Re-Photograpy: Clyde, Ohio

Hi all,

 

Clyde OH is the seeting of Sherwood Anderson's novel "Winesburg, Ohio."

 

It's also where I work, and spend a fair amount of time.

 

Local library had an old postcard, appears to have been shot with a Cirkut

camera. In a conversation with the librarian, I said I could re-shoot the

scene, and did.

 

I also borrowed the 100 y/o postcard, scanned it, repaired the image in

Photoshop just a bit; so that when the library gets around to it they can have

it on a website.

 

Anyway, as a result of the above, I have 2 shots, nearly identical, but taken

100 years apart, of small-town Ohio. The simlarities and contrasts really draw

viewers in.

 

Since a picture is worth 1,000 words, I'll stop talking now.

 

Enjoy....<div></div>

Doug

 

Mavelous pictures now and then. Yes, a picture is worth 1,000 words

 

Thanks for sharing

Very nice.

 

How far is Clyde OH from Ann Arbor, MI? There's a very enjoyable "compliment" to a rephotographic project here. Several old images have been printed large and transparently, and sandwiched between sheets of plastic, and mounted at select locations around town so you can stand on the marked footprints and look through the semi-transparent old image at the current city. It's pretty cool.

 

Also, my friend Marilyn Zimmerman has the "Woodward Rephotographic Project" rephotographing old shots in Detroit, where change can often be on quite a majestic scale.

Hi Minh, thanks! Glad you liked.

 

Joseph: Clyde OH is about 30 miles east of Toledo OH, via US-20, and about 5 miles south of the Ohio Turnpike. Or 93 miles from Dearborn MI (my g/f lives there), so I'd guess about 100-110 miles from Ann Arbor MI. I'm going to have to visit Ann Arbor and have a look at that project, sounds very cool. Haven't been there in a year or so.

 

I'm going to Google "Woodward Rephotographic Project", thanks!

Very cool Doug! You should really think about trying to dig up more of these old panoramas and re-shooting them. Maybe even with some color film as well as B&W. It would make a wonderful book, and I would think that most of those old images have passed into public domain ages ago.

Wonderful!

 

Here's another pair:

 

---> http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00JVAv

 

I'd love to see more.

 

Johnnycake

 

PS Doug. What were the 'technical' details?

Patrick, thanks.

 

The thought crossed my mind, and I looked into it a little bit.

 

A local photog named Ernst Niebergall, from about a century ago, documented this area very well. A huge number of his pics / negs are preserved locally at the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library, in nearby Fremont.

 

But what's stopped me for now is that he shot on either 4x10 or 5x12 pano. Not a huge problem, but I don't have one of those cameras, and my swing-lens don't have the same look.

 

And they're not public domain. A local historian bought them when Niebergall was near his end, and destitute, then the historian donated them to the RBH Pres. Library. Many are on the Net, and educational use is allowed. For a book, I'd have to discuss it with them.

 

And it would only be worthwhile for NW Ohio, because there's a panoramic Ohio book out recently where a modern guy re-shot on a Hulcherama a bunch of old Cirkut photos.

 

One other thing - many of Niebergall's images are valuable due to the people and activity in them. Like cutting ice on Lake Erie, or a biplane over a local town. I can't duplciate those nuances.

 

Sure would be a fun project, though..!

Very cool, Johnnycake.

 

Technical details for my modern shot are a 35mm Widelux, 3 frames shot about 90d apart and merged in PS. Shot on 100 speed color film, souped at local drugstore before heading home from work.

 

Old shot details unknown. The pic is from a tri-fold postcard that the library had. I scanned it in 3 sections, merged it, cleaned up some rips and tears. Probably shot with a Cirkut rotating camera, but it certainly wasn't a Cikut contact print. It was more like scanning a newsprint image, lotta dots and moire.

Doug, I finished cleaning up my pan of Historic Eustis. Took out all the electircal boxes and new cars and put in some old cars, then to make it real interesting put Spanky and the Gang on the sidewalk in front. Fun stuff.<div></div>

I love it.

Here is the full pan I started out with. This can be the Now shot and spanky the Then shot.<div></div>

Doug, that's absolutely wonderful. (I think I like the 1907 town better).

Cliff

 

The Now picture looks amazing, but the Then picture looks cute with the gangs... This forum will be Antique someday.

 

Thanks!!!

Interesting juxtaposition.

You guys are just getting too wide, have to buy another monitor to fit 'em in!

 

Tony

Doug, I think it is real interesting to see, that one building retained it's awnings almost exactly the same for 100 years. Also the people waiting for the train at the little train station, are now waiting for a bus at a bus stop. And the Old Hotel that was likely built when the little station probably only had one train a day come in towm, was torn down when it got too noisy to sleep, with all of the tracks that went in and the freight train traffic. Now the Hotel is gone and so are the tracks! Very interesting.

"But what's stopped me for now is that he shot on either 4x10 or 5x12 pano. Not a huge problem, but I don't have one of those cameras, and my swing-lens don't have the same look."

 

Doug, you will be amazed at what you can do, once you get away from PhotoSlop. Panorama Tools is a free progrum crammed full of the most wonderful math, and can easily remap your widelux (cylindrical projection) images to exactly match Niebergall's panoramas (rectilinear projection). Panorama Tools has a complex and confusing command line interface, but there are several friendly GUI programs that sit on top of it, so you never have to see the command line. My favorite is called PtAssembler. There is a pretty powerful free GUI called Hugin, and it has an installer that also installs Panorama Tools, getting you pretty much to a "click and go" installation.

 

To match these two images, you can even place what they call "control points" on some of the things that exist in both pictures, and it will warp them to fit eachother like a glove. I've used it to align rephotographic images before. Given enough control points, it can remap lens barrel or pincushion distortion and minor perspective differences to fit tne new image to the old one.

You don't even have to have a real computer to use this, Panorama Tools and Hugin are also available for fruit flavored computer substitutes.

Cliff,

 

What sticks out at me in the pics is that the popular commercial sites didn't change in 100 years. Where horses were in 1907, cars and motorcycles are in 2007. Every feature in 1907 has almost a direct replacement in 2007.

 

Well, the above is partly incorrect. This main drag intersects 4-lane US-20 about a half-mile to the right, and that's where the real flow is. This main drag is more like and eddy or backwater now.

 

That hotel, co-workers my age (40 or so) who grew up in Clyde remember it. I don't know if the RR tracks or that building went away first.

 

The "bus stop" is actually a park bench on the rails-to-trails, modelled to reflect the RR past of the town.

Clyde was a stop on the southern division of the Lake Shore Electric Railway which ran between Cleveland and Toledo until about 1938. The trains ran about once an hour.

David,

 

I think the Interurban you mentioned followed what is now 4-lane US-20. I see markers and bridge abutments for that line along my commute.

 

Back in the day, Clyde had 3 RR brands of service. The Interurban, the half-dozen rails in the pic that are now gone, and then yet another RR company that continues to pass through town, about a half-mile to the far right (north) in the pic.

Doug, I have a panoramic photo [original photo] of South Bass Island taken from Perry's monument in about 1914. Perhaps you could use it and take a modern comparison photo. Send me an email.