Amateur Photographer & Cinematographer (1933)

August 9th, 1933 Carrying on. The developer is not exhausted, and would probably develop another pair. But I pour out an ounce of it and throw away, replacing it with an ounce of fresh-mixed solution as a livener. At the end of the second pair I do the same ; and after the third pair I throw the solution away, rinse out measures and dishes, and begin all over again. When the last two negatives are in the fixing bath, I begin to clear up. I rinse out graduates and dishes thor¬ oughly, and stand them to drain ; put away the bottles and other things ; switch off the lamp, and take down the shut-out from the window. Then the last two negatives go into the dish, which, with luck, now contains twelve. Sometimes there are fewer, the others being in the grate. Washing. I now refill the dish in the sink, and transfer the negatives to it one at a time, lifting each one by a corner (with the tweezers if the weather is warm), and giving time for the water to drain from the other corner. I empty and refill the first dish, and in a few minutes the negatives are transferred as before. I do this at intervals till they have had eight or ten transfers in an hour. I The AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER a 6 CINEMATOGRAPHER <3 Sometimes I use another method of washing, with one dish only, but it has its risks for the uninitiated, and I will not describe it now. Drying. When washing is complete I hold each print up to drain, stick a push-pin through one comer, and pin it to the edge of a long wooden shelf. A c^rop of water forms at the bottom corner, but this is just “ pinched ” off with finger and thumb. If the washing water were as “ hard ” as it is in some places, I should first put each film at the bottom of a dish of clean water, and swab each side with a plug of cotton -wool. When the films are dry there is a decided burr where the pin has been. This I shave off with a sharp knife. If I am doing plates instead of films the general lines of procedure are the same. But I lay the first two plates side by side in the empty dish, and pour the developer over them with one steady wave from the graduate. Also I wash them in a rack in a tank of water which has a siphon. And I remove the surface water from the film side, dry the glass side with a towel, and stand the plates on edge along a shelf with the top edge leaning against the wall. W. L. F. W. ( A A/f P? JP A f 1 / / V? C / A NoveI Photographic W /1 1 ' L Vy/i A B O . Game for the Holidays By M. L. HASELGROYE. TREASURE hunting may be less thrilling when a bar of chocolate is the sole reward than when the wealth of the Spanish Main is at stake, and it is certainly far less dangerous, but a well-organised treasure hunt on foot or in cars is a glorious pastime for a summer day. Captain Kidd was never known to have left photographic clues leading to his buried treasure, but the amateur photo¬ grapher will find unexpected pleasure in thus setting or follow¬ ing a trail. The essentials for the job are few, merely a camera, plenty of negative material, a little ingenuity, and a large capacity for dark-room work (unless you are wealthy enough to co-opt the D. & P. brigade). Briefly, the scheme is to arrange a treasure hunt with a party of friends, in which they are to follow a trail of photo¬ graphs of fairly prominent landmarks and so find a “ buried treasure.” The prints are prepared in secret some time previously, and one set should be used conscientiously by the “ hares ” at a dress rehearsal to ensure that even the dullest hound has a fair chance of following the trail to the end. The crowd assembled ready to start may be easily dispersed by each member being given a photograph of a not-too-easilyrecognised house near-by, with instructions to call there for his first set of prints. All the clues, however, are not supplied at once, but are arranged in series of six to eight and sealed in envelopes, so that the prints in the first envelope lead to the house where the next set may be obtained. When friends willing to help in this respect cannot be found another method previously adopted with success may be tried. A sweetshop proprietor was asked to insert a given number of prints in small boxes of chocolates, and to sell these to the competitors who showed him their credentials in the form of the first set of prints. Some of the amateur sleuths took a surprisingly long time to realise that they had to look in the packet. Laying the trail gives enormous scope to the photographer’s ingenuity. A certain number of clues must, of course, be obvious ones, but a few shots taken slightly off the road at an angle at which the competitor will not naturally see the subject will help to separate the sheep from the goats. Further obstacles may be provided by omitting to supply direct clues at fork roads, but inserting photographs taken a few hundred yards down the wrong road and labelling them “ Stop” in red ink. Sets of clues may be buried in country districts, but the risk of damage by weather and accidental discovery by picnic parties makes this an unreliable procedure. The clues themselves may be clear contact prints, and handi¬ caps may be introduced by printing some of them in reverse, while too easily identified objects in some prints may be blacked out. The quick-witted will soon spot the reversed print by, for example, an English car with its right-hand drive being shown as with its wheel on the left, and so steal a march on their duller confreres. In a treasure hunt of this sort run a few weeks ago, twenty cars with passengers and drivers started together, each armed with one photograph leading to the first set of clues, and the diversity of pictures, together with good and bad luck, so separated them that five competitors arrived in the quarter of an hour after the first one had completed the course, but before he had actually found the buried treasure. Only five were completely and utterly bewildered and made for the rendezvous arranged for those so lost. But the unanimous opinion of the hares and hounds alike was that as soon as possible there shall be another summer day spent following the trail of camera clues. " Call here for further clues.”