Sometimes I write a little off topic for the Edmonton Historical Photography Society. It is because they have a stated purpose and I am a collector of all things photographic. Sometimes those two aims vibrate on a similar wave length, and sometimes I find they don’t.
I’ll try to explain with a story so far off theme you may wonder how you ended up finding it here (wherever “here” is).
We have just had a family member marry a young lady from Tunisia. She is Muslim, speaks French, Arabic and English and is now living in very small town in Alberta after an introduction to Canada of two years visiting West Edmonton Mall at least weekly. She lives across the street from me.
It so happens there is a thrift store in this town that has very reasonable prices, particularly on anything they don’t know anything about. I have collected a lot of photography items—everything from video cameras and enlargers to digital cameras and tripods—from this thrift store.
So I was in the thrift store when I passed a small box with assorted bracelets in it. Everything in the box was really, really cheap—something like $.50 for your choice. I spotted a bracelet that seemed to have Arabic writing on it so, thinking my Tunisian relative might like it, I bought it and gave it to her. I think she said it is from a country near Tunisia, but the writing is Arabic and she seemed happy with it.
Before I gave the bracelet to her, I was wondering how I could show its clever construction with some form of photography. I am not a jewelry photographer (although I did do some 50-years ago) and I know there are multiple problems with depth-of-field, lighting, reflections, background and support surface conflicts…I could go on and on. So I decided to give up and use a flat bed scanner. (See how this is not going to please the EPHS people? I’M NOT EVEN USING AN OLD CAMERA!)
On the other hand as a collecting story it is very much on the mark. Collecting is a very mystical process unless you are the sort who simply buys what looks good on the internet. You will acquire a camera and a day later meet the same camera somewhere else for half the price. Or you will have a book in the back of your mind ever since you heard of it in 1978 and then be given a paperback reissue of it 47-years later as a Christmas gift.
So my thinking goes I suddenly have a Tunisian lady across the street and for the first time EVER the local thrift store has a bracelet she might appreciate at a very low price that also has photographic challenges I haven’t faced in at least 47 years (see how that all ties together?).
If you are interested in the shoot details I laid the bracelet on the flatbed scanner, draped a drier anti-static sheet on it and closed the lid. My thinking was the flatbed lid has a plain white surface, but the drier sheet is soft and mat and might drape or cushion the coins and clasp.
While on the subject of the clasp note how there is a bar with a coil of wire centered on it.
I’ll try to explain with a story so far off theme you may wonder how you ended up finding it here (wherever “here” is).
We have just had a family member marry a young lady from Tunisia. She is Muslim, speaks French, Arabic and English and is now living in very small town in Alberta after an introduction to Canada of two years visiting West Edmonton Mall at least weekly. She lives across the street from me.
It so happens there is a thrift store in this town that has very reasonable prices, particularly on anything they don’t know anything about. I have collected a lot of photography items—everything from video cameras and enlargers to digital cameras and tripods—from this thrift store.
So I was in the thrift store when I passed a small box with assorted bracelets in it. Everything in the box was really, really cheap—something like $.50 for your choice. I spotted a bracelet that seemed to have Arabic writing on it so, thinking my Tunisian relative might like it, I bought it and gave it to her. I think she said it is from a country near Tunisia, but the writing is Arabic and she seemed happy with it.
Before I gave the bracelet to her, I was wondering how I could show its clever construction with some form of photography. I am not a jewelry photographer (although I did do some 50-years ago) and I know there are multiple problems with depth-of-field, lighting, reflections, background and support surface conflicts…I could go on and on. So I decided to give up and use a flat bed scanner. (See how this is not going to please the EPHS people? I’M NOT EVEN USING AN OLD CAMERA!)
On the other hand as a collecting story it is very much on the mark. Collecting is a very mystical process unless you are the sort who simply buys what looks good on the internet. You will acquire a camera and a day later meet the same camera somewhere else for half the price. Or you will have a book in the back of your mind ever since you heard of it in 1978 and then be given a paperback reissue of it 47-years later as a Christmas gift.
So my thinking goes I suddenly have a Tunisian lady across the street and for the first time EVER the local thrift store has a bracelet she might appreciate at a very low price that also has photographic challenges I haven’t faced in at least 47 years (see how that all ties together?).
If you are interested in the shoot details I laid the bracelet on the flatbed scanner, draped a drier anti-static sheet on it and closed the lid. My thinking was the flatbed lid has a plain white surface, but the drier sheet is soft and mat and might drape or cushion the coins and clasp.
Then look at the right end and see how there is a tube with a cut-out that will take the coil from the left end after the split rod is removed. Once re-inserted, the split rod will lock the bracelet onto your wrist. There is enough friction in using a split rod that everything should stay together.
How many a day would that take?
Of course I have never seen my Tunisian family member wear the bracelet. That doesn’t mean I haven’t got plenty of fun out of “shooting” with a flat bed and of writing a story about the mysteries that crop up while collecting.
Of course I have never seen my Tunisian family member wear the bracelet. That doesn’t mean I haven’t got plenty of fun out of “shooting” with a flat bed and of writing a story about the mysteries that crop up while collecting.
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