The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-05-25

is in meeting a difficulty and by ingen-
uity surrounding it.
And that reminds me that I have a
little trouble of my own on hand just
now Five years ago / saw Niagara
for the first time. My friends thought
they were fine, but they did not please
me. You all know the average picture
of Niagara; beautiful effects of water,
but miserable rendering of foliage and
rOck-black smudgeS, nothing more.
The next summer I tried with isOchrO-
matte plates and a color screen. l saw
some Improvement, but still the same
,miserable effects in leaves and stone.
The next time I went to Niagara l left
nv camera at home. 1t was not be-
cause / was Indifferent, but simply be-
cause 1 had not solved a problem that
stared me in the face and was in my
mind almost every day. knew it was
within the power of isochTOmatic plates
to give me the effect 1 wanted, pro-
vided I got the right kind of color
screen. Now, as l have limited merely
to go out and try different color
screens on different landscapes is no
way to experiment, but it was neces-
sary to get a very definite scientific
idea of what 1 wanted and just as ex-
act a means of proving when l had
got the right answer. It has taken me
five years to collect the data I wanted,
and I am now making the apparatus
for my experiments l expect to have
the answer to my problem before
make a single exposure on a natural
subject I tell you all this just to IL
lustrate how completely every phase
of technical photography falls under
the laws of science. Experiments made
by individuals ignorant of even. the
elementary principles of science are
worthless.
But it is different in the realms Of
art. The purpose of a picture is TO give
pleasure. and if it does that for even
five minutes it has fulfilled its mission.
It's maker has made something worth
making, even although within week
he may have learned a little more. Ana
so on always. happy over picture to-
day. seeing its imperfectiOns tomorrow,
but with pleasure, for there is the sat
isfaction OF something attempted,
something done, always little more
learned, always little more to be
learned.
All along I have tried to impress my
readers with the idea that a camera
has no brains, but brains have been eX-
pended upon it. often do / take up a
new instrument and for half an hour
admire the brain power displayed IN the
mechanical ingenuity II eAIliDitS even III
little details. And then my equanlmlty
is upset by getting half dozen let
ters asking me which is the best cam
era. Any one of the Instruments on the
market today selling at $l5 would have
been considered wonderful value for
the money a dozen years ago at al
most ten times the price. And yet peo-
pie keep on thinking they must get
finer tools in order to make finer pic
lures. Fne tools are undoubtedly good;
I am fond of them myself, but every
outfit on the market today is fine
tool. and anv one who cannot make
fine work with it must blame himself
and not the instrument. have in my
day made a few, a very few, good pho
tographs, and nearly all of them were
made with cheap, nameless French
lens One of them I submit as the only
illustration this week. with the remark
that I spent three months thinking
about it in a general way and three
weeks in very special way before /
made the attempt.
Ncfo Tbic concludes the Course in