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to AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER p 6 CINEMATOGRAPHER o
November i-st, 1933
Every week an article will appear under this heading dealing with a topic of interest to the novice in photography .
SPECIAL SUBJECTS.
NOTES l NOTIONS
Jor the
LESS ADVANCED WORKER
Dittisham Ferry, on the Dart.
out one intention — the photographing of all the types of London drivers I could find, from the donkey-driver of
A Thames Ferry.
the costermonger’s barrow to the Lord Mayor’s coachman. They were an interesting and varied crowd ; but I took only a few in a half-hearted manner, and now most of the best of them have disappeared for ever.' Tony Weller is indistinguishable from any other motor driver to-day.
Another of my many ideas which never materialised was to concentrate on weather-vanes, which would have provided good practice in telephoto¬ graphy and patience.
This suggests that the beginner must choose his special subject with an eye to his equipment and capabili¬ ties. If he uses only a hand camera he can deal with ferry-boats or bridges, but he cannot tackle crypts or gar¬ goyles. If he knows nothing of pan-chromatic material and light filters he would make a bad job of cloud records or flower pictures. He can do high-speed work only with
IF I were the type of “ sportsman ” who wanders over the face of the earth committing wholesale and retail murder with firearms, I realise that I should loose off at everything from a bull elephant to a baby humming-bird. Because that is how I behave with a camera. I stop at nothing, indoors or out, by day or night. Probably that is not the way to make a photographic reputation, unless it is a bad one. But who wants a reputation, any¬ how ?
As 1 have often said, although there is a good deal of fun in being an all-round camera shot, I can' quite appreciate the value of concentrating on a special subject ; or, better still, several special subjects. On another page in this issue you may read that Mr. E. J. Bedford has made 4,000 negatives of British orchids. Yet that is only one of his side-lines. He does not mention how many architectural negatives he has produced, to say nothing of nature subjects in general.
The other day I was discussing ferries with a friend, and I found I could produce photographs of a few ; not that they had ever been to me what orchids have been to Mr. Bed¬ ford, but simply that they had come
in the way of my camera now and then and here and there. I recently showed some of the Free Ferry at Woolwich, and one of a quaint specimen on the Mo¬ selle. Here are three others, and I could find a good many more.
I am sure that anyone who made a special subject of ferry-boats could soon get an interesting collection together, and it would be a good idea to enlarge the subject a bit, so as to include fords (with or without steppingstones) and bridges. If the last were included it would be a big order, unless it was decided to include only bridges of wood or stone. A good deal of anguish would be avoided by ignoring iron bridges.
If the photographic beginner decides to give attention to one special subject he should choose one that interests him particularly. I have regretted that I did not carry
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