J9' i 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



1 1 \> . 1 1 find trouble in getting at the 

 meaning, perhaps you ma) imagine how 

 we feel while examining the avalanche 

 of photographs that has fallen on this 

 office in response to the advertisements 

 for nature pictures. J believe, as the 

 senders have insisted, that "they were 

 done with my own camera, developed by 

 myself, ami are well balanced and beauti- 

 ful." 



Admitted, hut with all the heauty and 

 the mechanical perfection what does the 

 thin- mean? A photographic record, 

 like any other, should say something, 

 should express an idea. The conspicuous 

 beautiful idea (not mere mechanical per- 

 fection) should be every photograph's 

 excuse for existence. This world is too 

 great and nature too extensive for you 

 to "take" everything. If we have seemed 

 absurd in using our one-cent lead pencil, 

 to put beautiful words on paper, when 



they collectively mean nothing, then you 

 may know how some of your photo- 

 graphs seem to others, especially to us. 

 \ cii may have done the light writing well 

 with even a dollar camera, but what's 

 the use if the result ' is meaningless? 

 Beauty that suggests nothing, that ex- 

 cites no emotion, that stimulates no 

 nervous thrill to make the pulse leap, has 

 no excuse for being. A realistic picture 

 of a pigpen, if it has a meaning, if it 

 teaches a useful or suggestive lesson, is 

 more valuable than forty photographs 

 filled with mere beauty that is empty and 

 that connotes nothing. 



The Beauty of Bare Branches. 



The tree is always beautiful, but to 

 my mind it becomes more beautiful 

 when it is seen with its branches free 

 from obscuring foliage. To observe a 

 tree to the best advantage, use the de- 



THE BEAUTY OF A "BARE" APPLE TREE. 

 See front cover for photograph of a bare sycamore. 



