50 THE WOMBAT. 



he takes the cap off a camera that is already filled with a 

 sensitive plate. For some few throbbing seconds the sitter 

 keeps as nearly steady as possible while the light of the form 

 strikes itself on the sensitive film. The operator puts on the 

 cap at such time as his judgment decides. The plate is 

 handed to an assistant who develops it, it is then passed on to 

 a re-toucher. Then a printer places sensitive paper beneath 

 it to receive an impression. This again is toned and fixed, 

 " spotted," and sent to the client — surely all this is the work 

 of the hand only. Great attention must be paid to the 

 arrangement of the sitter and accessories, and it is here we 

 note that the photographer must be an artist before such 

 pictures can be produced that we hope to see in the future. 



The lens is master of the situation, it cannot be used as a 

 brush or knife to carry out an idea or correct a fault. A 

 movement of the eyelid, a jerk of the little finger are 

 remorselessly commented upon and turned into utter 

 nonsense by the lens, and it is powerless to remedy them or 

 atone for them at all. The whole ordeal must be gone 

 through again. Though I maintain that the photographer 

 while photographing can never bring into play the qualities 

 necessary for the painter or draughtsman, yet I would 

 strongly advise every taker of portraits by this method being 

 an artist. 



It is in grouped humanity the photograph fails most 

 signally. Either the attempt to arrange the figures artistically 

 is feeble, or the frank ignorance displayed when they are 

 ordered like ninepins, is revolting. The photographer can 

 gain and apply knowledge akin to the painter's, in arranging 

 and bringing together the materials of his subject. The more 

 of the artist he is, the more he will see the necessity for coun- 

 teracting the known defects of the lens. I know of a very 

 successful photographer who makes charcoal drawings of the 

 possible arrangements that might be carried out where half-a- 

 dozen people or more are to be represented together ; with 

 that before him the result is usually successful, for his mind 

 is free to attend to the mere mechanical considerations, he 

 having his sitters arranged nearly as they had been designed 



JOHN BUCHANAN, 



Sail, Tent, Tilt, and Tarpaulin Maker, 



MOORABOOL ST., GEELOUG. 



THE OLD SHOP. 



