AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHY. 



HOT WEATHER DEVELOPMENT. 



During the hot months plates and films 

 have a tendency to soften and frill. This 

 may be overcome, altogether, if proper care 

 is taken during development. Have the de- 

 veloper cold, made so by the addition of a 

 lump of ice. Then add ice water, from time 

 to time as the bath becomes too warm. 

 Plenty of ice will prevent any plate, or film, 

 from frilling. 



Then the fixing bath. I use Carbutts, made 

 as follows: dissolve 16 ounces hypo in 48 

 ounces water; 2 ounces sulphite of soda 

 crystals, in 6 ounces water; one dram sul- 

 phuric acid, in 2 ounces water; 1 ounce 

 chrome alum in 8 ounces water. 



Mix sulphuric acid *with the sulphuric so- 

 lution; add it to the hypo solution and 

 then add the chrome alum. Label this 

 " stock solution." For use take 8 ounces 

 stock, 8 ounces water and 3 ounces hypo 

 crystals. 



This may be used repeatedly, strengthen- 

 ing occasionally by adding a few lumps of 

 hypo as it becomes weak and fixes too slow. 

 This' bath hardens the film and yields a 

 good, clear negative. 



In handling films I always develope sev- 

 eral at a time, face down to avoid scratch- 

 ing. When taken from the final washing I 

 place them in water 2> 2 ounces, glycerine 

 1 ounce, for 5 minutes. Then hang or pin 

 up to dry, without further washing. This 

 makes them stay flat, which, in turn, makes 

 them easy to handle. Make up the hypo 

 bath just before you begin developing, us- 

 ing cold water. The rapid dissolving of the 

 hypo reduces the temperature still further, 

 which is the main point in warm weather. 



Let the films, which have been soaked in 

 glycerine, hang several days. It takes some 

 time to dry them, owing to the slowness 

 with which glycerine evaporates. I neg- 

 lected to do this and had a large number 

 stick together. They also stuck to the 

 paper, during printing, by a few small drops 

 which I did not notice until it was brought 

 to my attention, forcibly, by the paper ad- 

 hering to and destroying the plate, for fut- 

 ure use. Make haste slowly. It don't pay 

 to rush work, in photography. 



HER CONTRIBUTION TO THE BOOK. 



The " Detroit Free Press " tells this 

 story " : 



Gentlemen — A letter from you ad- 

 dressed to my husband has come to hand. 

 You ask him to write an article for your 

 " Photographic Annual " that is to be pub- 

 lished next year; and you put in some 

 taffy about his being a well-known ama- 

 teur, and some stuff about what he writes 



being of interest, and that sort of thing. 

 My husband is now on a photographing 

 tour, as he calls it, and of course I open all 

 his letters. It is not likely he will be back 

 in time to write the article you wish. When 

 he goes off with that confounded camera 

 of his you never know when he will come 

 home. So I am very pleased to give you a 

 woman's view of amateur photography, 

 and you can print it in your " Annual " if 

 you like. 



My unfortunate husband was stricken 

 with the amateur photographic plague 

 about 3 years ago. Up to that time I al- 

 ways considered him reasonably sane. I 

 made no objection, at the time, to his join- 

 ing the army of photographic cranks, be- 

 cause, you see, I knew nothing of the sub- 

 ject. I have done everything I could, since 

 that time, but, although he has quit smok- 

 ing at my request, he refuses to give up the 

 camera habit. At the time he began this 

 so-called recreation my house, or perhaps 

 I should say our house, was one of the neat- 

 est in the neighborhood. You ought to go 

 through it now. My carpets have been 

 ruined with the abominable chemicals he 

 uses. I don't pretend to know their names, 

 but I know the effect they have. Then the 

 bath-room is something frightful to behold. 

 He uses that for what he calls his dark- 

 room, and has contrivances for shutting out 

 the light. 



I noticed that in one of the books you 

 sent him, Daguerre was the inventor of 

 photography. He may have been the in- 

 ventor of photography, but I think it was 

 another sulphurous gentleman, with the 

 same initial, who was the inventor of ama- 

 teur photography. 



My husband was reasonably good-tem- 

 pered until he took up your diabolical art. 

 I one time opened the door of the room in 

 which he was working. It was all dark in- 

 side except a fearful red lamp, which threw 

 a ruddy glow on his face and made him 

 look as if he were going to have an epilep- 

 tic fit. The moment I opened the door 

 that man went perfectly crazy. He said I 

 had spoiled a dozen of his plates, although 

 I had touched nothing, and I came near 

 suing for a divorce because of his awful re- 

 marks. If the evil one was not the inventor 

 of amateur photography, then I should like 

 to know who was. 



The pictures my husband does turn oat 

 are perfectly awful. He has tried, at dif- 

 ferent times, to photograph the child' en; 

 but the poor little dears looked like wooden 

 images, in the pictures. I went into the 

 bath-room once, with the baby, and put 

 him in the bath-tub. There was some 

 water there already, and it looked clear 

 enough, but in it was some horrible solu- 

 tion of silver that turned most of the baby 



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