while it is only a short distance from the ever expanding subdivisions, I hope this quaint bridge carries on for a long time. There are two other, similar bridges nearby, one of which is 15 seconds drive up the road.

Shot with my TL120 on Provia f100

Old Guard

One of the traction engine owners was having a rest. He was gracious enough to let me get this shot. This was at the Milton Steam Era show, held every Labour Day weekend. Shot with my TL120 on Provia 100f. I can’t recall the aperture, but it must have been large on this overcast day.

Ready, Set…

I have wanted to try a circular mask for a while. I made this mask by cutting a piece of unexposed film with a hobby punch. Then I tried to find a subject slide to go with it. Turns out that a circular mask cuts out a huge amount of image. This makes it unsuitable for the vast majority of slides. I now consider it an option, just like portrait and landscape mounts, for when there are distractions on a slide pair that you need to remove.

Hruba Skala Castle

Hruba Skala Castle Thumb

On the way to a shoot at this interesting, Czech, rock-top castle (chateaux perhaps) I spied this nice shot. The way to the building is through some winding roads and small villages. I thought I would sneak in a travel shot with all the vehicles. Travel is nice.

TL120, Provia 100f film.

Reflecting on Classic Cars

Reflecting on Classic Cars ThumbI think this is a 1939 Chevrolet Coupe police car through the reflection in the window of a 1957 Chevrolet Deluxe Sedan police car. These cars were on display by the police at the 2017 Toronto Indy. The yellow colour of the 57 was the colour of all Metropolitan Toronto Police cars into the 70s. It is also the hidden meaning behind the lyrics of the Joni Mitchel song “Big Yellow Taxi”. Police car, not a taxi.

After focusing and setting my aperture (don’t remember what it was, but I usually shoot at 1/125 on sunny days) I waited some time for interesting people to come into the shot.

A tough choice for mounting, so this is the best I could get under the circumstances.

Jumping Truck

Jumping Truck ThumbI took this image in 2016 at the Toronto Indy. This is obviously from a supporting race, not the Indy car race. I shot this, tracking the truck at 1/500th on Provia 100f, but I can’t remember the aperture. There is a small exposure difference between the left and right images due to a sticky shutter on my TL120. This TL120 went to China for a new shutter circuit board (back when you could still do that), but it obviously did not solve my problem. A few shutter cycles between rolls gives me a better chance of matching exposures, which leads me to believe that there is mechanical sticking going on. I would appreciate it if anybody could tell me how to fix this

Corn Dogs and Lemonade

Corndogs and Lemonade low

CNE midway

 

I spent a whole afternoon scouting angles for shooting time exposures at the Canadian National Exhibition midway. After I had shot two rolls of my well planned scenes, I had one frame left over. I quickly looked around for a nice angle and took this image to finish the roll. It was the best one of the lot. I feel quite fortunate that two spotlights on the corn dog stand were burnt out. Either one would have made this shot impossible, or at least very diminished.

TL-120, Provia 100f, f22, four second exposure (I’m pretty sure).

 

Charles Bridge, Prague

Hyper stereo image

Hyper stereo image

Some of you may get a feeling of deja vu with this one. It is almost identical to a shot I took with my TL-120  a few years back. This time I returned with my Lubitel rig to get a hyper shot of the wonderful and famous Charles Bridge in Prague, which I was just itching to do. The TL-120 image did not show enough depth for me. This one does. I was thinking about putting both images in the folio for comparison, but I would rather show some variety. I prefer this image to the original.

Provia 100f, but I have no idea what the aperture was, but the shutter speed was 1/125th. I never change that, lest I lose my matching shutter speeds.

 

Prague Tarmac

Vatslav Havel Airport, Prague

Vatslav Havel Airport, Prague

This image was taken with twin Lubitels again. This time I did not have my tripod or my mounting bar, and I am pretty sure if I did, I would have drawn a little too much attention in the airport terminal. Instead, I recruited my son Preston to look after one camera. We used a window ledge to rest the cameras on about a meter and a half separation and aimed them at a chosen target. Then we did a count down to fire the shutters, with our fingers on the lense’s shutter release. (I didn’t even have cable releases with me. just the cameras, to protect the film inside from the harsh baggage X-ray). We figured the shot was spoiled because both of us managed to turn the camera 45 degrees on the slippery aluminum window frame when we tripped the shutters. To our surprise, they both came out perfect. the shutters must have closed before the cameras slipped. On top of that, the cameras were aimed so well that I could align the chips in my largest mounts.

The plane in the foreground is Poland’s “Air Force one”. We had just watched the plane arrive to a crowd of reporters and photographers gathered on the tarmac to greet the Polish President or Prime Minister or some such, coming to town for some summit talks. They had all cleared out before we could get the cameras set up.

Here is a quiz question. How many aircraft can you see in the image?