Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 108, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 September 1904 — Amateur Photoqraphy [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Amateur Photoqraphy

When the novitiate turns his steps along the highway toward photographic success he Is confronted with many “do's and dont's” which ofttimes seem most bewildering. In the text books we are advised to dust carefully each plate before placing In the holder, with a camel’s-taalr brush provided for the purpose. Personally, I early discarded this otherwise useful article, using instead a slightly dampened cloth for cleaning out the holders; and for plates, a little article much resembling a blackboard eraser, covered with silk velvet. It seems to catch and hold those little plu-head producers at one sweep, instead of setting them agoing to again settle where least desired. a further avoidance of specks and dirt is in the use of grooved fixing trays, provided by the stock-houses at a cost of $2.5b. They are admirable. One may credit cash, however, With about $2.40, if he so desires, by converting a few pieces of pine into a diminutive pig trough, much flattened at the sides. Pitch the seams with a combination of resin and beeswax, and fix the plates face downward, and the film is rarely damaged. Again, if one desires to do a bit of copying, and does not possess an extension bellows, he may draw on the carpenter’s waste for four pine pieces, eight or ten Inches In length, which will .form a box the exact size of the front board; blacken on the inside, rhake a narrow slot at one end that It may attach tightly to the camera, at the other end fit in the front board, and a non-contractable copying outfit is at your disposal. I saw, one day, a cloud enthusiast, so at least I judged him, for the fantastic fleeting clouds were the object at which his lens was pointed, and in contention was a fitful eddying wind and a focusing cloth which flapped about most provokingly. I likewise had previously been thus annoyed, so I tendered him the fol"lijwirig advice: Procure a generous piece of brown canton flannel, sew on to it a smaller one which, by means of hook and eye, will fasten securely about the box. Then, if each corner of the larger piece is shotted it will effectively overcome the “flap.” This may be a chestnut to many workers in the field, but it was new at least to pne. Would we achieve success In the photographic art, we are advised to study the work of the masters, arid this is well, but I sometimes think that one, too, with advantage, may study the failures, as the highway to success Is strewn with many of them.—W. E. Dickinson, In Photo-Beacon.