Revisiting History

[UrsaMajor]

This past weekend, a local park was the scene for an event that is not unusual many places in the United States - a two-day simulation of activities during our 1861-1865 Civil War. Staged in a city park, this involved mock battles, period clothing and entertainment, and a wide assortment of other scenes intended to be representative of the era.

Although I have a number of images that I think work best in color, the pioneering photography during that era of Matthew Brady and his contemporaries led me to convert most of my shots to black & white. Here are some "combat" photos, taken during one of several mock battles that were staged over the weekend.

With best wishes,
- Tom -


Sony A700 camera, Minolta 28-135mm lens

[UrsaMajor]

The mock combat occupied only a small part of the weekend event. The time between battles provided ample opportunity for visitors to be exposed to many other windows into life in that era. Most of the active participants are dedicated to accuracy in the clothing, weapons, and other aspects of that time. Here are some shots of scenes I found during my time at the park.

BTW, in case it is not obvious, for many people who are involved with the Civil War Re-enactment groups, this can be a family activity. It's not just limited to the males who want to "play soldier".

With best wishes,
- Tom -

PS
I'm not sure of the name of the instrument that is being played by the woman in the first image. I know that it is not a dulcimer, as both the hammer and the frame are differ from a dulcimer, but it has a similar sound.


Sony A700 camera, Minolta 28-135 lens

[Birma]

Very interesting pictures Tom - I like your treatment of the B&W conversion. I especially like the shot of the canon going "boom" .

[David Kilpatrick]

The b/ws need to be made darker to look more authentic - the past was always darker than today!

The instrument is a hammered dulcimer. I have one. There are several types, mine's technically a portable cimbalom which is a Hungarian-Romanian gypsy favourite. Most folk dulcimers are based on this type, that one looks to be as well. The Greek-Turkish-Persian-Arabic santur and North African kanun (el kan) are often played with fingers not hammers.

The orchestral cimbalom (bigger, fixed frame with legs) was adapted by a musician called Pantalone to have a keyboard like the harpsichord or clavichord, and a set of mechanical hammers. It was callled the Pantaloneon. Fortunately, the name 'piano' replaced it as the idea developed, or we'd be playing Pantalaneons to this day.

David

[Greg Beetham]

Good work getting those Tom, it's sortof like a time warp, but yeah I agree with DK, even though the B&W's are 'period' and suit the subject very well, the photos are too good for the times I think. I'd like too see a couple more darker ones maybe with a bit of grain added and the contrast boosted way up as well just to compare.
Greg

ps. Not very good tactics they had back in those days, by and large, line abreast and walk forward into the fusillade, hoping they run out of bullets before you run out of men.

[Dr. Harout]

Try a touch of sepia too.
Nice shots btw.

[UrsaMajor]

Very interesting pictures Tom - I like your treatment of the B&W conversion. I especially like the shot of the canon going "boom" .

I made a number of attempts to capture that, and only a couple of the images were decent. The use of black powder created a lot of smoke, and the cannon fired in sequence, not simultaneously. Unfortunately, most of the time the order in which they fired started at the cannon closest to me and moved toward the cannons farther away. As a result, the smoke from the first cannon normally obscured the scene and the image was essentially useless. Finally, on this volley the firing order was different, and I had a chance at what I wanted to achieve.

BTW, the smoke from the black powder created other issues. In the interest of historical accuracy, most of the infantry fired simultaneously, which blanketed the field with smoke for a little while, making it very hard to get a decent shot. Pressing the shutter before they fired avoided that issue, but most of the time it gave images that look to me like "let's pretend" posed photos.

With best wishes,
- Tom -

[UrsaMajor]

The instrument is a hammered dulcimer. I have one. There are several types, mine's technically a portable cimbalom which is a Hungarian-Romanian gypsy favourite. Most folk dulcimers are based on this type, that one looks to be as well. The Greek-Turkish-Persian-Arabic santur and North African kanun (el kan) are often played with fingers not hammers.

Thanks David. I assumed that you would recognize the instrument. I could tell that it was related to the dulcimers which I saw in my youth, but the differences are significant, so I was not certain of the correct name. (I grew up in the region of the US known as the Appalachian mountains. There are a lot of people of Scots-Irish ancestry in that area, and when I was young I saw and heard people playing what Wikipedia now tells me is called the Appalachian dulcimer, or mountain dulcimer.)

With best wishes,
- Tom -

[UrsaMajor]

Good work getting those Tom, it's sortof like a time warp, but yeah I agree with DK, even though the B&W's are 'period' and suit the subject very well, the photos are too good for the times I think. I'd like too see a couple more darker ones maybe with a bit of grain added and the contrast boosted way up as well just to compare.

I honestly was not attempting to imitate the look of images of that era, and only converted to B & W because that is what I automatically think of when the subject of Civil War photos is mentioned - color images of Civil War scenes normally just do not seem "right" to me..

I've never attempted to emulate any specific "look" in an image, so I'm not certain how well the following images achieve what you and David suggest, but here are a couple of shots from the weekend that have been darkened, had the contrast boosted, and have had grain added - courtesy of Lightroom. In addition, I'm including an image that i feel works better in color than in B & W, even though the subject matter is of an era before practical color images.

With best wishes,
- Tom -

[UrsaMajor]

Try a touch of sepia too.

Hello Doc,

I can't bring myself to do that. I know that many images from the early days of photography were sepia toned, but I do not recall ever seeing any sepia-toned images from the U.S. Civil War that were taken by the "name" photographers such as Brady, O'Sullivan, and Gardner. I have seen some posed portraits taken by unknown photographers that were toned, and it may be that the reproductions I have seen have had sepia toning removed, but the images that automatically pop into my mind when I hear the phrase "Civil War photo" have no sepia toning. (I do not claim that what goes on in my mind represents reality, just that it is the cause of my choices. )

Although I was not attempting to do a precise imitation of the photos of that era, I just can't envision myself adding sepia toning to an image intended to represent the U. S. Civil War.

With best wishes,
- Tom -

[Lonnie Utah]

Try a touch of sepia too.
Nice shots btw.

^^^ This.

[Greg Beetham]

Yeah Tom the increased contrast looks kinda better, a bit more 'period' looking, but I'm totally keen on the grain effect, it looks sortof too coarse or something.
Greg

[David Kilpatrick]

The 1860s look was not so contrasty, if anything tending to be a bit dark and flat, and had no grain - grain only arrived in photography after 1920, it was never significant as an issue before that. When you see a sepia print, or a warm coloured lantern slide, you are seeing colour created by extremely fine grain (silver chloride grain, the 'salt print' look). The images were not often toned, they looked that way naturally because they were not bromide prints, but printing-out papers using much less sensitive emulsions.

I once had to shoot a Civil War re-enactor and his girlfriend, when I was about 20 or so and learning how to do things. I used a large rollfilm camera to get the right look. It was probably awful.

The mountain, Ozark or Appalachian dulcimer is entirely different, a fretted instrument like a sort of lap steel guitar crossed with a Turkish saz, and was actually a relatively late invention (thought to be 19th c). It's very photogenic. I play a McSpadden dulcimer:

http://www.mcspaddendulcimers.com/

I got mine back in 1997, in Sedona at the Sedona Sunset shop. We called in this year, and they are still selling them. I played a few tunes for the shop and the people in there as the owner doesn't play the instrument, but has a great selection from basic to handmade luthiery. I would be quite happy in Sedona. I get the impression it's one of the few places in the world where someone playing instrumental music on old folk instruments could earn a decent living!

David

[aster]

Hi Tom,

Lovely set! I did feel the old times in these images... : )

Thanks for sharing!

Yildiz