AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHY. 



3-3 



AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHY. 



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

 CAMERA NOTES. 



GENE S. PORTER. 



A man signing himself Harry P., Seat- 

 tle, has been occasionally throwing me 

 bouquets, and claiming my camera notes 

 as the inspiration of his photographic 

 ventures. As he has made pictures worthy 

 of favorable mention. I had felt proud and 

 inclined to strut. Now, I have embalmed 

 my peacock feathers in naphthaline and 

 laid them away, for he has gone off after 

 professional gods. In the August number 

 of Recreation he advises the development 

 of amateur plates without previous wash- 

 ing. The careful washing of plates pre- 

 vious to development is one of the founda- 

 tion stones of the temple of my photo- 

 graphic faith. There are waves, streaks, 

 freaks and tear drops on some negatives, 

 due to different chemical combinations of 

 the emulsion. Plates are sometimes rubbed 

 in shipping, or are not securely slipped 

 into their grooves in the holders and be- 

 come so worn in places that they develop 

 a flight of tiny specks of clear glass. Pin 

 holes are due to dirt. This was either on 

 the plate and prevented the light rays from 

 falling on those parts of it in exposure, 

 or it was left on the plate, and prevented 

 the chemicals from acting in development. 

 If you dust and wash your plates thor- 

 oughly in development and still have pin 

 holes, then they were made in exposure. 

 Many amateur pin holes are. The only 

 preventive is cleanliness; the only remedy^ 

 to fill them in. 



I should be pleased to have the Seattle 

 professional explain how water can eat 

 the emulsion on a dry plate into pin holes. 

 Water so contaminated with lead, zinc or 

 iron, from metal pipes, as to affect the 

 nitrate of silver in the emulsion would 

 cause trouble; but pure water, such only 

 as should be used for photographic pur- 

 poses, can have no effect on a dry plate 

 I other than to wet it. If I were a profes- 

 sional photographer, operating in a studio. 

 I should not wash my plates. It would 

 not be necessary. But there is a difference 

 between professional and amateur photo- 

 graphy. A professional dusts his plates, 

 exposes them and developes the same day, 

 without leaving his studio. An amateur 

 loads a box camera, or fills holders for an 

 extension front, never knowing when or 

 under what circumstances he will use them. 

 He carries his camera about with him days 

 and miles, only using it when he fancies 

 he has found a picture. He carries it 

 afoot, awheel, horseback or driving. He 

 may travel in alternating extremes of heat 

 or cold, dust or rain. He may travel miles 



in jolting cars and churning boats. I 

 filled holders at home last summer and 

 exposed all the way to Canada by boat 

 and rail. The last of the lot were ex- 

 posed after 15 miles of driving through a 

 pine thicket where the white sand closed 

 3 to 4 inches deep over the tires at every 

 revolution. Think of the condition those 

 plates were in! If you dust a plate, expose 

 and develop at once, it does not need wash- 

 ing. If you carry it many weary, long miles 

 you can't dust too often, or wash too much. 

 At any rate, you need not be afraid of pure 

 rain water causing pin holes, nor hope to 

 avoid them by not washing. The emulsion 

 surface of a dry plate is composed of so 

 many parts of bromide of potassium, so 

 many of gelatine, : » many of nitrate of 

 silver, and pure water. These are put 

 through the various processes of heating, 

 cooling, washing, and in the end spread 

 on the clear glass and dried. H2O means 

 2 parts hydrogen and one oxygen, which 

 is water. There is water in the emulsion. 

 and water used to wash it; hence the folly 

 of attributing pin holes in the emulsion to 

 water. 



I spent some time in the studio of a 

 professional this spring. I learned one 

 thing and he learned one. I learned that 

 with his $200 lenses, big as saucers, sky- 

 lights, flash lights and other professional 

 paraphernalia, I had only a superficial idea 

 of his work. When I described the miles 

 I traveled for pictures, how I operated 

 from tree tops, telegraph poles, boats, on 

 the ground, in marshes to my arm-pits in 

 water in every conceivable light, and 

 showed him my plates and pictures, he 

 frankly admitted that he did not know 

 how I did it. He said further that he 

 should not know how to time or develop 

 many of them; and he should die of nerv- 

 ous prostration to set a camera and wait 3 

 hours to make an exposure. 



Professional photography is one thing, 

 amateur photography is another. A pro- 

 fessional is no more fitted to dictate to me 

 than I am to him. Are you watching the 

 professional work swing around to ama- 

 teur effects? You can see it more dis- 

 tinctly every day. 



Recreation amateurs working to make 

 pictures suitable for reproduction in the 

 magazine will be delighted with the new 

 Reflex camera, as it is especially designed 

 for moving objects. Many new cameras 

 are advertised; this camera really is new 

 in almost every feature. My Reflex is a 

 subject -for enthusiasm. It lists, if I re- 

 member correctly, at $156, of which $56 

 is camera, and the $100 a splendid Goerz 

 double anastigmat lens. Such a beauty of 

 a lens! It does one good to look at it. 



The camera is a box, taking a 6 l / 2 x 



