The Optical Magic Lantern Journal (July 1903)

AND PHOTOGRAPHIC ENLARGER. Nor is the specialty itself sufficiont if you are to do the very least work and have the greatest possible pleasure in doing it. There must be an object beyond it; something more than merely to add to your collection, or to take a favorable place in the periodical exhibitions of the work of the members of your society or club. And there are many ways in which such specialized work, if it is good, may be turned to account, cach giving the added interest said to be given to games by playing for stakes, and that makes you ‘put your best foot foremost.” What is the matter, for instance, with making pictures to illustrate articles for the photographic or other magazines? Thé editors are always on the outlook for good matter of that kind and will gladly, for a few well-written and well-illustrated articles, not only help you to go scot-free from the cost of your holiday outing but to go home with more in your pocket than when you left it. Have you “the gift of the gab?” as, if so, you have a wide field before you. While it is true that lantern-lecturing of a kind has largely lost its popularity, there is and always will be an open door and a full house for the other kind, as witness the success of the retired Stoddard and the still popular Burton-Holmes, and the one neither did nor is the other doing anything that cannot be done and perhaps even bettered by dozens who are unconscious of possessing the necessary ability simply because they have never tried it. Subjects for such illustrated lectures are almost inexhaustable and sets of negatives for 50 slides, a number that should rarely be exceeded, need oceupy only a few days. How eagerly, for example, would the farmers’ granges throughout the country welcome a lecture on the fruit-bearing trecs and plants on which they so much depend, and the enemies against which they contend. The latter in place on the former and in the various stages through which they pass; such as, say, the “ Colorado beetle” on the potato, and the “ borer ’’ on the apple, accompanied, of course, by the latest information as to the best method of fighting the various pests. The “Arts and Crafts,” too, may be drawn upon. One of the most interesting scries of lectures—three in number—I ever took part in was “The story of a cotton gown from picking to paper.” By 150 slides the audience were led through the whole series of transformations, beginning with the cotton picking, on through ginning, baling, spinning, weaving and printing.. By the beginning of the third lecture the gown had reached the rag-pile, from which it was followed through the process of paper making; the last slide being a few complimentary words 109 to the audience supposed to have been written on the paper so made. Another equally interesting “lantern lecture” was “Matches and Matchmaking,” tracing the process from the lumber yard, large enough apparently to supply the builders of a great city, through machine after machine, each acting vlmost automatically, splitting, paraffining, dipping, drying and boxing; and finally leaving the factory in carloads ; although I learned afterwards that some of the fairer portion of the audience were a little disappointed, having come under the impression that match-making of a different kind was to be-the theme. Nor is there any reason why even that kind of match-making should not be taken up. Its phases are varied enough, and, treated properly and especially humorously, it could not fail to be attractive. But your ambition may soar higher than any of these; you may even aim at qualifying for admission to the Photo-Secession, and “ what for no,” provided you have been blessed with the artistic temperament; and it will do you good in any case to try. No matter how much you already know there will always be room for more, and you can have no better preparation than a careful study of Burnett or Robinson, or both. But enough has been said by way of suggestion. He that has that within him that will enable him to be a thoroughly successful specialist will have little difficulty in finding a suitable subject, and I may conclude with a few words as to the most desirable outfit. A good photographer will do good work with almost any kind of camera and lens, or, at a pinch, without a lens; but he will do better, and do it with greater satisfaction and comfort when both are of the most suitable kind for his particular branch. My ideal for all the phases that I have suggested and for many others, is a 4x5 camera, with one of the modern flat-field, or anastigmat lenses of not less than seven-inch focus, such as the Plastigmat or the Cooke, the former of which I have employed for the last cight months with perfect satisfaction ; and a rigid tripod. For the highest class of work in the specialities suggested perfect technique is a sine qua non, and that, in 99 cases in the hundred, cannot be obtained without the use of'a tripod or other equally suitable support for the camera. Perfect technique includes true values in color luminosities, implying the use of orthochromatic plates or films, and at least the occasional employment of a color screen. It includes also every degree of gradation that is in the subject, from the faintest shadow detail up to the highest of high light, if there be such, and at the same