THE CAMER \ 



181 



nourishment from decaying vegetation, 

 and rapidly turns black when plucked. 

 Occasionally a cluster of plants is 

 found which is slightly salmon or pink. 



The flower is solitary and terminal, 

 composed of four white sepals and 

 from four to six scale-like petals. The 

 pistil is encircled by from ten to twelve 

 stamens. 



The leaves are replaced by small 

 scaly bracts. The flowering period is 

 from June to August and the plant is 

 to be found in nearly every state in our 

 country. 



The Individual Behind the Lens. 



BY GEO. W. KELLOGG, ROCHESTER, N. Y. 



The Glhde to Nature announces 

 that it desires better photographs; it ad- 

 vises the reader to put a better lens on 

 his camera, to send specimens of his 

 results and to tell how his results are 

 obtained, and to give talks on lenses. 

 This magazine is in danger of getting 

 into the rut where the photographic 

 magazines are, and where the most of 

 writers on photography who get in print 

 are : laying too much stress upon the 

 tools ; and with the exception of a few 

 favorites, of course, considering the in- 

 dividual who uses the tool as of sec- 

 ondary importance. 



Good tools, alone, do not make good 

 workmen. There are some individuals 

 who produce photographic monstrosities, 

 only, with the best equipments on earth, 

 and who are excelled by others with the 

 crudest of home-made outfits. One of 

 the former class, who has been adver- 

 tised as an expert; who has all the in- 

 tricacies of photography at his tongue's 

 end. theoretically ; who is a habitual bulb- 

 squeezer depending upon some victim 

 to do the rest and insisting that his vic- 

 tim shall be held responsible for results ; 

 but whose average results are inferior 

 to the results obtained by another man 

 whom I know with a cigar-box and pin- 

 hole. The man with the pin-hole did 

 the work, and all of it; the one with the 

 anastigmats was seldom without some 

 blundering idiots to blame for his fail- 

 ures. But, it is probable that not Ave 

 per cent, of the work that can be done 

 with the first-class lens will be possible 

 with the pin-hole; and the quality of the 



pin-hole work will not equal that of the 

 lens work, when both instruments are 

 controlled by skilled operators. The 

 lens is an important tool; but the kind 

 i)\ work which it will do depends on the 

 judgment, the good sense, and the skill 

 of the one who is working with it. Work 

 of good quality can be done with all 

 grades of photographic lenses; the better 

 the lens, the greater the scope of work 

 that will be possible with it. "Get as 

 good a lens as is possible" is good advice; 

 but "as good" does not, in this instance, 

 imply "as expensive." It may be inter- 

 preted single achromatic, rectilinear, an- 

 astigmat; all depending upon the in- 

 clination and purchasing ability of the 

 buyer. Worked at their full apertures, 

 anastigmats, as a rule, are much faster 

 than the rapid rectilinear and. under 

 some conditions, they cut sharper to the 

 corners of the plates for which they are 

 listed; and the most, if not all, when 

 they are stopped down will cut plates 

 two sizes larger, and become, thereby, 

 good substitutes for wide angle lenses. 

 The rectilinear is faster than the single 

 and does not render straight lines slightly 

 curved ; as the single lens does. For 

 speed and definition the single lens is an 

 advance far beyond the pin-hole. The 

 quality is of greater importance than the 

 make of lens. What is engraved on the 

 mount does not do the work. The lens, 

 alone, will not work : all depends upon 

 the brains and the skill back of the lens. 



There are other lens truths which 

 lens makers do not tell ; which editors 

 do not publish ; which scribes do not 

 write. Why? Yet the knowledge of 

 these truths will be of more practical 

 value to lens users and prospective lens 

 purchasers than the prattle about mathe- 

 matical formula?, astigmation, abbera- 

 tions. visual and chemical focus, flatness 

 of field, depth, and a lot of the other lens 

 talk that is hashed and re-hashed so 

 much that some people seem to have it 

 committed to memory, and appear to be- 

 lieve that it is all there is about lenses. 

 I am looking for the editor who has the 

 courage to publish these untold truths ; 

 or for the one who shall successfully 

 contradict the statement made. It will 

 be like the beginning of another era of 

 miracles if either shall be found. 



Xo lens expert, no editor, nor any 



