I’ve given #traveltuesday the day off so I can celebrate National Zipper Day. Travel Tuesday should be back next week unless some other National Day pops into view. Hmmmmm, May 6 is National Crepe Suzette Day! I wonder what I could do with that?
Today’s Post by Joe Farace
When it comes to zippers, I am reminded of the quote by Aaron Levenstein about bikinis—“Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital.”
On April 29, National Zipper Day commemorates the fateful day in 1913 when the patent for the modern zipper was issued. The day celebrates something we often don’t usually think about and may take for granted—except when they get stuck. The first attempt at creating a zipper came from the inventor of the sewing machine. In 1851, Elias Howe received a patent for the “Automatic, Continuous Clothing Closure.” Howe never marketed his invention and missed the recognition he might have otherwise received.
Forty-two years later, Whitcomb Judson began selling the “Clasp Locker.” It was similar to Elias Howe’s patent and served as a more complicated hook-and-eye shoe fastener system. Judson started the Universal Fastener Company, where he manufactured his new device and debuted it at the Chicago World’s Fair but it met with little success. However, Judson earned credit as its creator because he put his invention for sale in front of the public .
In 1906, the Universal Fastener Company hired Gideon Sundback, a Swedish-American engineer. On April 29, 1913, Mr,. Sundback was granted a patent for the modern zipper, then known as the “Separable Fastener.” He submitted modifications to his invention in 1917. By 1923, B.F. Goodrich popularized the word zipper as it applied to use in the boots and pouches that it made. For a time, the company even copyrighted the name.
How I Made this Portrait: This portrait of Bella was made in my home studio with the main light being a Paul C Buff DigiBee DB800 that was placed at camera right with a 48-inch Plume hexagonal Wafer softbox attached. Another Paul C Buff DigiBee DB800 was at camera left and slightly behind Bella with Buff’s 18-OMNI Reflector attached and softened by a triple-layer Diffusion Sock. The camera used was a Panasonic Lumix GH4 with Lumix G Vario 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 lens (at 45mm) with an exposure of 1/125 sec at f/8 and ISO 200. The background was the 5×7-foot double-sided Lastolite Urban collapsible background.
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My proposed title of Posing for Portrait and Glamour Photography was The ABC’s of Portrait Posing. On this blog there are lots of posts about posing. Use the Search box on the upper right-hand corner and type “posing” to find appropriate posts. If you want something more lasting, take a look at my book with used copies available from Amazon starting around seventeen bucks as I write this. The Kindle version is $28.45 for those who prefer a digital format.