AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHY. 



163 



The Manhattan Optical Company says 

 twice, others say longer. 



I have not submitted pictures in Recrea- 

 tion photo contest because I have a com- 

 plete outfit and prizes are no inducement 

 to me; because I considered it poor taste 

 for me to do so; and because I am paid 

 for my photographic work. 



All the ampliscopes work satisfactorily 

 or they would not be on the market under 

 Mr. Nehring's guarantee. As to your last 

 proposition, I will quote from Mr. 

 Nehring, whose authority on the subject 

 you will doubtless prefer to mine: 



"The Portrait lens will convert the rec- 

 tilinear lens into a high grade portrait 

 objective with all its softness and flatness 

 of field, throwing the background out of 

 focus and enabling the operator to obtain 

 large heads with even the shortest bellows 

 camera, without any loss of speed." 



G. S. P. 



BAD TASTE IN PHOTOGRAPHY. 



In many photographs reproduced in 

 sportsmen's periodicals, whether of 

 roasted game hogs or trophies of honest 

 sportsmen, there is often a lamentable 

 want of taste. Recreation has set the 

 seal of disapproval on the common prac- 

 tice of a hunter having himself and his 

 game photographed, branding the custom 

 as vulgar. Am inclined to think all sports- 

 men of the true type will not agree with 

 this. Cameras are taken to the woods for 

 many purposes, and nearly all hunters take 

 a pride, which I think is honest, in sending 

 their friends photos of their first big game. 

 In what way is it more vulgar than to have 

 the game mounted and placed in a con- 

 spicuous place in their office or hall? 



Be that as it may, it is unpardonable 

 for sportsmen to hang their bag of grouse 

 on the veranda, string them from post to 

 post, then arrange the shooters close be- 

 side, each with gun ready, and an expect- 

 ant look on his face as if it would be the 

 most natural thing in the world for grouse 

 to go whirring over that veranda. 



Or again, it is the antlered monarch of 

 the waste brought down by a stream of 

 lead and nickel. Here a whole party of 

 sportsmen gather about it. Nearly every 

 rifle is to the shoulder, and their heroic 

 look shows that they expect a charge of 

 cavalry. What sense is there in standing 

 about a dead buck, with rifles acock, as 

 if defying the whole of the L. A. S.? Yet 

 look through any half dozen numbers of 

 any sportsmen's paper and see if this is 

 not common. The moose pictures adver- 

 tising the Savage rifle are not thus. 



Another common fault is the too evi- 

 dent anxiety of each man to show a good 

 side view of his gun. It must not, at any 



hazard, be taken for an old fashioned 

 muzzle loading weapon and must show, if 

 possible, the magazine or breakdown 

 mechanism. 



Perhaps these criticisms have been 

 made before, but if so they have been over- 

 looked by many sportsmen and amateur 

 photgraphers. 



F. A. Good. Woodstock. N. B. 



DEFENDS MR. MOULTHROPE. 



I noticed several articles in both Feb- 

 ruary and March Recreation in regard to 

 a photograph taken by Mr. Moulthorpe 

 and reproduced in December Recreation. 

 I do not know anything about photography 

 nor the conditions under which the photo 

 in question was taken, but what I do know 

 is that if any man gays one can not see 

 rain, sunshine and strong shadows at the 

 same time he is badly mistaken. The next 

 day after getting February Recreation I 

 was caught in a heavy rain and was well 

 soaked, but at the same time the sun was 

 shining brightly and throwing strong 

 shadows. The sky does not necessarily 

 have to be full of clouds, without a break, 

 for it to rain. In the case I mention it 

 was about 10 o'clock a. m., so the sun was 

 well in the East. I would have had to go 

 half a mile West to be directly under 

 the cloud from which the rain came, but a 

 strong West breeze brought the rain to us 

 while the sun shone bright. 



Last week while at Hilo, on the island 

 of Hawaii I saw the same thing. That 

 time it was about the middle of the after- 

 noon, with the sun in the West. The 

 clouds were in the East and an East wind 

 did the business. At that time I called 

 the attention of a friend to the circum- 

 stance, and told him about the criticisms 

 of the photo. He said, "Those fellows 

 would better watch the weather and learn 

 something." 



There is just such a shower going on 

 now while I am writing, and it is the third 

 time I have seen it today. I have seen the 

 same thing in Alaska, and for the benefit 

 of H. M. Lee and C. C. Pierce will say 

 that I lived in Los Angeles county, Cal., 

 14 years and have seen the same thing 

 there more than once. 

 Elbert L. Stevenson, Honolulu, Hawaii. 



RAMBLINGS. 



Mr. Harry Knowles' article in February 

 Recreation contained some good sugges- 

 tions, but in giving the symbols for so- 

 dium phosphate, phosphoric acid and sil- 

 ver chloride he made errors in each. 



According to Witthaus' "Manual of 

 Chemistry" and other standard works on 

 this subject, the symbols are as follows: 



