PHOTOGRAPHY 



56i 



margins, and a line from the poem written 

 below each picture in blue ink. The cover is 

 of Whatman's water-color paper sensitized 

 and printed to a rich tone of blue under a 

 tracing of the cover design on thin paper. 

 This brings the lettering out in pure white, 

 but by giving the entire sheet a short expos- 

 ure after the tracing is removed any combi- 

 nation of light and dark blues can be had. 

 Tie in the leaves with blue and white cord 

 twisted together. 



Blue prints can be toned to so many shades 

 that almost any color scheme can be worked 

 out on these lines, but I prefer the rich, nat- 

 ural blue tones to any of the freaky changes. 



The albums I have made for real use and 

 hard service were constructed* in quite a dif- 

 ferent manner from the pretty but perishable 

 ones I have been describing, and, while the 

 expense for materials is no greater, they re- 

 quire considerable more time, patience and 

 skill. 



The one that seems most popular is made 

 from a long strip of heavy drawing paper 

 folded back and forth upon itself, with the 

 covers in separate halves and attached to the 

 ends of the strip. This book opens on both 

 front and back and will hold a surprising 

 quantity of prints. The drawing paper can 

 be had in many tints and in several weights 

 and surfaces ; select one having both sides 

 nearly alike and heavy enough to avoid buck- 

 ling when the prints are pasted in. Heavy- 

 weight ingrain wall-paper answers well and 

 comes in some beautiful soft colors, but it 

 does not take the ink so well in lettering. 

 By all means give the rough or deckle edge to 

 these papers when getting the strip of proper 

 width. Unless there are several prints 

 grouped on a page, I draw a fairly heavy black 

 line about one-fourth inch from the edge of 

 the prints, sometimes entirely surrounding it 

 and perhaps crossing at the corners, again a 

 bare suggestion at one or two corners only. 

 This serves to frame the print and adds great- 

 ly to the general effect. With India ink I 

 print in some title that will make the picture 

 as suggestive as possible of all the fun that 

 may have happened on the occasion when it 

 was taken. 



One collection of choice Green Mountain 

 scenery was mounted on paper of a warm 

 buff tint, the border lines in deep green, and 

 the covers made from dark green bookbind- 

 er's leather lettered in gold ink. 



The .one I like best of all, and which cer- 

 tainly seemed to give the most pleasure, 

 might not be considered an artistic creation, 

 for it is only a collection of about seventy of 

 the places and faces familiar to the boyhood 

 of a young friend of mine. All are there, 

 from the deserted and decaying house where 

 he was born, to a portrait which includes his 

 dog and gun, and taken on the very last day 

 he spent among these never-to-be-forgotten 

 scenes. Pictures of the "swimmin' hole," the 



old sawmill, the October cornfield with long 

 ranks of "stooks" and dotted with pumpkins, 

 not all unlovely pictures by any means, even 

 to a stranger's eye. Perhaps only we whose 

 boyhood vanished before the days of kodaks 

 can tell just how much such a chapter out of 

 one's early years will be valued later on in 

 life. 



E. R. Plaisted. 



LOADING PLATEHOLDEES 



Editor Recreation : 



Permit me to venture a few words on a 

 photographic subject discussed in the Octo- 

 ber issue : "Loading plates in darkness." 

 This is often very necessary, as stated, and 

 the method of loading plateholders is safe if 

 followed with the utmost care. While it is 

 true that plate-makers pack plates face to 

 face, it does not follow that the operator al- 

 ways uses plates in pairs ; in fact, the opposite 

 seems true — they are used singly and if a man 

 uses three or four kinds of plates extra fast 

 for portrait and quick work, Iso or Ortho 

 for color work and slow for general work, 

 he would need a book to keep tab on whether 

 the next plate was face-up or back-up. Most 

 everybody tries to keep loaded full up in case 

 of emergency or short notice, so one could 

 not very well keep loading in pairs. 



My way of loading is to lightly touch or 

 feel one corner of the plate. Holding the 

 plate by the edges in the left hand, I touch 

 the corner with the thumb on one side and 

 the forefinger on the other, and in case of 

 doubt move both slightly and lightly. Be- 

 sides a difference in temperature, the glass 

 side being colder, there is a great difference 

 in adhesion — the glass side seems to stick, 

 while the emulsion has a velvety feel so much 

 different that one or two trials will convince 

 you of the value of this way. Of course, the 

 hands should not be sweaty or wet while 

 loading. There is but little danger of injur- 

 ing the film by this method, as dozens of 

 plates in my possession testify, and my hands 

 are those of a machinist accustomed to hand- 

 ling castings and forgings. 



Let me mention the developer also : For 

 instantaneous and snapshot work I have used 

 the following formula with the best of suc- 

 cess. It is strong in the sodas, so no more 

 should be used ; for extremely under-exposed 

 plates fresh developer with two or three more 

 grains of reducer, especially metol, will bring 

 up everything possible; but no developer will 

 bring out of the plate that which was never 

 put on it. That is the limitation of matter. 

 The formula follows : 



Water 8 oz. 



Hydroquinone 15 gr. 



Metol 11 gr. 



Sodium sulphite (Des.) 80 gr. 



Sodium carbonate (Des.) 80 gr. 



