147. Stamp(s) - April 3-9, 2016
Paul-
There was so much I wanted to write for this week’s submission—which had little to do with photography—that it took a fair amount of effort not to write more than I have. (This is your loss or your gain, depending on your opinion of my writing skills.) But I’m happily compelled to mention, relatively speaking, the following…
I loved, and still do, “Monster Movies.” (This is my designation, which I lump under the Science Fiction film genre for the period I mention below). Especially the vast number of films—national and international alike—released during the fifties and sixties. This includes the “Horror” genre but, with some fantastic exceptions, no further forward in time for reasons you may be able to guess. (Hint: Go screen the “Saw” franchise and you will understand.)
Like a lot of pre-and post-adolescence kids (back when “CD” meant Civil Defense) I used to hunker down and watch more monster, science fiction, horror, macabre and just plain weird movies that I can recall. But I also steeped myself in magazines and horror comics like Famous Monsters of Filmland1, Tales From the Crypt2, Eerie3, and to a much lesser degree Fangora4.
Which explains a lot, I suppose...
So, when I found out in October 1977 the U.S. Postal Service was releasing a stamp series dedicated to famous movie monsters, I high-tailed it down to the post office. The stamp sheet consists of seven exquisitely rendered portraits portraying The Wolfman, Frankenstein’s monster, Dracula, The Mummy, and The Phantom of the Opera. (Kudos to Boris Karloff for being portrayed twice!) I curse myself now for only buying two sheets—one of which I used to mail letters…the horror. As it happens, the stamp with Dracula’s (Bela Lugosi) face is adjacent to the one with The Phantom’s (Lon Chaney) face, and it looks like the former is looking understandably askance at the latter.
This is the shot I am submitting.
I’ll try (unsuccessfully) to keep the rest brief. Lon Chaney is one of my film idols. He appeared in 150 films and died at only 47 in 1930. He was called “The Man of a Thousand Faces” for his genius in creating (often self-devised) make-up and appliances long before modern make-up techniques and digital effects. Many of his techniques were subtle, creative, and often physically painful5. And who can’t agree with a famous quote of his: There's nothing funny about a clown in the moonlight. A little more about Mr. Chaney in the Endnotes.
Finally, I discovered something both fascinating and frustrating about the stamp set that I did not know until this very morning6. (Anyone have a decoder ring left over from their childhood?)
And as the moaning wind pushed the creaking door open: 18-55mm lens set at 55mm; heebie-jeebies close-up courtesy of a 12mm macro ring; aperture priority; pattern-weighted metering; ISO 320; 1/6 sec. at f/8; Matrix metered; lights flank the subject; -.3 EV. Horizontal, Vertical, and Rotation options in Adobe Lightroom were used to correct for a parallax issue. The camera is mounted on a copy stand.
Endnotes
[1] Famous Monsters of Filmland, called “The World’s First Monster Fan Magazine,” started publication in 1958 and ended in 1983. It enjoyed a revival (though I prefer to think of it as an unearthing or a resurrection) from 1993-2008.
[2] Tales From the Crypt was a horror comic that ran from 1950-1955. I was fortunate enough to have a friend share some old issues with me.
[3] Eerie was a horror comic that ran from 1966-1983.
[4] Fangora (replete with cinema stills) has run from 1978 to the present, and is a little too much for me.
[5] Examples of Lon Caney’s skill, taken from Wikipedia:
When he did “Hunchback” he put egg whites in his eye to make it look blind because they didn't have contacts back then.
Following the success of The Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1923, Chaney was once again given the freedom to create his own make-up as the Phantom, a habit which became almost as famous as the films he starred in, Chaney painted his eye sockets black, giving a skull-like impression to them. He also pulled the tip of his nose up and pinned it in place with wire, enlarged his nostrils with black paint, and put a set of jagged false teeth into his mouth to complete the ghastly deformed look of the Phantom. When audiences first saw The Phantom of the Opera, they were said to have screamed or fainted at the scene where Christine pulls the concealing mask away, revealing his skull-like features to the audience.
One of his other impressive roles during this period was as the legless criminal in “The Penalty” (1920).To simulate a double-amputee, Chaney devised a leather harness with stumps that allowed him to strap his legs behind him and walk on his knees.
