406 



RECREATION. 



cal condition, unlimited patience, and plen- 

 ty of time. You must be able to climb, 

 wade, or swim; to bake in the sun, or shiv- 

 er in a gully; to keep your head level in 

 a tree top or a rocking boat; to walk miles 

 and carry loads like a pack horse. All 

 this aside from your ability to catch your 

 subject at its best pictorial aspect, and the 

 outcome of your plates afterward. 1 know 

 of no harder labor; but it is ecstacy, when 

 you risk your life for a plate, to have it 

 come out even better than you had hoped! 

 If you have a private opinion that it is 

 easy, read Frederic Irland's article, "In the 

 Gamelands Our Father's Lost," in the 

 September number of Scribner's Magazine. 

 He traveled hundreds of miles, spent hun- 

 dreds of dollars, and made a splendid 

 physical effort. He has written entertain- 

 ingly, and his article is copiously illus- 

 trated — with pictures of trails, mountains, 

 pack horses^ dead game, and mounted 

 specimens. There is not one live wild ani- 

 mal picture in it! An article by Clarkson 

 Peters in the September issue of the Met- 

 ropolitan is illustrated by pictures extreme- 

 ly suggestive of zoological gardens. After 

 describing the wildness and sensitiveness 

 of a horned owl and going into detail as to 

 the difficulty of securing a picture of one 

 in its dark and woody lair, Mr. Peters 

 gives an illustration of a horned owl sit- 

 ting in broad light on a horizontal pole 

 the thickness of a broomstick, between 2 

 bushes, without a vestige of the tree or 

 bush of which it could be a part in sight. 

 The picture is funny to one who knows the 

 woods. 



I am constantly being asked what causes 

 the numerous little defects in plates, small, 

 yet the ruination of a good picture. Some 

 of them are with the plate makers, and 

 more of them are with the plate users. It 

 is hard to account for fog. Usually it is 

 caused by white light being admitted by 

 the operator at some stage of his work. 

 It may come from long over exposure, 

 grease in the emulsion, plates having been 

 kept long in a damp place, or having been 

 wrapped in tinfoil or some colored paper. 

 Tear drops are caused by the uneven dry- 

 ing of plates, and can be avoided by lightly 

 swabbing the surface of the negative after 

 the last wash with a tuft of absorbent cot- 

 ton, or going lightly over it with a rub- 

 ber roller. A few seconds' immersion in 

 an alcohol bath, after the last washing 

 causes a plate to dry quickly and evenly, 

 and adds a little to its density and snap; 

 but it has a tendency to make the negative 

 brittle and to cause cracks. If you have 

 the ill luck to drop water on the face of a 

 negative, do not try to wipe it off, or doc- 

 tor the spot. Immerse the whole plate in 

 water a few seconds, and dry as at first. 

 Pinholes are due to dust specks. Dust 



your plate well before exposing, and wash 

 well before developing, especially plates 

 that you have carried far in field work. 

 Frilling, if caused by the manufacturers, is 

 due to grease in the gelatine, over cooked 

 emulsion, or dirty glass. If caused by the 

 amateur, it is generally due to hot weather, 

 warm chemicals, too much alkali in pyro 

 developer, or too strong or too weak fix- 

 ing bath. About one to 5 is the right 

 proportion for hypo. An alum bath is the 

 best preventive of frilling. The plates 

 should be developed as usual and then im- 

 mersed a few minutes in a 3 to 5 per cent, 

 solution of chrome alum. Ranald Doug- 

 las suggests running a stick of paraffine 

 around the edge of a plate before develop- 

 ment to prevent frilling. That keeps the 

 developer from getting under the emul- 

 sion. He recommends the alum bath after 

 developing, and advises the use of alcohol 

 on plates that have a tendency to frill. 

 Chardon recommends, for frilling, soaking 

 the plates in alcohol before developing, 

 and using the alum after. In extreme 

 cases of frilling, and where the plate is 

 valuable, he advises the use of double the 

 amount of pyro, and compounding the de- 

 veloper with l / 2 water and the other half 

 alcohol. For amateurs, I advise the sep- 

 arate baths and the usual developer, just 

 a little weak in alkali. 



In making prints to be reproduced in 

 Recreation, do your best on them. We 

 all want Recreation to be second to none 

 in every respect; and with a camera de- 

 partment that is steadily growing in de- 

 mand all over the country, we should take 

 especial pride in our photographic illus- 

 trations. The only photos desired for 

 Recreation are those which show hunt- 

 ing, shooting, fishing or cycling subjects, 

 live wild birds or game, or sport. For 

 these, the greatest possible skill and the 

 finest lenses are required, especially as 

 nearly all such photos must be snap shots. 

 Unless you are snapping with a $100 lens^ 

 don't cut off the photos with 1-100 to 

 1-1000 of a second. With common cam- 

 eras costing, say, up to $50, many snaps 

 are made that would be much improved 

 by having a fraction of a second more 

 time. If it isn't a bird on the wing or a 

 lightning express, try a 25th or a 50th of 

 a second, and see if your image is not just 

 as sharp and your whole picture 50 per 

 cent, better. Then weaken your normal 

 developer J / 2 , add* 2 or 3 drops of 

 10 per cent, bromide solution, and take 

 your time. It may take l / 2 an hour or 

 longer to coax out your image, but what 

 matter? It is for Recreation, and the 

 end justifies the means. Surely if Mr. 

 Shields can afford to spend hours of pre- 

 cious time and dollars by the hundred 

 to protect the birds and the game, enrich- 



