Spring Camera Show - March 14

Show time in Tucson March 14, 2010! We are ready for our 50th show. Set-up at 6:00 a.m. Show opens 8:00 a.m. Timing is so everyone can get in on early bird deals as well as having the public enter an hour earlier. WPHS consignment tables are again planned for opening when ready at 8:00 a.m. Exhibitors may enter from exhibitors' free parking back of the building at 6:00 a.m.
The InnSuites City Center Conference & Resort (new name) has a block of rooms set aside for exhibitors by calling (520) 622-3000 which includes Sunday breakfast. Our InnSuite hosts have the entire Restaurant open from 11:00 a.m. Sunday morning.  Show closing remains at 3:00 p.m. and request not leaving early.
We will ask you to remind all customers of the list of all other exciting happenings and demonstrations throughout the show. Schedules and events will be posted and copies on every table. This show includes a participant questionnaire regarding show related thoughts to be used in planning of the Fall 2010 show set for October.
InnSuites location is 475 N. Granada at the corner of St. Marys (East/West) & where Main Street becomes Granada (North/South). Best information on routes is to Google Map Quest.
You may use the following link to the show info on the WPHS web site
(http://www.wphsociety.org/camerashow.htm). This also contains a print out of the show reservation & membership application form to mail in with your check.  Note March 14th on your calendar! You may also contact via email, telephone or surface mail at my addresses below.

See you on Sunday March 14th at the InnSuites and have a great show!

Best regards,
Paul Garrett, Show Chairman
sinuoso@aol.com Click Here to Read More!

February WPHS Meeting Program

Our speaker for February will be Jerry Day. He will talk about his toys that look like cameras, cameras that look like toys, and other specialty items. Jerry has been collecting for a number of years and will bring many of his cameras for you to see. Jerry enjoys his collection and will talk about how he got into this area of collecting. You'll enjoy his enthusiasm and his cameras!

In March, we'll look forward to hearing about the real Ansel Adams from Becky Senf from the Center for Creative Photography. Becky has studied Ansel Adams and will have an interesting show for us.

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January Program

Ann Simmons-Myers first worked in a darkroom at the Ohio State University in January of 1971. Since that time, she has sustained a love of photography and its various processes through teaching and exhibiting. In 1979 Simmons-Myers moved to Tucson, in order to study alternative photographic processes with Todd Walker and fell in love with the desert. For the past twenty years she has been head of the Photography Program in the Visual Arts Department at Pima Community College, where she learns from her students every day.
Her work has been shown extensively throughout the United States as well as several foreign countries.
Ann will have several pieces of her latest work on display and will share her vast photographic experience with our members.
We urge you to attend this outstanding and exciting program.

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November Program:

Our speaker for November will be Andrew Bevington, Photography teacher at Amphitheater High School. Andrew is a Tucson native who began teaching in 2002 on the Tohono O’odham Reservation and moved to Amphi in 2004. He recently won a Fulbright Scholarship to Photograph Turkey: Secular & Sacred Spaces. His awards come from Photo Imaging Educators Association and Prix de la Photographie in Paris. He’s also had works in a number of publications. Andrew will talk about his experience teaching students to create bodies of work that convey a theme or idea using color psychology, symbol, metaphor, etc. to expand and extend the conceptual value of each image. It also encompasses the transition from film to digital and how he trains students to choose a form (film, digital, historical process, etc.) that enhances the meanings of their series. For the last few years, he has been trying to change the focus from preparing students to work as studio assistants to preparing them with a wide range of skills to succeed in the photographic industry. Click Here to Read More!

October Meeting Recap

At our October meeting, James Gregg shared the life and works of a photojournalist with us. His ability to get people to talk about their situations and then to take photos that catch the story is impressive. He called it taking “pictures with heart”. Pictures from his recent trip to Puerto Rico gave us an entirely new sense of the vibrancy of life there with glimpses of the more difficult sides of life.