“The Unknown” (1927). Chaney plays Alonzo, an armless knife thrower, who hides out from the police in a local circus. Actor Burt Lancaster once commented on Chaney’s performance that in one particular scene, Chaney gave “one of the most compelling and emotionally exhausting scenes I have ever seen an actor do.”
[6] Each pane includes a photo of each actor and his signature. Artist Thomas Blackshear of Colorado Springs painted the monsters, vividly reproducing the publicity shots. The Movie Monsters stamps are the second to contain hidden images, using a process developed by Graphic Security Systems Corp. of Lake Worth. (The U.S. Air Force commemorative released Sept. 18 was the first stamp to have hidden images.) For the Movie Monsters sheet, designers scrambled an image—not letters—into each of the stamps: bats on the Dracula stamp, hieroglyphics on the Mummy, masks on the Phantom, wolves on the Wolf Man and lightning bolts on Frankenstein. To view the images customers had to buy a $4.95 “decoder lens” from the Postal Service. The hidden designs in these stamps are much more complicated than the “USAF” lettering that was placed on the Air Force stamp.
[http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1997-10-05/entertainment/9710010211_1_national-stamp-collecting-month-commemoratives-frankenstein-s-monster].
Bibliography
I don’t imagine any of you will be rushing to your computer or local antiquarian to order these titles (one is out-of-print), but I sometimes refer to:
Lee, W. (1986). Reference Guide to Fantastic Films: Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror (3 vols.),
Los Angeles, CA: Self-published by the author. ISBN 0-913974-03-X, softcover.
Luciano, P. (1987). Them Or Us: Archetypal Interpretation of Fifties Alien Invasion Films, Bloomington and Indianapolis, IN: University Press. ISBN 0-235-35871-X, hardbound.
Sobchack, V. (1980). Screening Space: The American Science Fiction Film. New York, NY: Unger Publishing. ISBN 0-813524-92-X, softcover. ISBN 978-0-8135-5850-9, 1997 PDF/eBook version.
Warren, B. (1982). Keep Watching The Skies! (vol. 1), Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co. ISBN 0-89950-032-3 (vol. 1), hardbound. ISBN 0-89950-170-2 (vol. 2), hardbound. ISBN 0-89950-191-5, hardbound set.
If you want to borrow any of these titles, just let me know. Just don't read them after dark.
There was so much I wanted to write for this week’s submission—which had little to do with photography—that it took a fair amount of effort not to write more than I have. (This is your loss or your gain, depending on your opinion of my writing skills.) But I’m happily compelled to mention, relatively speaking, the following…
I loved, and still do, “Monster Movies.” (This is my designation, which I lump under the Science Fiction film genre for the period I mention below). Especially the vast number of films—national and international alike—released during the fifties and sixties. This includes the “Horror” genre but, with some fantastic exceptions, no further forward in time for reasons you may be able to guess. (Hint: Go screen the “Saw” franchise and you will understand.)
Like a lot of pre-and post-adolescence kids (back when “CD” meant Civil Defense) I used to hunker down and watch more monster, science fiction, horror, macabre and just plain weird movies that I can recall. But I also steeped myself in magazines and horror comics like Famous Monsters of Filmland1, Tales From the Crypt2, Eerie3, and to a much lesser degree Fangora4.
Which explains a lot, I suppose...
So, when I found out in October 1977 the U.S. Postal Service was releasing a stamp series dedicated to famous movie monsters, I high-tailed it down to the post office. The stamp sheet consists of seven exquisitely rendered portraits portraying The Wolfman, Frankenstein’s monster, Dracula, The Mummy, and The Phantom of the Opera. (Kudos to Boris Karloff for being portrayed twice!) I curse myself now for only buying two sheets—one of which I used to mail letters…the horror. As it happens, the stamp with Dracula’s (Bela Lugosi) face is adjacent to the one with The Phantom’s (Lon Chaney) face, and it looks like the former is looking understandably askance at the latter.
This is the shot I am submitting.
I’ll try (unsuccessfully) to keep the rest brief. Lon Chaney is one of my film idols. He appeared in 150 films and died at only 47 in 1930. He was called “The Man of a Thousand Faces” for his genius in creating (often self-devised) make-up and appliances long before modern make-up techniques and digital effects. Many of his techniques were subtle, creative, and often physically painful5. And who can’t agree with a famous quote of his: There's nothing funny about a clown in the moonlight. A little more about Mr. Chaney in the Endnotes.
