AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHY. 
AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHY. 
‘A Bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bag.”? 
RECREATION’S FOURTH ANNUAL COMPETITION. 
RECREATION has conducted 3 amateur pho- 
tographic competitions, all of which have been 
eminently successful. A fourth is now on, 
which it is believed will be far more fruitful 
than either of the others. This one opened 
on January I, ’99, and will close September 
30, 99. 
Following is a list of prizes: 
First prize: A Reflex camera, 5x7, made by 
the Reflex Camera Co., Yonkers, N. Y., with 
Zeiss anastigmat lens, and listed at $80; 
Second prize: A wide angle Wizard camera, 
made by the Manhattan Optical Co., Cresskill, 
N. J., with double swing, size 6% x 8%, and 
listed at $60; 
Third prize. A Korona camera, series 2, 
size 5x7, manufactured by the Gundlach Opti- 
cal Co., Rochester, N. Y., and listed at $27; 
Fourth prize: A split bamboo fly rod, listed 
at $25; 
Fifth prize: Alady’s or gentleman’s hunting 
case gold watch, listed at $20; 
Sixth prize: An Acme Rotary Burnisher, 
made by the Acme Burnisher Co., Fulton, 
N. Y., and listed at $12; 
Seventh prize: A Bristol steel fishing rod, 
made by the Horton Mfg, Co., Bristol, Ct., 
and listed at $8; 
Eighth prize: A Baby Hawkeye Camera, 
made by the Blair Camera Co., Boston, Mass., 
and listed at $6. 
The 10 next best pictures will each be 
awarded one gross Eastman Solio paper, made 
by the Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, N. Y.; 
The 10 next best pictures will each be 
awarded one dozen carbutt plates, made by 
the Carbutt Dry Plate Co., Wayne Junction, 
Philadelphia, Pa.; 
The 10 next best pictures will each be 
awarded a year's subscription to RECREATION. 
Subjects are limited to wild animals, birds, 
fishes, camp scenes, and to figures or groups 
of persons, or domestic animals, representing, 
in a truthful manner, shooting, fishing, ama- 
teur photography, bicycling, sailing, or other 
form of outdoor or indoor sport or recreation. 
Cycling pictures especially desired. Awards 
to be made by 3 judges, none of whom shall 
be competitors. : 
Conditions: Contestants must submit 2 
mounted prints, either silver, bromide, plati- 
hum, or carbon, or Solio, of each subject, 
which shall become the property of RECREA- 
TION. The name and address of the sender 
and title of picture to be plainly written on 
back of each print. Daylight, flashlight, or 
electric light pictures admissible. Prize win- 
ning photographs to be published in RECREA- 
TION, full credit being given in all cases. 
Pictures that have been published else- 
where, or that have been entered in any 
other competition, not available. No entry 
fee charged. 
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Don't let people who pose for you look at the 
camera. Occupy them in some other way. Many 
otherwise fine pictures failed to win in the 
last competition, because the makers did not 
heed this warning. 
Write on back of each print the title thereof; 
your name and address; name of camera, 
lens, and plate used; size of stop and time of 
exposure, 
MY FIRST LESSON IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 
“Well, Jack, old boy, you down here? 
Did you ever see anything like this? Look 
at that row of palms, then over there at 
that orange grove, and this the middle of 
winter. But say, cld fellow, you will have 
no use for those guns and rods. There’s 
neither fishing nor shooting here. There 
is not a game fish in these waters. If you 
only had a camera we might do some- 
thing. Can you get one? Well, then, [ 
would, by all means, right away.” 
My friend was spending the winter on 
the island of St. Croix, in the Danish 
West Indies. He had been troubled with 
one of those coughs that suggest a trip 
to a milder climate or the purchase of a 
headstone, and he had gone to the West 
Indies to escape the latter alternative. He 
had been there 2 months when I, much to 
his surprise, stepped off the steamer. 
My friend’s suggestion about a camera 
seemed to me a good one. But then I 
knew absolutely nothing about photog- 
raphy, so what use could I make of a 
camera? However, I had a friend in New 
York who might loan me one. I asked 
him for it, and for plenty of instructions 
in its use. 
The next steamer brought the camera 
and many books on photography. The 
invoice called for one camera loaded with 
24 backed plates, to be returned when ex- 
posed. I picked up the camera, turned it 
upside down, examined it fore and aft; 
but took particular care not to monkey 
with the attachments, levers, or springs. 
If the thing had been empty I might have 
looked inside it. But as it was loaded 
with 24 backed plates to be returned when 
exposed, I was afraid lest I might ex- 
pose them all in a bunch. There 
were books on “How to Take a Picture,” 
which should have been entitled, “How to 
confuse an amateur.” They explained the 
merits or demerits of various kinds of 
lenses and shutters. I was told a great 
deal about fast plates and slow ones, but 
nothing as to where and when to use eith- 
er. I knew not what shutter or lens the 
camera had, or whether the plates were 
slow-going ones or hustlers. 
In a few days I received from my friend 
the following letter, which taught me 
more than all the books I read: 

