Ross Lowell, inventor or Gaffer Tape and Lowel Lights passed

[Willie]

https://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/2019/...r-tape-92.html


"Ross Lowell, the award-winning director, cinematographer and founder of Lowel-Light who created gaffer tape while fashioning lighting solutions for TV productions, died January 10 at his home in Pound Ridge, New York, according to his wife, Marilyn Shapiro-Lowell. He was 92."

He is credited with inventing Gaffer Tape. His Lowel Lights are used around the world. His book on lighting, MATTERS OF LIGHT AND DEPTH is one of the best around.

His book is interesting and informative and about the soul of lighting. His products work. He will be missed.

[Renato Tonelli]

I have been using Lowel lights since the mid 1970's; what is now the DP light (black) was a bright yellow - still works.
I still refer to his book "Matters of Light and Depth" lighting demos in the classroom.

[Tin Can]

A long life. RIP

Yesterday i noticed Lowel TOTA LED studio lamps at B&H following the original TOTA form factor. His work lives on.

I have 2 TOTA and what really impressed me about the company was they issued a free retro fit recall safety fix 20 years ago. It was simply a safety screen to protect eyes in case of whatever, but I got them for mine and the 4 Omni i used at work. Shipped free to anybody that asked.

[Drew Wiley]

I just pulled out my case of Lowell hot lights yesterday. I use them on the copystand. It would be nice to have something cooler, but have yet to find an ideal LED option for that specific usage. I don't even know if LED lighting can be cross-polarized. Tota lights have too narrow a beam, regardless. I use adjustable beam Omni lights with barndoors and diffusers to get perfectly even copystand illumination. I'm converting my Durst L184 into dual usage as a copystand as well as enlarger. I machined a thick phenolic lens disc which holds a tripod head and fairly heavy camera - up to 6x7 SLR, perfectly stable. The big baseboard will allow up to 30x40 artwork to be copied. No immediate application in mind; it's just a logical rainy week shop project that might come in useful in the future.

[Ulophot]

Hats off to Ross Lowell, for all the reasons above, and God bless him. My first experience with his equipment occurred around 1978 in New York. I had gone to the apartment of a Presidential candidate I knew for some portraits. I was a complete rookie in artificial lighting, and a poor one at that, financially as well as photographically. As I was trying to get my three small, rickety 6' aluminum stands with photofloods, carried in a bulky case, into their 10- and 12-inch brushed aluminum reflectors and set up, in walked a photographer from U.S. New and World Report, carrying a compact camera bag and canvas case the size of a quiver slung over his shoulder. Out of the latter, he pulled a stand, upon which, once extended, he placed a light I had never seen before, a Tota-lite, with (he later told me) a 1K bulb (in days before the 750W max was urged). With the subject at his desk, a single cord was plugged in, a switch clicked, and WHOOM! the study was filled with soft light. Out came the Leica M, and a roll of exposures zipped through the camera. Off went the light, to cool while he moved with the subject to another room, pulled out a shoe mount strobe (also bounced), and ran through nearly another roll. That took about 10 minutes. He quickly packed his gear and was gone.
My astonishment probably increased the clumsiness with which I jangled my lights around over the next half hour. As I left, I knew what I would asking Santa for. And I still use it.

[Mark Sampson]

Ross Lowell, may he rest in peace, was one of the unsung greats. I got paid for many, many photographs lit with his gear, and his book is indeed a classic.