Finally, I discovered something both fascinating and frustrating about the stamp set that I did not know until this very morning6. (Anyone have a decoder ring left over from their childhood?)
And as the moaning wind pushed the creaking door open: 18-55mm lens set at 55mm; heebie-jeebies close-up courtesy of a 12mm macro ring; aperture priority; pattern-weighted metering; ISO 320; 1/6 sec. at f/8; Matrix metered; lights flank the subject; -.3 EV. Horizontal, Vertical, and Rotation options in Adobe Lightroom were used to correct for a parallax issue. The camera is mounted on a copy stand.
Endnotes
[1] Famous Monsters of Filmland, called “The World’s First Monster Fan Magazine,” started publication in 1958 and ended in 1983. It enjoyed a revival (though I prefer to think of it as an unearthing or a resurrection) from 1993-2008.
[2] Tales From the Crypt was a horror comic that ran from 1950-1955. I was fortunate enough to have a friend share some old issues with me.
[3] Eerie was a horror comic that ran from 1966-1983.
[4] Fangora (replete with cinema stills) has run from 1978 to the present, and is a little too much for me.
[5] Examples of Lon Caney’s skill, taken from Wikipedia:
When he did “Hunchback” he put egg whites in his eye to make it look blind because they didn't have contacts back then.
Following the success of The Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1923, Chaney was once again given the freedom to create his own make-up as the Phantom, a habit which became almost as famous as the films he starred in, Chaney painted his eye sockets black, giving a skull-like impression to them. He also pulled the tip of his nose up and pinned it in place with wire, enlarged his nostrils with black paint, and put a set of jagged false teeth into his mouth to complete the ghastly deformed look of the Phantom. When audiences first saw The Phantom of the Opera, they were said to have screamed or fainted at the scene where Christine pulls the concealing mask away, revealing his skull-like features to the audience.
One of his other impressive roles during this period was as the legless criminal in “The Penalty” (1920).To simulate a double-amputee, Chaney devised a leather harness with stumps that allowed him to strap his legs behind him and walk on his knees.
“The Unknown” (1927). Chaney plays Alonzo, an armless knife thrower, who hides out from the police in a local circus. Actor Burt Lancaster once commented on Chaney’s performance that in one particular scene, Chaney gave “one of the most compelling and emotionally exhausting scenes I have ever seen an actor do.”
[6] Each pane includes a photo of each actor and his signature. Artist Thomas Blackshear of Colorado Springs painted the monsters, vividly reproducing the publicity shots. The Movie Monsters stamps are the second to contain hidden images, using a process developed by Graphic Security Systems Corp. of Lake Worth. (The U.S. Air Force commemorative released Sept. 18 was the first stamp to have hidden images.) For the Movie Monsters sheet, designers scrambled an image—not letters—into each of the stamps: bats on the Dracula stamp, hieroglyphics on the Mummy, masks on the Phantom, wolves on the Wolf Man and lightning bolts on Frankenstein. To view the images customers had to buy a $4.95 “decoder lens” from the Postal Service. The hidden designs in these stamps are much more complicated than the “USAF” lettering that was placed on the Air Force stamp.
[http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1997-10-05/entertainment/9710010211_1_national-stamp-collecting-month-commemoratives-frankenstein-s-monster].
Bibliography
I don’t imagine any of you will be rushing to your computer or local antiquarian to order these titles (one is out-of-print), but I sometimes refer to:
Lee, W. (1986). Reference Guide to Fantastic Films: Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror (3 vols.),
Los Angeles, CA: Self-published by the author. ISBN 0-913974-03-X, softcover.
Luciano, P. (1987). Them Or Us: Archetypal Interpretation of Fifties Alien Invasion Films, Bloomington and Indianapolis, IN: University Press. ISBN 0-235-35871-X, hardbound.
Sobchack, V. (1980). Screening Space: The American Science Fiction Film. New York, NY: Unger Publishing. ISBN 0-813524-92-X, softcover. ISBN 978-0-8135-5850-9, 1997 PDF/eBook version.
Warren, B. (1982). Keep Watching The Skies! (vol. 1), Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co. ISBN 0-89950-032-3 (vol. 1), hardbound. ISBN 0-89950-170-2 (vol. 2), hardbound. ISBN 0-89950-191-5, hardbound set.
