The Rainbow. A World War One on Canada's West Coast Timeline

Having 3 local pilots and a trade commissioner in the fleet helped them build a pretty robust target list.

The Germans really lucked out in this timeline given the amount of local insight they acquired although I’d wager even a single relatively knowledgable pilot could have got similar results alongside a “shoot important looking building” strategy.
 
Miss Grace Milligan first female war correspondent! Becomes famous for her coverage of the Western Front.
There was at the time, a Canadian Women's Press Club, founded in 1904. Not sure about war correspondents IOTL.

While Alys McKey Bryant is a real person, Grace Milligan is a made-up character.
 
Would she have had that much film on her? All she was expecting to do was take a handful of shots of the pilot and plane. How bulky would the film have been?

Looking at
It would seem that her camera likely uses plates, not film, so I really doubt she'd be able to take more than a handful of shots.
The paper surely won't have sent her out with a Brownie....
 
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Would she have had that much film on her? All she was expecting to do was take a handful of shots of the pilot and plane. How bulky would the film have been?
Compact cameras existed at the time. I suppose I could have dropped in a brand and model. I wrote about a camera hobbyist lighthouse keeper snapping shots of Rainbow chasing down the SS Otter in the chapter entitled Broken Hand. The lighthouse keeper used a Seroco brand (Sears Robuck Company) This Kodak would work too. I indulged Ms. Milligan with some extra rolls of film, for dramatic purposes.

 
Compact cameras existed at the time. I suppose I could have dropped in a brand and model. I wrote about a camera hobbyist lighthouse keeper snapping shots of Rainbow chasing down the SS Otter in the chapter entitled Broken Hand. The lighthouse keeper used a Seroco brand (Sears Robuck Company) This Kodak would work too. I indulged Ms. Milligan with some extra rolls of film, for dramatic purposes.

So, she leaves the professional camera on the ground, and uses her own?
Because I don't see a newspaper sending a reporter out with a hobbyist camera as their main one. Maybe as backup or for 'targets of opportunity' say...
For that matter, she might carry a personal camera if she's camera mad.

Also, changing film is something you want to do in the dark, normally, and would be tough on a sunny day in an airplane in an open cockpit...
 
So, she leaves the professional camera on the ground, and uses her own?
Because I don't see a newspaper sending a reporter out with a hobbyist camera as their main one. Maybe as backup or for 'targets of opportunity' say...
For that matter, she might carry a personal camera if she's camera mad.

Also, changing film is something you want to do in the dark, normally, and would be tough on a sunny day in an airplane in an open cockpit...
I'm told that by feel, inside a lightproof cloth bag worked well. Back when film was a thing. I was actually imagining that she was using a some kind of intermediate size, something between a vest pocket camera and a beast that required a tripod. You are right though, this detail should appear in the story. No handwavium is permitted at alternatehistory.com.
 

marathag

Banned
Sears really did not make much, the Seroco were made by Conley in Minnesota and others.
Kodak made 120 roll film in medium frame format since 1902, '120' was not the actual size, that was really 61mm wide, with 15 or 16 exposures per roll.
 
So, she leaves the professional camera on the ground, and uses her own?
Because I don't see a newspaper sending a reporter out with a hobbyist camera as their main one. Maybe as backup or for 'targets of opportunity' say...
For that matter, she might carry a personal camera if she's camera mad.

Also, changing film is something you want to do in the dark, normally, and would be tough on a sunny day in an airplane in an open cockpit...
A long long time ago all you had was film and depending on format you had to load and unload in a light proof bag, box or room. When I was taught to do this ages ago in college, the teachers used exposed film to teach us how to do so we could do it by hand without looking. We did the same way to learn how to unload and put in the development tank so we could do it by touch only.
 
I'm told that by feel, inside a lightproof cloth bag worked well
A long long time ago all you had was film and depending on format you had to load and unload in a light proof bag, box or room. When I was taught to do this ages ago in college, the teachers used exposed film to teach us how to do so we could do it by hand without looking. We did the same way to learn how to unload and put in the development tank so we could do it by touch only.
Sure. And she needs a bag for carrying plates (for the good camera), film for the portable one, etc.
Yeah, I'll buy that.
 

Driftless

Donor
Safety film/roll film has been was in use from 1908.
Sure. And she needs a bag for carrying plates (for the good camera), film for the portable one, etc.
Yeah, I'll buy that.
Why would a junior reporter on a second tier paper be supplied with an expensive plate camera? She'd be doing well well to get a very basic Kodak
 
A long long time ago all you had was film and depending on format you had to load and unload in a light proof bag, box or room. When I was taught to do this ages ago in college, the teachers used exposed film to teach us how to do so we could do it by hand without looking. We did the same way to learn how to unload and put in the development tank so we could do it by touch only.
I think I remember changing film in a bag with my old 35mm SLR.

Between the destruction of the hydroelectric plants, the refinery, and the coal stocks, will Vancouver be facing an energy shortage for a few months?
 

Driftless

Donor
The first camera I was trusted to use as a 7 year old was a beat- up rummage sale Kodak Box camera with a scratched view finder and safety stock 120 roll film. If you held film and camera carefully when loading film, there was enough leader that you didn't expose the film prematurely. The resulting images weren't museum grade, but certainly functional snapshots. Good enough that the technology was in common use till various cannister/cartridge films largely supplanted the roll stock in the '60's.

Safety stock film was more-or-less in common use by 1914, so the idea of a beat reporter using a simple camera is perfectly logical to me
 

ferdi254

Banned
A very interesting read and two women on the way to fame.

There are way too many juicy targets in Vancouver for the amount of shells a light cruiser carries. So spending them all and then at best scuttle the ship in a place it obstructs traffic the most could be a nice opportunity.

And all this destruction will lead to a side effect. The number of people who can actually repair such a wreck is limited and the more of them are needed in Vancouver the less will there be for getting the copper mine back up.
 

marathag

Banned
The first camera I was trusted to use as a 7 year old was a beat- up rummage sale Kodak Box camera with a scratched view finder and safety stock 120 roll film. If you held film and camera carefully when loading film, there was enough leader that you didn't expose the film prematurely. The resulting images weren't museum grade, but certainly functional snapshots. Good enough that the technology was in common use till various cannister/cartridge films largely supplanted the roll stock in the '60's.

Safety stock film was more-or-less in common use by 1914, so the idea of a beat reporter using a simple camera is perfectly logical to me
Thing was, most of the film even by WWI , would have been slower than ASA25, most likely 10 or 12
Needs lot of light. Used to have a Yashica twin reflex with 120 film, and with film that slow, I would have wanted to use a tripod, but there were a number of combat photogs that used that slow film to good effect
 
I'm told that by feel, inside a lightproof cloth bag worked well. Back when film was a thing. I was actually imagining that she was using a some kind of intermediate size, something between a vest pocket camera and a beast that required a tripod. You are right though, this detail should appear in the story. No handwavium is permitted at alternatehistory.com.

If I may add here: I have a 1908 Sears catalog. In it is a "Conley quick-exposure magazine camera", that held 12 plates. If our daring reporter has one of those, she could make sure she was full before lifting off, she would have 12 shots.

Conley-Magazine-Camera.jpg


There's one of them. According to the catalog, it's about 5 pounds. More with plates, but that seems realistic enough for her to have. It was $3.95.
 
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