$86 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



Copyright, 1909, by H. E. Hill, Fort Pierce, Florida. 



REMARKABLE PHOTOGRAPH OF LIGHTNING. 



Courtesy of "American Photography," Boston. 



Photography in its Infancy and its Old 

 Age. 



IX ITS INFANCY. 



It may sound strange to speak of 

 photography as in its infancy, when 

 one takes into consideration the large 

 number of firms that manufacture pho- 

 tographic apparatus, and the many 

 stores that deal in photographic sup- 

 plies in every city and village. It is 

 not the apparatus nor the method that 

 is in its infancy, but in the conduct 

 back of these materials and methods. 

 One would suppose, with all the fine 

 anastigmat lenses so liberally adver- 

 tised and so attractively displayed in 

 the show cases of these photographic 

 stores, that choice photographs are an 

 everyday occurrence, but the facts of 

 the case are different. The really fine, 

 clear, sharp photograph is a rare thing. 

 Not one photograph in two hundred 

 submitted to almost any magazine, is 

 adapted to the making of a good cut. 

 Comparatively few photographers are 



getting from their apparatus all its 

 possibilities, because the work is too 

 carelessly and too ignorantly done. 

 Photographing is taking a picture of 

 something, and the first essential is, not 

 to take the picture, but to understand 

 the something. 



Can you imagine a sportsman who, 

 starting out with his gun and dog, 

 walks down the street and through the 

 fields, firing promiscuously at every- 

 thing? How much game would he 

 bring home that would be found useful 

 in the family pantry or salable in the 

 local market? Yet this method of fir- 

 ing in every direction at almost every- 

 thing is the way in which most ama- 

 teurs use their camera. The first essen- 

 tial in photography is to seek diligently 

 and then intelligently to bag the game 

 that is really worth while. 



Or, to change the metaphor, suppose 

 a newspaper editor should engage a re- 

 porter, and that reporter should go in 

 the street and write up all sorts of 



