A Real Love for a Toy

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

A True Love for a Toy

     If you arrive at this site today, you'll probably think that I made a mistake in the date - nada! When I find the time or have lots of energy, I'll write a few instalments. Today, I'm writing 2.

     The Hubley Cast Iron Truck and Trailer below, are truly small toys that you just go "gaga" over (excuse me Lady Gaga). First of all, there's nothing like a heavy toy in your hand to have a sense of touch. Next is the great texture and coldness of the toy. Then of course there is the design. Trucks and cars that I present to you from long-ago times, actually looked like these toys. Perhaps, it's because  I'm not old enough, that I like them. As an aside, it's not quite like that for old cars that you can remember. My first car was a 1970 Dodge Coronet, made by Chrysler. I kept that car for what then I thought was a long time (9 years), and I loved it! My father and mother purchased it for me in order to go to work teaching on what is the South Shore of Montreal. However, when you do a search for it on the Net, it just looks "old". Also, I don't have that feeling for it now that I had then.

    Now, getting back to this 1930's Hubley truck and trailer; this toy is magnificent. When I first photographed it, all of the photos were out-of-focus. I broke one of my rules of never hold a reflector when photographing anything. The reason is that you'll cause camera shake, no matter how careful or still that you are.  Sure enough 30 minutes of photography proved to be worthless!

   So I rephotographed it, but  took twice as many images. Sure enough, more out-of-focus images even without holding the reflector. The floor in my basement must be weak! However, I had enough photos for E-Bay. That wasn't enough, because I simply love this toy! So I went back and photographed it again. I will do some more shooting tomorrow, because sooner or later someone is going to buy it.

I'm also going to place this instalment on my Pro Photo Learning blog. However, there I will narrate what I am seeing photographically (*lighting, detail, composition, camera angle...) and why I kept shooting!

So I'll let you look at the photos, and I hope that you enjoy these 2 toys as much as I do. Some photos that follow one another may look to you as the same, but there are very subtle differences in the lighting.

    My Montage (Composite) Photo for E-Bay

    I would have liked to use this photo for E-Bay, but the quality of each image would not have been good. I only place 1 composite image on E-Bay. The first photo is "free", and the rest are 15 cents each. However, list 100 items, and then add on the 9% that e-Bay takes as its' commission, then you realize that you're working for E-Bay and not making much money. Of course, it's my choice, and not to assign blame to E-Bay!

    This toy came to me without any rubber tires, and was missing 1 wooden rim. I replaced all of the missing tires, but left the melted parts of the old tires on the rims. I did carefully scrape most of the old pieces away, but I decided to stop at some point. One thing that was interesting is that the cab  (truck) is in 2 parts, just like the Hubley Airflow car. When you remove the front left rubber tire and wooden rim, the front can be dismantled. In this way, you can replace its' rear tires and rims. When you see more photos, you'll better understand what I just said.