ClicksyPicsWiggle animations and more!

Here are some of my favorite old photographs, chosen because they are strange and unique.

No date given – Bathing Machines, Scheveningen

The bathing machine was a device, popular in the 19th century, to allow people to wade in the ocean at beaches without violating Victorian notions of modesty. Bathing machines were roofed and walled wooden carts rolled into the sea. Some had solid wooden walls; others had canvas walls over a wooden frame.

The bathing machine was part of sea-bathing etiquette more rigorously enforced upon women than men but to be observed by both sexes among those who wished to be “proper”.

Especially in Britain, men and women were usually segregated, so nobody of the opposite sex might catch sight of them in their bathing suits, which (although modest by modern standards) were not considered proper clothing to be seen in.

WIKI Source

between ca. 1910 and ca. 1915 – Lanander, Chi. – Sweden

I don’t think I’ve added any from this series.  Auto polo went on from about 1904 to about 1915, if I’m remembering my research correctly.  There were several matches, one in St. Louis, one in Madison Square Gardens.  There’s not much online about this, but there’s a great NY Times article here.  I strongly agree with the writer in that they would have a difficult time recruiting people for this sport….  Not to be outmatched, we come to:

Taken sometime in the 1910′s, this is an ice auto from Deluth.  Wonder what happens when they lean back?

“1910-1915 – Licking blocks of ice on a hot day.”  Refreshing, and sanitary!

Apparently used to listen for incoming planes.  And to make new recruits look silly.

1907 (?) – Tatoos or body ink

1911 – German stowaway.  This photo came from a Ellis Island collection.

The above image was taken in 1889 after the Johnstown Flood, and demonstrates that sarcasm is not a new thing.

Early waterboarding…. “1861-1872 – Man lies on cot under bed cover, his bandaged head rests in wooden apparatus with straps designed to elevate and cool head while allowing moisture from bandages to drip in basin below head”.

I daresay it would have worked on me.  “Oh, How I Love The Old Flag. Rebecca, A Slave Girl from New Orleans.  [Propaganda portrait of Rebecca, A Slave Girl from New Orlean...] (1864)”

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I think all of these came from the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog from the Library of Congress.  Great stuff in there.  Mostly public domain.

1931 - The Graf Zeppelin's rendezvous with the eternal desert and the more than 4,000 year old pyraminds of Gizeh, Egypt

This one had a pretty drastic angle, which made the people kind of distracting.  But giant balloons are cool so it stays!

UPDATE for any curious animators – everyone that wants the basics, please skip to below:  It’s really hard to explain this process beyond the basics I’ve provided here.  I hope to do this eventually, but for now, the best tool I can give you is the original animation with all layers and frames.  This was made in Photoshop, and hopefully can be opened by some of the newer free programs as well.  (If you have freeware animation software you’d like to pimp here for my visitors, please do!).  You can download the TIFF file here.  Don’t expect it to be neat and organized, but you should be able to get the idea.  Especially when it comes to the movement, cloning and covering up areas to create new, etc.  I did have to shrink it down so if you need something bigger just ask and please feel free to ask any questions here or by emailing clicksyweb@gmail.com.  I’d love to have some blog authors if you would like to display your work on this site.  And now, on with the basics:

This is the most asked question, and here’s how it’s done….

Above is a stereo viewer from… way back when.  A stereo card with two images taken at slightly different angles was inserted into the viewer and allowed the user to see the image in 3-D.  These images were usually taken with a single camera that had two slightly angled lenses.  Because the angles of the lenses varied so much between cameras, each animation has a different sort of tilt. More on stereoscopy on wiki here.

To create the animation, I layer the images on top of one another and transition from one to the other.  Because of the different lens angles, this process usually involves resizing and repairing some areas to create one seamless image… or as seamless as you can make a hundred year old photograph.  So the image above, becomes this:

I came up with this idea on a whim, I don’t know that it’s been done before, I just knew that I had never seen any.  I think it’s a different kind of way to view the history and learn – which is never a bad thing.  Sometimes I’m not totally happy with how an animation turns out, but post it anyway because the image itself still has historical interest and value.

That’s it in a nutshell.  If you would like to view the complete collection, visit clicksypics.com.  No need to register to comment, let me know what you think – I can take it!

By the way, the images are all under a creative commons attribution license.  Share around, as long as you leave the watermark.  A link back to clicksypics.com would be appreciated, but isn’t required.

UPDATE: I’ve created a video with animation, which gets into more detail about how to create these in photoshop. Click me.

1908 - The marvelous Spinx and Second Pyramid, showing part of the original covering, Gizeh, Egypt

This one is for Bennu, thanks for the tweet!  Visit his super cool site, Talking Pyramids, for news and info on the pyramids of Egypt.  I’m digging that picture of the original entrance of the Great Pyramid… I wonder if that old graffiti is still there.

1911 - Man standing in center, looking up, and woman seated on bench

This one looks to me like a drawing, but this animation came from a stereo photograph.  The only editing was for creating the animation… and the little border.  A great picture, I think.  No information on the photographer but the Library of Congress website catalog of this animation (the original stereo card photo) can be viewed here.