242 



RECREATION. 



admit, the taking of records to recall a 

 pleasant summer has its excuse, since the 

 practice affords pleasure. But what of the 

 man who, in attempting to win a prize or 

 merely to produce something extra 'fine, 

 shoulders his photographic outfit and takes 

 long trips away from home to secure some 

 quiet bit of landscape? Is he not, after all, 

 wasting precious time, when right at his 

 door there exists material for a more pleas- 

 ing picture? After a long ride and some 

 walking, he finds a field of grain that he 

 fancies, an old farm house, a rustic bridge 

 over a brook, a scene down a lane, and 

 maybe a haystack or 2. Then the light fails 

 and he goes home to develop those things. 

 When they are printed he perhaps finds 

 them so technically good that he enters 

 them in a competition or sends them to an 

 exhibition, and later he wonders why he 

 got no prize or mention, when some prints 

 that were vastly inferior to his in photo- 

 graphic technique won distinction. The 

 fact is that a landscape is not so 

 attractive as a story-telling picture, 

 or one which appeals to the imagina- 

 tion. We generally see all there is in 

 a landscape at one glance, and want 

 nothing more to do with it. It is small 

 credit to the photographer, even if well 

 done, and to command much attention it 

 must be wonderfully well done. A whole 

 album full of such oictures is of little in- 

 terest to anybody, save perhaps the man 

 who took them. Take a look at some other 

 fellow's album of landscapes and you will 

 see the application. Send 20 or 30 of the 

 best landscapes you possess to some compe- 

 tition and see how many you will get back 

 unrecognized ; then send that many of 

 something with story telling significance 

 and see how few come back. 



Suppose the man who went out into the 

 country had stayed at home. As he opened 

 his door he overlooked the fact that a 

 swarthy son of Italy was there grinding an 

 organ and that several little children were 

 dancing gracefully, making in all a most 

 effective grouping and telling a story. For 

 a dime the Italian would have put down 

 his organ and sat beside it on a step, 

 resting, lighting his pipe or counting 

 his gain; and a most excellent model in- 

 deed he would have made, as nearly all his 

 countrymen do. Before our friend left the 

 house he might have taken one of his 

 sisters as she came to meet the postman 

 with a letter she evidently expected, and 

 a little later he could have found her stand- 

 ing beside the window intent on reading 

 it. Though he did not think enough 

 of these^ opportunities to catch a story- 

 telling picture of a remarkably pretty girl, 

 almost any other man would have admired 

 both poses and would have been interested 

 in the pictures. In front of the stable the 

 coachman was examining the teeth of a 



bull terrier he had just acquired, and as he 

 eyed his purchase critically he could have 

 been snapped to excellent advantage. A 

 dark hued Southern mammy sat on the 

 back porch paring potatoes, and many of 

 her unconscious poses were excellent. Then 

 our friend might have gone to the front 

 again and been just in time to get a snap 

 of a pretty girl descending from her car- 

 riage to call on his sister, and standing 

 with one foot on the carriage step 

 giving her driver instructions. After 

 that he could have got a good picture, 

 after the J. G. Brown style, of 2 street 

 gamins fighting, surrounded by a dozen 

 others who were highly excited and in- 

 terested. Shortly afterward he could have 

 snapped a game of craps they indulged in ; 

 and, being through with that, he could have 

 done effective work with any of the crowd 

 as a model. 



This is a small part of what he could 

 have done and secured pictures that would 

 command attention. Charity and pho- 

 tography are alike in one respect : it is well 

 to begin them at home. If one feels that 

 he must have a chance at somebody's $500 

 photographic picture competition, he must 

 not think that if he could only get the 

 mountains of Colorado, the big trees of the 

 Yosemite, the shores of the ocean or a sub- 

 lime view from an elevation he would win. 

 No, indeed; far-away fields look green be- 

 cause they are far away, not because they 

 are better or as good as what we often 

 scorn right at our door. If a good picture 

 of the Garden of Eden were hung in one 

 of the best competitions or exhibitions it 

 wouldn't have a chance against a fair illus- 

 tration of an old song the first lines of 

 which are: 

 "The prettiest gal I ever saw 

 Was sucking cider through a straw," 

 because the large majority of people like 

 story-telling pictures, and don't like pure 

 landscape. 



Have something doing in all the photo- 

 graphs taken, and don't forget that the 

 nearer home this work is done the greater 

 the advantage, for there the artist and his 

 camera will be no new new thing and few 

 poses will be strained or unnatural. 



Anyone who perceives the idea and uses 

 his plates or films on genre work instead 

 of on conventional landscape will soon find 

 where the advantage is, and he will also 

 have the gratification of hearing himself 

 spoken of as one who is artistic and suc- 

 cessful. Remember that the same plate 

 that will take a bit of commonplace woods 

 or a mountain will also take as stirring and 

 admirable picture as the old "Spirit of '76." 

 By your deeds shall you be known. 



RECREATION CIRCUITING ALBUM. 



It has occurred to me that a circulating 

 album would be a good feature for the 



