Showing posts with label vintage photography. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vintage photography. Show all posts
Saturday, February 6, 2021
Tuesday, January 15, 2019
Monday, October 2, 2017
Wiggle Wiggle Woo
A long time ago, I don't know how many years ago it was, when I first started making gifs for my blog (which now seems like a very long time ago), there was a fad: 3D gifs (or GIFs, as they are usually called - I just use lower-case letters because "GIFs" is so bleepin' ugly). The 3D gifs were just what you see here - two very slightly different views of a scene which were rapidly wiggled back and forth to make them sort of look 3D. Technically it's a gif, but a very inadequate one because gifs usually express movement, and these look like the participants are either experiencing a mild earthquake, or sitting on jell-o.
The 3D effect is there, kind of eerily, not unlike the stereoscopic images from my Grandma's old viewer (and didn't YOUR Grandma have one of those, too?). These are a little more disquieting because they just won't stop moving. I'm not sure of the age of them, but it's well over 100 years, so that the pictures would likely be hand-tinted. As a matter of fact, it's very likely these gifs WERE made from those old stereopticon cards with the double image on them. I'm not sure what else they would use.
So what does this prove? Anything? I just analyzed one of them using my gif-making/editing program, and they each have exactly two frames. I don't know why the eye is fooled into thinking it's 3D, when it most decidedly isn't.
Then people started making their own, and this sort of thing was popular for a while, though I guess you had to have the right equipment to take the pictures. This one has not two, but six frames, but is still limited by that incessant (pointless?) back-and-forth movement which makes the subject of the picture seem so utterly frozen.
I had to try slowing this one down. Not very exciting, is it? But it's typical of the kinds of images I was seeing back then. I remember all sorts of excited entries on web sites with a kind of "WOWWWWW!!!" tone to them: NOW YOU CAN MAKE YOUR OWN GIFS IN 3D! Even ready-made ones were considered the marvel of the age. Look! Oh wow! They're in 3D! Just like in the movies! All I could see was a lot of jellylike shaking.
Speeded up, you can see that everything seems to be moving in the picture except the main figure, who is just hanging there. The effect is more disquieting than ever.
WOW.
Or. . . not.
This turned out to be a fad which fizzled very quickly, mainly because it just looks so DUMB and not really 3D at all, just annoying. All the images I've gathered here are from posts from 2011, so my guess is that 2011 was the height of the fever. 2011 now seems like approximately one billion years ago. Six years is a long time, and on the internet it is an eternity.
I can't leave this topic alone until I present a couple of truly hideous historical ones I found. I don't know how these were made, but probably with a double-sided stereoscope image. I just wish they hadn't done it at all.
History comes alive.
Monday, April 21, 2014
Unbelievable! Mind-blowing pictures that will CHANGE YOUR LIFE!
These are from one of the billion or so Facebook-linked pages, i. e. Strange and Unusual Photos that will Amaze, Disturb, Sexually Arouse and Bankrupt You/Change Your Life Forever! (etc.)
Actually, they almost do.
This shot of a woman walking her pet lobster is - well - one of the strangest, taking your lunch out for a nice stroll before plunging it in boiling water and devouring it with drawn butter.
Oh, I like this. It's such a neat idea, and should be brought back. It's a portable sidecar/jail cell. This way, the cop can keep a good eye on the guy in case he tries to pry the bars apart.
Uh, a way to stack cars. A LOT of cars. Don't ask me how they got them up there, or, even harder to imagine, how they ever got them down. (Chariots of the Gods, maybe?)
A very famous 1930s swimmer, Hannah B. Lecter. No relation to that other guy.
There are several photos which depict hair-raising treatment of small children. There is a disturbing air of normalcy about it all, queasy-making today. These chain-link cages were attached to the windows of apartments so Little Johnnie could get some sunshine. Don't want him to have a Vitamin D deficiency as he goes hurtling down 20 floors and lands on the cement.
The things these nurses are carrying are babies. Yes, real live babies, wearing a sort of full-body gas mask, presumably during World War II. Note the little feet dangling down from the one on the right.
Do you know what? I must have a dirty mind, or else the military did. These holes in the sides of trains were designed so that soldiers could "kiss" their sweethearts one last time as they headed into battle. Their girl friends were supposed to stick their heads in there, but I think a hand might have been enough. I've heard stories about holes in the dividers of washroom cubicals, but mostly they're MEN's washrooms. But is it such a stretch to extrapolate? (Don't worry, "extrapolate" isn't anything dirty, or at least I don't think so.)
Now that I've had time to reflect on this awful situation, I realize this must be a boat of some kind. Perhaps these are portholes. Oh dear.
Weird things you could do with babies in the '40s. You could have them delivered by mail. Really. Reminds me of those old Disney cartoons, Dumbo maybe, where babies were delivered by stork. After a while the practice was outlawed. There was no explanation here as to why, how, etc., just that you "could". In case you think this is impossible, during my recent exploration of Phil Spector and his famous "wall of sound", I discovered that he presented his wife with a set of twins for Christmas. No, I mean GAVE her a set of twins, for an actual Christmas present. The twins weren't babies either - they were five years old, and Spector was vague about where they had come from. Unlike many an unwanted Christmas gift, this one couldn't be returned. Not surprisingly, they grew up with serious "issues".
(I have to say it. That baby. There is something seriously wrong here. Either that, or it's a Royal. Its eyes are too close together, and slant like Prince Phillip's. Worse, the mailman has the same slant. It's unfortunate. Perhaps he's responsible, not happy about it, and about to surprise someone with it, like Spector's twins.)
I can't tell if this was before or after hemlines went skyward, but it at least proves that ziplines are hardly new. If safety standards were the same as for that baby-in-a-cage, I wonder how many survived.
The invention comes with two sterile bandages to aid healing of the puncture wounds.
My personal favorite. There is a contemporary version of this, but I'll be damned if I can remember the name of it, and I don't want to look it up because it's 12:22 and I haven't had lunch yet. But look at it: attached to what looks like a fire extinguisher, with all those strange gizmos around. Pretty terrifying, and it must've been hot in there. Why not just stick your fingers in your ears?
POST-BLOG REFLECTIONS. Since Matt begged me not to post any gifs, I'll do the next best thing. How could I NOT Blingee "The Isolator"?
Order The Glass Character from:
Thistledown Press
Amazon.com
Chapters/Indigo.ca
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