If you want to borrow any of these titles, just let me know. Just don't read them after dark.
Jerry-
Good golly its a late Friday night and the time has begun for WPOTM STAMP! Much fun seeing some crazy work out there, my goodness! I started this shoot by trying to find letters with stamps, not an easy task these days. In the end, I chose a small letter that my mother had saved, an invitation to a baby shower (for me of course) back in the spring of 1955. The invitation was held in front of a long letter that my paternal grandfather had written in his unusual handwriting, also from back in the 1950's. He was an interesting character, his name was Gilbert Wallaby Vincent - he was born in Australia and his parents saddled him with a funky middle name. He grew up in Yeovil, England, sailed the seas as a cabin boy, served as a Gordon Highlander in the British army, and finally farmed in Eastern South Dakota.
Camera was the D5200 with 40mm Micro Nikkor, settings were f8 @ 1/80, ISO 3200. I held the camera with my right hand and the invite with my left, lighting from a desk lamp.
Good golly its a late Friday night and the time has begun for WPOTM STAMP! Much fun seeing some crazy work out there, my goodness! I started this shoot by trying to find letters with stamps, not an easy task these days. In the end, I chose a small letter that my mother had saved, an invitation to a baby shower (for me of course) back in the spring of 1955. The invitation was held in front of a long letter that my paternal grandfather had written in his unusual handwriting, also from back in the 1950's. He was an interesting character, his name was Gilbert Wallaby Vincent - he was born in Australia and his parents saddled him with a funky middle name. He grew up in Yeovil, England, sailed the seas as a cabin boy, served as a Gordon Highlander in the British army, and finally farmed in Eastern South Dakota.
Camera was the D5200 with 40mm Micro Nikkor, settings were f8 @ 1/80, ISO 3200. I held the camera with my right hand and the invite with my left, lighting from a desk lamp.
Don-
A bit of a explanation is required. First this was created in Photoshop. It is the stamped letter ready to send
airmail. I know its slightly strange but please be patient with me and all will be even more murky.
I printed the above on my laser printer that is only black and white. I then made a paper airplane. Unfortunately
the paper airplane would not fly very well in front of the camera. It did fly really well in the downward direction. I let
the airplane drop in front of the lens, camera and flash. So the airplane I call "Airmail" flew in a downward landing
pattern so here you see it flashed and captured by the camera as it flew by.
Then the WPOTM Theme "Stamp" paper airplane/letter landed. If it was not for the proper postage the letter
would never have made the flight. If it was not for the proper pain medication none of this would likely
have been crated. Shot with D810 and a 24 to 70 mm lens set at 24mm. The Exposure 1/160 sec, ISO 100, Camera set to Manual,
Matrix metering and the flash (SB-910) fired.
A bit of a explanation is required. First this was created in Photoshop. It is the stamped letter ready to send
airmail. I know its slightly strange but please be patient with me and all will be even more murky.
I printed the above on my laser printer that is only black and white. I then made a paper airplane. Unfortunately
the paper airplane would not fly very well in front of the camera. It did fly really well in the downward direction. I let
the airplane drop in front of the lens, camera and flash. So the airplane I call "Airmail" flew in a downward landing
pattern so here you see it flashed and captured by the camera as it flew by.
Then the WPOTM Theme "Stamp" paper airplane/letter landed. If it was not for the proper postage the letter
would never have made the flight. If it was not for the proper pain medication none of this would likely
have been crated. Shot with D810 and a 24 to 70 mm lens set at 24mm. The Exposure 1/160 sec, ISO 100, Camera set to Manual,
Matrix metering and the flash (SB-910) fired.
Byron-
He was living in a small Midwestern town. Years ago, nobody thought he'd amount to much. They were correct. He hasn't had a decent meal for several days and sleeping in a rain soaked park was getting old. He dug deep into his pocket to see what he could come up with. A lousy 17 cents and an Elvis stamp. He can't even buy a pack of gum with that.
I had to use a boom arm on a light stand to hold the camera. My left hand was busy with the remote shutter release and the right hand was the model for this weeks picture.
ISO 100, f11, 1/25 sec, White balance set to daylight.
He was living in a small Midwestern town. Years ago, nobody thought he'd amount to much. They were correct. He hasn't had a decent meal for several days and sleeping in a rain soaked park was getting old. He dug deep into his pocket to see what he could come up with. A lousy 17 cents and an Elvis stamp. He can't even buy a pack of gum with that.
