AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHY. 



239 



AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHY. 



RECREATION'S FOURTH ANNUAL COMPETI- 

 TION. 



Recreation has conducted 3 amateur 

 photographic competitions, all of which 

 have been eminently successful. A fourth 

 will be held, which it is believed will be far 

 more fruitful than either of the others. This 

 one opened on January 1, '99, and will close 

 September 30, '90. 



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 domestic animals, 

 representing, in a truthful manner, shoot- 

 ing, fishing, amateur photography, bicy- 

 cling, 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, 

 platinum, or carbon, of each subject, which 

 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 elec- 

 tric light pictures admissible. Prize winning 

 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. 



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. 



HOME PHOTOGRAPHY. 



JOHN HLFFNAGLE. 



It is always best to buy what you want, 

 when practicable, from those whose busi- 

 ness it is to supply such goods. It is inter- 

 esting to experiment, but let this be done 

 either from necessity, or in cases where 

 time and money are no object. To any one 

 about to take up photography the first 

 desideratum is a dark room. By this I 

 mean a room from which the tiniest ray of 

 light is rigorously excluded. I remember 

 the many makeshifts I was compelled to 

 use in my early attempts, the boxes of 

 fogged plates, the stained closet floor, dan- 

 ger of fire, etc. Here is a plan for a dark 

 room that can be made by any one who can 

 handle tools. It can be made cheaply of 

 various kinds of lumber, but remember that 

 neatness is an important element in the out- 

 fit of the amateur. This dark room is for 

 stationary use. For a dark room for travel- 

 ing purposes see advertisement in this issue 

 of Recreation. 



Make your room, or closet, 6 feet high 

 by 3 feet square, with a flat roof projecting 



say 10 inches all around, nailing a piece of 

 moulding just underneath. Get half-inch 

 beaded and grooved pine ceiling, 3 inches 

 wide. Get the boards 12 feet long and saw 

 them in 2. Then get some 14 foot boards 

 and cut them in pieces for your roof. Also, 

 some pieces of stuff to make 3 frames on 

 which to nail the sides and top. Make your 

 house or closet; then cut out your door, 

 cleat it, and screw on hinges and buttons. 

 Cut a square hole, say 6 x 8 or 8 x 10 inches 

 in one side, at such a height as to suit 

 your convenience. Nail a shelf one foot 

 wide and reaching all the way across inside 

 of closet, just below the window. Then 

 cut a hole 6 or 8 inches square in the shelf 

 under your window and nail a pan under 

 this opening. Having a half inch tin pipe 

 soldered to a hole in its bottom and con- 

 necting with a rubber tube and bucket. 

 Next bore a small hole in the roof of your 

 closet (I am writing for those who have not 

 running water) ; procure a bucket, bore a 

 small hole in the bottom and fasten in it a 

 rubber tube. Pass the tube from the bucket 

 resting on top of your closet through the 

 small aperture in roof and have the tube 

 come down just over your sink or pan on 

 shelf. Fasten a spring clothes pin to the 

 end of the tube and you have your water 

 supply. 



You can add shelves inside of room as 

 you need them. To ventilate the closet 

 fasten on the roof a pipe in form of a long 

 elbow, attaching it to an opening at least 

 3 inches in diameter, if not more. At one 

 side of the floor, which should be made of 

 boards heavier than sides and top, attach 

 to an aperture of similar dimensions as 

 above in roof, an elbow of stove pipe 

 formed so as to allow the ingress of air, 

 but to obstruct all light from entering 

 closet. The same precaution must be used 

 in making the ventilating pipe at top of 

 closet. Now enter your room, close the 

 doors, and examine for the smallest ray of 

 white light. If any putty up the cracks. 

 Have the door well cleated inside and out- 

 side. You can easily fit in a glass of proper 

 non-actinic properties in your window. 



THE EYE A NATURAL CAMERA. 



The great globular chamber of the eye is 

 lined with a thick, strong, white membrane 

 known as the sclerotic coat, popularly 

 known as the white of the eye. Within, this 

 globular chamber is lined with a most deli- 

 cate complex of blood vessels, covered 

 toward the interior of the eye by a black 

 pigment. A transparent jelly, clear as water, 

 fills the apple of the eye. The lens of the 

 camera is represented, first, by a convex, 

 horny window pane (the cornea) which lies 

 in front of the sclerotic coat much like a 

 watch glass in front of its metal case. This 

 kind of union, together with the slight out- 

 ward pressure of the contents of the eye and 



