AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHY. 



413 



view, or subject, is shown on the screen 

 correctly as to right and left handedness. 



1 lie American system of marking lantern 

 slides is to attach one disc, known as a 

 thumb label, at the lower left corner. 



'FOCUSING BY MEASUREMENT. 



I have read your account of photograph- 

 ing in the Canadian Rockies, with much 

 interest, partly because you used an East- 

 man kodak and their developing machine. 

 I have watched Recreation closely to see 

 if the different amateurs were using 

 these machines much. I am thinking of 

 buying a 3A folding pocket kodak as the 

 size and shape seem about what I want. 

 The one doubt in my mind is about the 

 focusing. Of course with a roll of film 

 in the machine one must needs go by the 

 scale and unless he knows the distance ex- 

 actly it looks to me as if some of the ob- 

 jects would be blurred. 



Some of your pictures look as if they 

 were taken at a distance of 20 or 25 feet, 

 in which case did you measure the ground 

 or simply make a mental calculation? I 

 want a camera of good capacity but com- 

 pact and not requiring the carrying 

 around of a whole workshop. The 3A 

 seems all of this provided the focusing 

 is sure fire. 



Is there some kind of printing out or 

 developing paper that will give good black 

 and white effects that is easy to work and 

 that does not require a drug store of 

 chemicals for its manipulation? I read 

 about Velox and the work and apparatus 

 necessary to secure results would frighten 

 a wooden photographer. Some say Cyco 

 is good, but the next issue will contain a 

 complaint from some poor brother who 

 has trouble with it, blistering, etc. I have 

 grown tired of trying to make a permanent 

 print in Solio. Does the Eastman water 

 developing platinum give permanent re- 

 sults? Why can we not have a good paper 

 giving black and white effects with no 

 more work than blue print? 



Frank G. Smith, Chico, Cal. 



ANSWER. 



A good many of my photos, of small 

 objects, were made at distances of 2 to 

 7 feet ; others at 12 feet and still others 

 at varying distances up to 70 or 80 feet. 

 In photographing any object at 7 to 12 feet 

 from the camera I measure the distance 

 carefully with a tape line. If the distance 

 is 12 feet, I step it. At these short dis- 

 tances it is necessary that the exact dis- 

 tance be known, but when working on ob- 

 jects more than 12 feet from the camera a 

 variation of a foot or 2 in the distance is 

 not material. It is only necessary to stop 

 the lens down to 64, or better s+ill to 128, 

 and then give long time in order to get 

 sharp definition, even if there be a slight 



variation in the distance as marked on the 

 scale. Of course, you understand that 

 when working on objects more than 100 

 feet away everything is in focus. 



I have no trouble in getting as good re- 

 sults as I deserve on the various kinds 

 of Eastman paper. There are other good 

 ones in the market, but 1 do not have 

 time to study and experiment with the 

 processes for working all of them. Editor 



SAVEE), HIS OWN NEGATIVES. 



I often notice in Recreation, "Do your 

 own developing." I endorse this, and my 

 experience on several occasions justifies 

 me. Last September I had the pleasure 

 of a trip through the cotton fields of South- 

 eastern Missouri, remaining with friends 

 at one place several days. While there I 

 took a snapshot of 3 little girls at a pump. 

 The negative was undertimed. I had the 

 same misfortune with one or 2 others, 

 among them, one of the steamer Stacker Lee 

 landing at a river town. On my return 

 home I went to my friend, the professional 

 photographer, to have him develop my 

 plates. I had about 2 dozen. Among the 

 first to be developed was that of the steamer, 

 which he pronounced no good, though 1 

 have since come to the conclusion that the 

 negative could have been saved. I am now 

 glad that other business prevented his de- 

 veloping any more that day. 



The next morning when I arrived he 

 was just ready to develop a bunch of plates 

 taken with great pains by some boys of 

 the town at a National Guard encampment. 

 They could not be reproduced or taken 

 again under any circumstances. Several 

 were excellent, except that they had small 

 light stains. These negatives were also 

 destroyed. When I asked him if those could 

 not have been saved or made fit for print- 

 ing, he answered, "Yes, but I haven't time 

 to monkey with them." I then offered 

 some of mine to be developed. The one 

 of the 3 girls at the pump, he said was no 

 good. I took it from him, and after exam- 

 ining it, asked him to finish it, but he said 

 it would never print. After a while I 

 persuaded him to fix it. I have it now 

 and, thanks to the hints given in Recrea- 

 tion, I have intensified it and would not 

 willingly part with it. In fact, it did print 

 a fair picture before intensification. If 

 I had not been there to prevent it, my neg- 

 ative would have suffered the same fate as 

 many others he developed. 



On the same trip I landed in St. Louis, 

 Mo., where at one of the principal stores 

 dealing in photographic supplies, I bought 

 some plates. While there I heard a healed 

 discussion regarding about 200 films. r.{ 

 good sizes. One of the gentlemen, notic- 

 ing that I had a camera, showed me some 

 of the films ; in fact, I spent nearly an hour 

 examining them. They were views of 



