AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHY. 



323 



AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHY. 



" A Bird on the plate is worth 2 in the bag" 

 AND NOW COMES THE sth COMPETITION 

 Recreation has conducted 4 amateur 

 photographic competitions, all of which 

 have been eminently successful. A fifth 

 will be held, which, it is believed, will be 

 far more fruitful than any of the others. 

 It will open April 1, 1900, and close Sep- 

 tember 30, 1900. 



List of prizes to be announced later. 

 Subjects are limited to wild animals, 

 birds, fishes, camp scenes, and to figures 

 or groups of persons, or other animals, 

 representing, in a truthful manner, shoot- 

 ing, fishing, amateur photography, bicy- 

 cling, sailing, or other form of outdoor or 

 indoor sport or recreation. Awards to be 

 made by 3 judges, none of whom shall be 

 competitors. 



Conditions: Contestants must submit 2 

 mounted prints, either silver, bromide, 

 platinum or carbon, of each subject, which, 

 as well as the negative, shall become the 

 property of Recreation. 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 pic- 

 tures admissible. Prize winning photo- 

 graphs to be published in Recreation, 

 full credit being given in all cases. 



Any number of subjects may be sub- 

 mitted. 



Pictures that may have been published 

 elsewhere, or that may have been entered 

 in any other competition, not available. No 

 entry fee charged. 



Don't let people who pose for you look at the 

 camera. Occupy them in some other way. 

 Many otherwise fine pictures have failed 

 to win in the former competitions because 

 the makers did not heed this warning. 



CAMERA NOTES. 



GENE S. PORTER. 



They came to me in a beautiful little 

 leather case, nested in violet velvet, la- 

 belled "Ampliscopes." 



"Jewels?" questioned a friend. Aye, 

 jewels indeed! Perfect discs of optical 

 glass, cut and ground to the various shapes 

 required of them to produce the desired ef- 

 fect; and intended, as the derivation im- 

 plies, to enlarge the view. There are 5 

 lenses in the set, and they are all to be 

 used with the extension front, double lens, 

 cameras or kodaks, in precisely the same 

 way. Unscrew the back lens, insert the 

 lens wanted next the diaphragm, replace 

 the back lens, and proceed according to 

 instructions sent with each set. No. 1 is a 

 copying and enlarging lens. It produces 

 natural size at 100 feet and enlarges to the 

 extent the bellows is extended beyond 

 that. No. 2 is a wide angle lens. This 



shortens the focus and, consequently, gives 

 a wider angle than could be secured with- 

 out it. No. 3 is a portrait lens. This also 

 reduces the focus of the lens in the camera, 

 and will produce an effect equal to the 

 best portrait lens of its size made. No. 4 

 is a telephoto lens. This combination pro- 

 duces great results. It is guaranteed to 

 lengthen the focus from 8 to 10 inches and 

 to magnify slightly. Many times last sum- 

 mer an 8-inch additional length of focus 

 would have been worth 3 times the price 

 of the entire set to me. No. 5 is an or- 

 throchromatic ray screen. This I have not 

 tested, but it is recommended to correct 

 the lens for the yellow picture taking rays 

 and produce cloud and shade effects supe- 

 rior to those obtained with any similar ap- 

 pliance. 



As I quoted from George W. Wallace in 

 December Recreation, "Be careful not to, 

 expect one lens to do everything. For * 

 varied work there must be a variety of 

 lenses." This set of ampliscopes fills just 

 this want of the amateur. 



A picture is not all in the camera and the 

 plates. The photographer cuts some 

 figure. The successful photographer some- 

 times travels miles, 2 or 3 times over, to 

 visit the same spot under several different 

 lightings; studies every phase of it dili- 

 gently; photographs it from 2 or 3 dif- 

 ferent points; carefully carries the plates 

 home, and, in the solitude and blackness 

 of the work room, with skill compounds 

 chemicals that took hours of labor to pre- 

 pare; dusts and washes his plates; stands 

 over the developer brush in hand, stop- 

 ping back clouds, bringing out foreground, 

 working almost breathlessly, with skill and 

 infinite patience, to produce the result he 

 is striving for. Then he washes, fixes and 

 once more washes, hunting for a draught 

 and the warmest possible place to dry, to 

 add a touch more of brilliancy to his plate; 

 polishes the back to a cut glass polish; 

 prints carefully on the finest makes of 

 paper, to different degrees of depth; then 

 once more compounds chemicals, washing, 

 toning and fixing, using to the last ex- 

 treme care, even in the mounting and dry- 

 ing. Think of the art in selecting and the 

 skill in exposing; the chemical exactitude 

 and the careful work; all the stages in de- 

 veloping and toning when one must decide 

 in a flash, or all that has gone before, or is 

 to follow, is useless. Then in your hour 

 of triumph, when your publisher says "ex- 

 cellent" and your check comes in, to have 

 someone who ought to have common in- 

 telligence, glance at your- picture and say 

 patronizingly, "Had pretty good luck that 

 time, hadn't you!" If, after I have planned 

 a picture some day, and worked like that 

 to evolve it, some fiend says this thing to 

 me and I rise up and slay him, it will not 



