Rock Island Auction Company (through icollector)

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Rock Island Auction Company

(linked through icollector)

website: 
www.rockislandauction.com 

 Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/RockIslandAuctionCompany

     I've been writing about the higher-quality images that I've seen on  icollector . If this is the first time you've been to this blog, icollector is one of those rarer internet sites.  It enlists auction companies or houses to present their company on an alternative site from their own. Viewers and potential buyers can peruse the different auctions going on, and even actually bid through icollector, as a conduit to their site.

     I've mentioned about how many of these auction houses have very good quality photos, both in terms of technical skills of photography, as well as image size.  AS I was browsing through iccollector, I came across the Rock Island Auction Company. This company auctions mostly firearms, but their photography is excellent. Consequently, I thought that I'd present some of their fine examples to show what I've been talking about at these auction house sites.

Background 

(Personal Anecdotes)

   I'm not a gun person, as are most Canadians.  Surprisingly, there are more guns in Canada than there are people. The previous Liberal government enacted legislation to  register most guns, including long (rifle) guns. For myself, this was an excellent idea. However, the current Conservative government has cancelled the law. Our Quebec Provincial government is in court now to fight this cancellation for the province.

     I had a Daisy BB rifle for 2 years (age 13-14), and then threw in out in the garbage. It's hard to find places in a city to use it safely and legally! When I taught, I had an older mature student who was a handgun hobbyist. We talked, and he took me to an indoor shooting range. I fired a 22 caliber, a 45 caliber, and a magnum 357. The shooting gallery was small, poorly lit, and the targets were about 30 feet in front. The experience was great, but the time passed too fast. Also, the bullets travelled too fast as well.

    With a Daisy BB rifle, you can actually see the BB go through the target via your aiming sights on the rifle. A bullet from a real hand gun is just too fast. I've also used a bow and arrow in the city on a large field, and that is  fun! Arching a bow to hit a target at 250-300 feet is challenging.cAlso,  it takes the arrow about 3-5 seconds to fly through the air before it hits the target.i

   If I was a handgun or rifle hobbyist, I'd go for long-range shooting. I want to wait and be able to see the bullet hit the target. Anyway, enough of bows and arrows and guns. Let's get on with the photography.

Collectible Firearms

     When I was in Florida a few years ago, I went to one of those large book chains. There was a great tabletop book on old firearms on sale,and I purchased it. As everyone knows, especially regarding America, guns are a very debatable topic. However, guns have been a part of American history and folklore, and as such, are high in demand as collectors' items.

     Rock Island Auction Company, from my limited knowledge on firearms auction companies, seems to be a highly-successful, well-known, and reputable company. Their photography is excellent, and for certain higher-priced guns, their knowledge and  descriptions are well worth reading, even though I'm not a collector. So let's get to the photos.

A brief "clip" from icollector about the Rock Island Auction Company

I normally do some Photoshop on images from the net.I'll colour-balance, sharpen, burn and dodge, and a few other things. For the Rock Island Auction Company, I mostly re-sized. Their photography is simply that good! Also, I didn't want to change the colour of a particular wood or gun-barrel through auto colour-correct,because I didn't really know the true colour of these subjects!

     The quality and size of the company's photography is so good, that while resizing the photos for my blog, I noticed that 1 gun had fingerprints on it! You can enlarge images on this Blogger blog, by clicking on any  image. I'll leave a small puzzle of finding the handgun with the fingerprints.

   Notice also how each firearm is oriented perfectly horizontal and vertical to the camera, is super "in-focus", and you can see detail in the highlights (bright areas) and shadows). I would guess that this company uses a "real" (professional photographer), but I could be wrong. I'll e-mail the Rock Island Auction Company after this post to ask them, and to thank them for their super-quality website, and sub-site on icollector.

Thanks for dropping by,

and as always, have a great morning, afternoon, or evening, wherever you may be.

Stacey