AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHY. 



405 



AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHY. 



"A Bird on the plate is worth 2 in the Bag." 

 AND NOW COMES THE 5 th 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 1st, 1900, and close Sep- 

 tember 30th, 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. 



Dorit let people who pose for yon 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. 



PLEASURE AND PROFIT IN LANTERN SLIDES. 



H. G. B. 



As the winter approaches and interest 

 in lanterns and slides is revived it has 

 occurred to me that a few notes of my 

 own experience in this fascinating branch 

 of photographic art may not prove unac- 

 ceptable to some of your readers. Al- 

 though I have interested myself in photog- 

 raphy for about 12 years, it was within the 

 last 3 years that I turned my attention to 

 the making, coloring and exhibiting of 

 lantern slides. It has always been my aim 

 to make the pastime pay for itself. I do 

 not think a man with limited income and 

 a home to keep going is justified in spend- 

 ing money on expensive hobbies without 

 any thought of getting some of his money 

 back again. It must be admitted there 

 is not much chance of doing this in straight 

 photography, but if you take up lantern 

 slide making you may be able to compete 

 with the best professional and not be afraid 



of the results. I have heard the opinion 

 sometimes expressed that a photograph 

 colored is a photograph spoiled, but I 

 never could see the force of it myself. 

 Everything we see around us is colored, 

 and I never heard any one suggest that 

 the aspect of a landscape could be im- 

 proved by looking at it through blue spec- 

 tacles. Therefore, I hold that a man can 

 not consider himself a full fledged slide 

 maker if he is not able to successfully apply 

 the color when occasion requires. An eye 

 for color effect is, of course, essential, 

 but the fact that a person can not paint a 

 picture on paper or canvas need not deter 

 him from making the attempt at coloring 

 transparencies. Many failures, no doubt, 

 may be traced to the lack of proper in- 

 formation as to the colors to be used. My 

 first attempts were made with English 

 photo stains. I found them good, and 

 still use some of them occasionally, 

 except the blue, which proved utterly 

 useless, and as that is so largely used 

 in skies, etc., I had to look around for 

 something else. My next investment was 

 a box of aniline dye colors specially pre- 

 pared for lantern slide painting, and which 

 may be bought from any well equipped 

 stock store. I found those excellent, and 

 the blue works just as well as the other 

 colors. Some people say they are fugi- 

 tive colors, but you will not find much of 

 that nature about them if your brush slips 

 and leaves a dab of color where you do 

 not want it; and that is one of the objec- 

 tions to their use. After you have attained 

 a moderate degree of proficiency in col- 

 oring, which need not take a long time if 

 you have the requisite perception of color 

 values, you might get some of your 

 slides sandwiched in with others at a 

 lantern evening of your local camera 

 club without necessarily disclosing your 

 own identity, quietly listen to the criti- 

 cisms offered, and thus be able to see 

 your work as others see it. If you suc- 

 cessfully pass this ordeal, you may be 

 tempted to call on a few of the photo sup- 

 ply houses or stereopticon outfitters in 

 your city and let them know you are 

 able and willing to undertake the coloring 

 of slides for a proper remuneration. 

 Equipped with the colors already men- 

 tioned, you might get along all right pro- 

 vided nothing but the ordinary gelatine 

 lantern slides were offered to you, but 

 somebody comes along with a set of 

 trade slides. Take them apart and you 

 will find they are made on a thin collo- 

 dion film and then coated with a liberal 

 dose of varnish, on which your photo 

 stains or aniline dyes will act like water on 

 the proverbial duck's back; they are sim- 

 ply useless. True, you may be able to re- 

 move some of the varnish by washing and 



