Samuel Logan was the third child of Benjamin George Logan and Ellen Logan nee Germany.
Searching through the British Newspaper Archives I found an article written about a photograph of Samuel's that was 30 years in the making. He was obviously a talented and persistent artist.
I also found a book called 'Round and About Windsor and District written by Olwen Hedley and all of the photographs have been taken by Samuel Logan, F.R.P.S. (Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society).
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Photographs by Samuel Logan, F.R.P.S.
In the preface is "Her special thanks are also due to the photographer, Mr. Samuel Logan, F.R.P.S., late of Slough, who spared no trouble to fulfil the many, and often exacting, demands made upon his skill.
O. H. - Windsor, 1949
The photograph "Sunrise Over Windsor Castle" appeared in the Illustrated London News as well as featuring in the book Round And About Windsor Castle, each with its own story which has been reproduced in the following pages.
Round and About Windsor Castle
[by J. VACY LYLE]
Those who take more interest in photography than is to be satisfied by looking at shop-window displays or newspaper pictures welcome the annual exhibition of the Ealing Society as an exposition of what going on in photographic circles, and, if they are themselves photographers, as a means of comparing their own efforts with the specimens on view at the gallery in the Technical Institute.
Such is the excellence to which modern photographic material has been brought that the power to produce artistic pictures is well within the power of anyone who has the knowledge and the will to adapt it to the now placed at his disposal. It is quite true that the camera cannot draw what is not there, whilst an artist can, but apart from this and certain other limitations imposed by the nature of the medium employed, the photographer can obtain results, both indoors and out, which will well repay him for the time and trouble involved.
This year's exhibition was not, perhaps, quite up to the high level of the past year or two, and with certain exceptions, the prints seemed to lack inspiration. In spite of good photographic technique and sound craftsmanship, the exhibition as a whole was deficient in variety and in certain directions, notably portraiture and genre work, was distinctly weak.
This monotony of aspect may have been due, in some measure, to the fact that much of the work shown was the outcome of combined outings during the summer months. These meetings, useful from a social point of view and as a means of essays to comparative treatment of the same subject, are not, in my opinion, conducive to the best individual output. He travels fastest who travels alone and unhampered by considerations of route, rendezvous or commissariat, has, consequently, more time to look about him and seek for the inspiration of the moment or material for a future visit.
In matters photographic two may be company, but three is a crowd. and, though one picture of "Shillingford Bridge" may be welcomed in an exhibition, half-a-dozen versions of the same subject from practically the same standpoint are likely to put a strain on our powers of sympathetic appreciation.
Now for a few comments on the actual Pictures. On the whole the best contribution was that of Mr. S. Logan F.R.P.S., who is a consistent and competent worker. "Castle tloisters," which took the chief award, is a strong and well-conceived composition, in which the decorative adjuncts act as a foil to the stronger elements of stonework and sunlit columns. This is is bromoil print of fine exhibition quality.
Most of Mr. Logan's prints are by the same process, but "Marlow" is a direct print, in which good atmospheric attributes are secured by careful exposure and tonal differentiation, points often overlooked by less experienced workers.
"Sunrise at Windsor" has feeling and romance and is by no means a hackneyed .rendering of a somewhat too familiar subject. It has, moreover, fine tonal qualities, but the treatment of foreground details is not quite on a level with the rest, and the picture as a whole suffers accordingly. Second on the list ...