Willmar tribune., 1908-05-06

either portrait-painting or photog-
have fairly decently after all.
"Flash-light" pictures we never at
tempted. There is limit in every
thing, and amateur, or even profess
sional, "hash-light" photography, so.
called, is the limit of limits. They
give CHASTITY jovial expression to
some faces, and chalky, corpse.like
deadness to others. and . group of
"fash.lighted' mortals is certainly
raphy be anything but make-believe
arts.
We got some good pictures of the
children when they were not looking,
and some excellent pictures of the
men in the fields, and elsewhere,
when they were of guard but just
as sure al they were snapped" when
they were ready, good-by to any nat
ural expression. Taking babies was
one Of the extreme lottery" features
OF the pastime, and, when taken in
doors, was usually dim outline Of
hazy patch of white dress. But the
parents always avowed it was as life
like as anything they ever saw.
Landscapes were our best hold, for
a landscape can be depended on to
keep still, and always wears it's per-
fectly natural expression, according to
the season which happens to be pass
ing just then. We got pictures of
quaint wooden bridges, covered and
built without single bit of iron in
them. all mortised and pegged with
wooden pegs, and enduring through
many years. We took old mill-dams,
where the water had run since the
days of the deer and wild turkeys, and
great oaks that had witnessed the
hegira of the Indians westward as it
had waved over the flames of their
early campfires.
Landscapes where water is a fea-
ture of the scenery take usually the
best, something about water seeming
to aid in bringing out the finer quail
ties of land scene, as bit of silky
ribbon will enhance the picturesque
ness of woman's face. We had some
river and lake pictures that had the
very breath of outdoors in them, the
rushes bending with the moving winds
and distant cloud-shapes clearly,
though Whitley, defined It was cer-
tainly fascinating and costly expert
ence. You got so that you wanted to
take a "snap'' Of everything you saw;
and when you sent your films away to
be developed and printed it cost al
most as much as it would to keep a
yacht. The craze grows on you, and
your judgment gets wobbly; and you
keep getting deeper and deeper into
the clutch of the unseen enemy.
We found that of all the seasons
| autumn gave us the best results as
to sharp outlines and clear effects;
possibly this was because the air was
clearer then. Summer ranked next as
to satisfactory photographs, and win
| ter effects were sometimes very good
| indeed and often blurred.
We often tried to photograph the
bird, but regret to state that most of
these pictures were failures. The av-
erage bird, outside of owls and herons,
are extremely volatile, head up and
tail down, or head down and tail up,
here one minute and there the next,
that we despaired of taking them sue
cessfully. The best way to photograph
fhn Sos1 Sc RI ~
mounted and photograph him after
wards. I got very fair picture of a
catbird once, as those to whom the
catbird was duly pointed out were free
to admit, but as a rule photograph.
ing" the birds was sad waste of time,
energy and money. would creep eau
tiously up to robin sitting on it's
nest and take it's picture, and then,
when the picture came out, it would
be an elegant picture of everything
but the nest and the robin. AS for a
moving bird, it was about as easy as
photographing brook trout in the
water.
On the subject of birds nests, sep.
arate and apart from the birds them.
selves, that is sorrowful page in our
experience as camera fiends." have
crawled up to the top of an apple tree
to take an orioles nest and, after
using up half dozen films, come
down scratched and breathhless. but
with the proud consciousness of hav.
ing "done it" that time. Then when
the pictures came back, each of them
would represent a speaking likeness
of the top of an apple tree, or other
tree, with large wad of placid sky in
the background, but of the nest not a
straw nor hair. It was the same as
to nests on the ground. 1 would chase
a bobolink from it's nest in the pas
ture and draw back the grass so as tc
get perfect exposure. Then would
snap that nest four or five times and
the net result, after development
would be a towzled tuft of meadow
grass with dark spot in the center
But never got decent birds nest in
all my trials, and tried the catbird
the jays, robins, bobolinks, warblers
orioles. thrushes and others.
There is so much that is picturesque
and beautiful in the country that Z
camera, even with it's manifest draw
backs, is valuable and intensely in
teresting accompaniment of country
life. Harvesting scenes, haying
pictures, the various work in the
fields, the myriad bits of hillside and
hollow, lake, river, forest, meadow
country road, orchard and elsewhere
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