PHOTOGRAPHY 



ii^u»yp!i^ 



Hints for Forming a Club 



Many camera clubs exist in an embryonic 

 slate without knowing it; i.e., they consist of 

 two or three friends who make pretty free of one 

 another's houses and dark-rooms. The pivot 

 round which a small camera club revolves must 

 necessarily be the dark-room. Expert photog- 

 raphers, each blessed with a dark-room of his 

 own, may meet in solemn conclave and debate 

 knotty points of procedure; but your novice 

 thinks less of talk than of action; he wants a 

 place to "mess" in, as unphotographic friends 

 term it. 



From a purely strategic point of view I think 

 that a common dark-room should be on neutral 

 ground. One beginner and his friends hired a 

 room over a barn at 50 cents a week, and fitted 

 it up for themselves; the plumber being called 

 in only to connect it with the water-supply and 

 presumably to install a sink. If the dark-room 

 be in a private house, it is quite possible that 

 objections may be raised to the periodic inva- 

 sion of the premises by a horde of enthusiastic 

 but possibly muddy-booted photographers. 



Every member should, of course, subscribe 

 regularly. The amount must depend largely on 

 the ambitions of the club. It would be only 

 fair, by the bye, that any member who puts 

 apparatus at the disposal of his fellows should 

 write off part of his original subscription. Per- 

 haps the best way to start would, therefore, be 

 this: As soon as the list of members is fairly 

 large, a meeting should be held, and apparatus, 

 such as bottles, dishes, lamps, etc., be offered 

 for the common use (with the proviso that, in 

 the event of the club being dissolved, each item 

 shall be returned to its original owner). If 

 further apparatus be required, a levy should be 

 made all round, those who have given most in 

 "kind" escaping most easily. 



No club is complete without its officials, 

 which can be reduced to two, president and 

 treasurer. These should hold office for a suffi- 

 ciently brief period to give every member a 

 chance of serving in one or other capacity. Of 

 course, you must start off with those evidently 

 best suited for the office, who may set things in 

 good running order. A few reasonable rules 

 should be made and enforced. Among them I 

 would include: The regular tidying-up of the 



dark-room at least once a week; the keeping of 

 dishes and bottles in their proper places (jump 

 on the untidy member); that everybody shall 

 take his turn at the developing tray and not 

 expect more than his due share of anything. 



Every member should supply his own plates 

 and paper. That is obvious enough. But the 

 question of chemicals is not so easily settled. If 

 the members only play fair, there are decided 

 advantages in the use of developers, toners, etc., 

 in common. Waste is reduced to a minimum; 

 and if it be decided to work with one or two 

 standard formulas I think that better results 

 will be gained thus than from the practise of 

 everybody being "on his own." The members 

 should certainly learn to make up their own 

 solutions. If anybody shows a particular bent 

 towards chemistry, he might be deputed the 

 "chemist." 



Field days are of importance to keep a club 

 alive. At intervals, say, once a month, a day 

 should be appointed for a club outing with 

 cameras. 



Developing Platinotype Prints 



One of the most economical ways of doing 

 this is to collect several prints in an empty tray 

 and develop them in a batch, since this will 

 result in a saving of developer and fewer fail- 

 ures, for the rapid transit from the fixing bath 

 to the printing frame, which occurs when each 

 photograph is developed when it is printed, is 

 risky, and often leads to the prints getting 

 finger-marked or splashed. My own plan is to 

 collect some six or eight prints, then to fill a 

 white porcelain dish with the oxalate solution, 

 and develop each print by laying it face down- 

 wards in the bath for a moment, and turning it- 

 face upwards for the completion of develop- 

 ment, and so having time to remove any air 

 bubbles that may have collected. A towel lies 

 on the table on which to dry one's hands before 

 taking up the next print. When the developer 

 in the dish is used up it is then thrown away and 

 not poured back into the bottle; consequently, 

 one always has fresh, clean developer to draw 

 upon. Further than this, the oxalate will 

 develop more prints this way, since the stock 

 solution is not contaminated. Another method 

 is to use two bottles, one full of the potassium 



