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WINTER PHOTOGRAPHY. 



What I might term real winter photo- 

 graphs, those which we, near the middle 

 coast states, are wont to take every winter 

 with visions of harboring them up for the 

 following dog days when even a look at a 

 snow photograph helps to cool us off a 

 trifle — real winter photographs have been so 

 scarce that it has hardly been worth while 

 this season to write about that particular 

 branch of photography. But, do you know, 

 that with the coming of March, some of the 

 best landscape pictures of the year can be 

 taken ? 



In early spring, curiously enough, we 

 get the best clouds in the skies and given 

 a good cloud negative, even the poorest kind 

 of a landscape picture takes on a new beauty 

 and leaves the other picture, which may be 

 ever so good in the foreground, but quite 

 white, or bald-headed as it is called, in the 

 sky part, far, far behind. Therefore, get out 

 your camera at an early date, and try your 

 skill at out-of-door scenes with a large pro- 

 portion of sky, so that you can use the sky 

 portion with other skyless negatives when 

 necessary. Unless you use a ray-screen (one 

 of those little yellow glass fittings that go 

 over the front of the lens) you will find it 

 difficult to get your foreground without over- 

 exposing the sky part, or if you try only 

 for the sky part, your foreground will be 

 woefully undeveloped. There is a shutter 

 now made called a sky-shade shutter, which 

 can be set as desired, and gives the sky a 

 rapid exposure, slowing down for the land- 

 scape part. I have not had a chance to try 

 it myself yet, but the idea is a good one. 



BOOKS FOR BEGINNERS. 

 I am frequently asked what books I would 

 recommend to the beginner, books that 

 would give a thorough working knowledge 

 of handling the camera, exposure, develop- 

 ment, and the easier forms of printing. The 

 number of books published make it rather 

 hard for the beginner to choose, and the fact 

 that supply dealers generally do not think 

 it worth while to stock photographic books 

 or periodicals of any kind makes the matter 

 still more difficult. Dealers are very short- 

 sighted in this respect, for if they could in 

 any way assist the beginner to get better 

 results he would not so soon become dis- 

 couraged and would, in all probability, spend 



a greater part of his income in more supplies. 

 For the very beginner, the man who has 

 just bought a camera and really does not 

 understand the least about it, I can recom- 

 mend Clute's A B C of Photography. This 

 little book, which only costs 25 cents, is a 

 thoroughly satisfactory introduction to ama- 

 teur photography, is interestingly written, 

 devoid of a lot of technical terms, concise 

 and up-to-date. The Eastman Company pub- 

 lish a very handsome book at a dollar which 

 completely covers the ground of film work, 

 with several articles on pictorial photography 

 and other matters written by some of our 

 more widely known amateurs. This, too, can 

 be thoroughly recommended. Todd's First 

 and Second steps at 25 and 50 cents are 

 good books, but not so good, in my opinion, 

 as Clute's. The earlier numbers of the 

 "Photo-Miniature," published at 25 cents 

 each, are each devoted to one phase of pho- 

 tography and possibly cover the ground 

 better and more comprehensively than any- 

 thing else. A full list of these little hand- 

 books can be gotten from any dealer. The 

 great mistake the beginner makes is in be- 

 lieving that the photographic magazines, of 

 which there are any number, are too ad- 

 vanced for him. The beginner should sub- 

 scribe to one or more of them. If he is in 

 doubt which to choose, it is easy enough to 

 obtain sample copies from the various pub- 

 lishers and to compare them as to his re- 

 quirements. 



FLOWER PHOTOGRAPHY. 



A reader asks us to give some advice re- 

 garding the use of a filter for botanical work 

 under a glass roof. We most certainly 

 recommend the use of a little yellow screen 

 for all flower work, but, of course, this 

 should not be used, to get its best results, 

 without orthochromatic plates. The increase 

 of exposure necessitated by the use of a 

 screen is hard to estimate, for the various 

 kinds of liquid and single glass screens differ 

 in depth of color and require varying expo- 

 sures, and while our correspondent, states 

 the time of day at which he proposes to make 

 the exposures, he does not give the time of 

 year. We suggest that this correspondent 

 invest in a Wynne meter. It is a slight ex- 

 pense that will very soon pay for itself and 

 pay also big dividends in the saving of spoilt 

 plates and wasted time. Provided with a 

 meter, the time of exposure can be most 



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