I had to use a boom arm on a light stand to hold the camera. My left hand was busy with the remote shutter release and the right hand was the model for this weeks picture.
ISO 100, f11, 1/25 sec, White balance set to daylight.
Deron-
This photo makes NO sense whatsoever!
This is a stamp of Darth Vader. He decided to go out for a relaxing evening of bowling by himself. Little did he know, there was a 12 year old girl having a cosmic bowling birthday party. DV is not happy. I imagine him poking at the bubbles with his index finger... or maybe middle finger!
Here's how I did it. First, I stood up the stamp with $.99 Store glow sticks behind (Which was originally supposed to look like a Light Saber graveyard). The green 'frame' around the stamp comes from putting my bike light in a plastic, green medication container (Revo gets dirty ears), then I put a black, cotton eyeglasses bag over the top to tamp down the brightness. After uploading to my computer to look at all the different shots I took, after a while, the screensaver came on- Bubbles. I laughed. That is SOOO not Darth Vader. I chose the photo I liked, then let the screensaver come on, then took a photo of my laptop's screen. Voila.
This photo makes NO sense whatsoever!
This is a stamp of Darth Vader. He decided to go out for a relaxing evening of bowling by himself. Little did he know, there was a 12 year old girl having a cosmic bowling birthday party. DV is not happy. I imagine him poking at the bubbles with his index finger... or maybe middle finger!
Here's how I did it. First, I stood up the stamp with $.99 Store glow sticks behind (Which was originally supposed to look like a Light Saber graveyard). The green 'frame' around the stamp comes from putting my bike light in a plastic, green medication container (Revo gets dirty ears), then I put a black, cotton eyeglasses bag over the top to tamp down the brightness. After uploading to my computer to look at all the different shots I took, after a while, the screensaver came on- Bubbles. I laughed. That is SOOO not Darth Vader. I chose the photo I liked, then let the screensaver come on, then took a photo of my laptop's screen. Voila.
Kevin-
Well, I took a very traditional approach to this week’s theme, except for the fact that for this subject I extended the concept of macro as far as I could take it. This is simply a single stamp, on an envelope, waiting to go into the mail. But I used my 105 mm Micro-Nikkor lens at it’s closest possible focus distance, plus I added three extension tubes totaling 72mm in length. That allowed me to capture a total area which is only 1/4 the size of the sensor on my full-frame Nikon camera. At that rate details emerge regarding the texture of the envelope, the screen printing on the stamp, etc. that the eye doesn’t really see otherwise.
Two flash units were used. One was at full power and positioned about 10 feet away from the scene, with two cards blocking all but a tiny 1/8” opening between them, to give just a sliver of light. The other was hand held about 4 feet away, at really low power, and with a dome diffuser attached, to provide a little light to shadowed areas of the scene.
Nikon D4s, tripod mounted, 105mm f2.8 Micro-Nikkor lens, ISO 640, 1/250th of a second (flash synch) at f/16. I should add that the US Postal Service swears that “FOREVER” refers to the fact that the stamp is valid as long as the service exists, and does NOT refer to the time needed to deliver the letter.
Well, I took a very traditional approach to this week’s theme, except for the fact that for this subject I extended the concept of macro as far as I could take it. This is simply a single stamp, on an envelope, waiting to go into the mail. But I used my 105 mm Micro-Nikkor lens at it’s closest possible focus distance, plus I added three extension tubes totaling 72mm in length. That allowed me to capture a total area which is only 1/4 the size of the sensor on my full-frame Nikon camera. At that rate details emerge regarding the texture of the envelope, the screen printing on the stamp, etc. that the eye doesn’t really see otherwise.
Two flash units were used. One was at full power and positioned about 10 feet away from the scene, with two cards blocking all but a tiny 1/8” opening between them, to give just a sliver of light. The other was hand held about 4 feet away, at really low power, and with a dome diffuser attached, to provide a little light to shadowed areas of the scene.
Nikon D4s, tripod mounted, 105mm f2.8 Micro-Nikkor lens, ISO 640, 1/250th of a second (flash synch) at f/16. I should add that the US Postal Service swears that “FOREVER” refers to the fact that the stamp is valid as long as the service exists, and does NOT refer to the time needed to deliver the letter.