Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1901-04-11
KODAK SEASON NEAR
CAMERA FIEND WILL SHORTLY
BE ABROAD.
SHOOTING AT EVERYTHING
Arrival of Spring Awakens Interest in
Pleasant Form of Diversion-Dea-
Iers in Photographers Supplies
Expect a Busy Season - Films
Popular.

The amateur photographer will soon
be abroad in the world, overrunnine
everything, high and low, in a frantic
| effort to photograph all that is. At
| this season he is unusually sensitive
| and nervously alive to the unfolding
beauties Of nature; every phase and
feature of the world attracts him.
there is nothing so commonplace but
it has a charm; and so he goes about
| in a rapturous delirium, shooting at
everything, from a picturesque mud
hole to gorgeous summer sunset.
Of course the camera is not alto
gether idle through the long winter
months. There are times when, to
him who truly, loves the world. the
still white brotherhood with death"
yields scenes Of highest beauty. SOM
bre in a sense of course, but all the
more touching for the very suggestion
of melancholy lingering about them:
and, he to whom the poetry of earth is
perennial, is alive and busy at all sea-
sons Of the year. But, unhappily, we
are not all thus, we, for the most part
die with the summer; and, with the
opening of spring. are born again; and
then, at sight of the breaking I'D of
winter, and the bursting forth into
new life of all nature, that rapt
ecstatic state which is proper to all
rightly constituted mortaIs at all sea-
sons Of the year,-is frightened in us
to a state Of widest confusion. The
lover raves; the poet sings; and the
man with the camera is everywhere.
Dealers in cameras say this season
will be an unusually busy one; and
that the prices of the instruments will
be about the same as last year. The
camera trust-Or, rather, the effort
on the part of manufacturers to form
trust-it was thought for a while
would be serious impeachment to the
operations of the kodak fiend: but
since the collapse of the ATTEMPTED
combine, the fear Of trust prices has
given way. In the matter of cost of
supplies there has been an advance,
but not sufficient to seriously modify
sales, for the kodak craze has taken |
too strong a hold on US to be baked |
by the trifing tributes levied by the |
trusts. One manufacturer of films |
controls the entire product of that |
article, and is of course in a position |!
to dictate prices. Films are conse-
quently rather high, but not |
higher than last year. The effort to |
form trust in the manufacture Of |
plates was not successful, but prices
nevertheless have advanced some
what. One thing particularly noticeable
about the trade this year is that the
sale of the higher grades of cameras
is considerably increased, while there
has been almost a corresponding de-
crease in the demand for the poorer
grades. Plates are not so popular
now as in the past, and the use of
films is becoming quite general. One
reason for this is that films now are
put up in rolls of six instead of twelve
Or more, as formerly, and people buy
them more freely now because they
can get them in small quantities. Dea-
Lers here report increasing sales, and
Indications are that both dealers and
operators will enjoy profitable and a
pleasant season.