James always carries a camera with him and noted that, as a photographer, he always looks for the “unexpected in the expected”. As a newspaper photographer, he is assigned some routine shoots—a high school football game, for example. James got the expected football shots, but also showed us an intriguing picture of a baton twirler performing with the band.
One of the most impressive sequences of shots was taken while James stayed with a homeless man in Tucson whom he had befriended. Taking a camera “I could afford to lose”, he went to live with the man for three days with not much more than bus fare in his pocket. James’ confidence to survive in such a potentially dangerous situation was rewarded with some amazing shots that give the viewer a real look and feel for the life of homeless persons.

There are some quieter moments when James is reviewing all the shots he takes. He may take 10,000 shots in a day in order to get just the shots to tell the stories.

James likes the life of a newspaper photojournalist and has covered stories from the difficulties along the US/Mexico border to the winter celebration at La Encantada when the fake snow rains down on the courtyard. Thanks, James, for sharing your photos and enthusiasm with us.
Late Breaking News: James Gregg just won two Rocky Mountain Emmy Awards from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for “His Own Fight” about a Tucson mixed martial arts fighter and in the achievement of craft/photography category.
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Spy Cameras

September Meeting 2009

Our September program exhibited some of the cameras that have been made to take pictures surreptitiously. Why anyone would create a camera that required wet plates and looked like a big brass pistol is beyond anyone’s guess, but that was the first (from 1862) in a long line of disguised cameras. After that, Liz Whitaker showed slides of cameras disguised as purses, cravats, canes, binoculars and even bowler hats. Anyone attending WPHS meetings wearing a hat with a lens sticking out the top of it will be asked to remove the hat! Gerry Whitaker shared some cameras from his collection including the Expo (disguised as a railroad pocket watch, popular in early 1900s) and the Petal (a really small watch-looking device, featured in October, 1987 issue of the Smithsonian magazine). He also showed us a camera that could be hidden in a cigarette package, worn on the wrist or hung on a chain around one’s neck—the Tessina made in Switzerland in the ‘60’s. One of these was used in the Watergate burglary, but we don’t know who carried it. Gerry also had a special version of the Robot camera made for the Luftwaff in WWII which had a spring that would enable the camera to take several pictures with one winding. History has it that the pilot was to trigger the camera and then hold it out the window, taking pictures of whatever was below. (Should have just used Google Earth….)
Paul Garrett brought in a prized cigarette lighter camera, and it really works as a cigarette lighter. He also showed a large collection of miniatures including the Kombi, the first miniature roll film camera made in 1892. The little brass box was elaborately decorated and called a “Kombi” because it could be used both as a camera and as a viewer. Paul also showed us very small cameras from all over the world made in the 40’s and 50’s. The Mikronas from Czechoslovakia, the Minicord from Austria, the Rollei 16’s from Germany and the Mamiya’s and several “Hit” type cameras from Japan. He also had Hit style cameras from Germany and the US.
Jerry O’Neill presented miniature cameras from his collection and also from Joseph Pacholczyk. He showed us several of Joseph’s Minoltas that could easily be hidden in a pocket and used when no one was looking. Jerry’s Pentax 110 is still a very usable camera and was manufactured with a variety of lenses. The little Minolta XA4 took only macro shots and was intended for copying documents.
Any respectable spy in the late 20th century would have some Minox equipment. Paul brought in a whole collection of Minox cameras and accessories—lenses, tripods, flashes, right angle viewers and even an enlarger.
Of course, now all these great cameras have been replaced with digital spy cameras also in watches, pens, and even eyeglasses. The really great film cameras will live on in collections such as the ones we saw. Thanks to Gerry, Paul, Jerry and Joseph.

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The Return of Instant Film?

According to a recent article in Time Magazine a pair of Polaroid enthusiasts are making a run at once again manufacturing instant film. Florian Kaps and Andre Bosman, armed with almost three million dollars in private capital, founded a company named Impossible and have set out to come up with new formulas for the instant film. The first trial version of the film will go into production in October. Hang on to your old Polaroid camera.

Links:

Instant Photography After the End of Polaroid Cameras - TIME

Polanoid.net

Polanoir.com Click Here to Read More!