The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1882-07-01
Itinerant Photography.

u
cloth can be hastily constructed, and in |
which the negatives are developed.
Then the negatives are slowed in box,
and impressions taken on returning
home. OF course the business is pure
speculation. 1t pays, though. / know q
man who makes forty dollars day wan
dering around the city in this way. He en-
ploys an assistant who prints and mounts
the pictures. and third man delivers
them and collects the money. The pur-
chaser pays about twenty-five cents
apiece for his photographs. Some of the
pictures are not worth q cent. That oc-
ours when the photographer faces the
sun when he takes the impression, for
then the shadows fall toward the OBJ
server. But the itinerant does not care
for that; his object is gained, when it's
a dwelling. if he gets the whole family
on the piazza, or, when its q store, II he
gets an impression of the sign and OF
shopkeeper standing in the doorway
Queer things happen to these itinerants
In London once one of the craft took a
picture of hotel The windows were
open, and a clock on the wall was distinct
ly seen in the picture. Not long afterward
a gentleman who was sitting on the
piazza at the time the picture was taken
was arrested for passing forged check
at bank. At the trial the bank clerks
united in testifying positively that the
prisoner was at the bank at two p. m.
The photographer, who had got word of
the case through the newspapers, en-
tered the court room, climbed to the
witness stand and exhibited the photo
graph. The face of the prisoner was
distinctly recognized. and the clock s
hands pointed at two o'clock. The
hotel was seven miles from the bank.
The jury acquitted the prisoner after the
photographer had testified that he was
at the hotel on the day when the forged
check was cashed.
Another incident / know Of which
had not SO pleasant an ending. An tin
Grant in an English village, and he was
a splritualist in belief, had set his cam
era in front of house and focused it.
While he had his head hidden in his
darkened tent preparing his negative a
practical joker came along and stuck a
piece of paper on the lens, 50 that it was
entirely covered. The photographer put
his plate in the camera, and was about
to expose it to the building. when the
wag offered to bet him any amount OF
money that there would be no picture on
the plate. The photographer bet every
cent he had, and then took his picture, as
he supposed. When he developed the plate
it showed nothing. In his chagrin he
shot himself dead. The story was re-
ported in the London newspapers some
time since.
Most of these itinerants are prosper
Gus, but some of the tin-typers who take
your picture on the street for ten cents
are Bohemians. One of them occasion.
ally drops in here and asks me 70 sell
him ten cents worth of collodion, or ten
cents worth Of nitrate OF silver. Ol
course I give him twenty-five cents
worth for nothing, IS ten cents worth Il
almost nothing. They are the tramps Of
the profession.
"Do amateur photographers do any
creditable out-of-door work?
by the invention of the dry plat
process field has been opened to anna
teurs never before dreamed of. For
merly it was necessary to cart around |
bulky apparatus, with bottles of chemi
Gals in solution. bath holders, ETC.; bu
now the lens is carried on the back in
compact little knapsack, while the tripo'
shuts up like an umbrella, and can D
used rs cane. Twenty-Five picture
can be made in day by tyro. He re
turns to his hotel at night, wraps up hi
negatives, and sends them home by ex
press. In three months he has four hun
dred plates, and amuses himself all win
ter in developing them. Both befor
and after the picture is taken the DIR
plate looks like piece of glass with
piece of bladder pasted on it. You can
not conceive the pleasure the amateu
has in seeing scenes and events he ha
long forgotten reproduced like magic
Artists in oil or in water color tax
tramps of this kind and obtain valuabl
hints for ambitious paintings. It's a
easy way of skctching. Captain Abney
of England. Is an amateur, and he stand
at the head of the photographing bus
ness, as far rs the theory of it is cor
cerned. He is wealthy, and has q hig
position socially, but he has given I
photography the best part of his life OF
OF love for it. He has delivered lecture
ON the art and has printed books on tn
subject, so that those who have dispute
on point in photography appeal
Abney as the highest authority. Speal
ing OF photographers and their dispute
and iealousies, there is to be a conventio
in indianapolis, Ind, in August next
convention Of photographers from a
parts of the world for the purpose I
starting an International Society Of PHI
tographers.''
sDo you. ever photograph dead pc
sons?''
parents whose children die befol
their pictures are taken often ask PHI
tographer to come to the house, and the
want the picture to look - natural I
life. Skill is required, of course. On
when was called in l saved man
life. When I pulled up the eyelid
drop in little collodion to keep the ey