Gilpin observer., 1908-04-30

10 regular Photography, ana VIII De,
at the moment Of Swapping" as abb
solutely unlike themselves inside and
out as 1t would be conceivable to ina
gine. And that is one Of the mistakes
of photography. To take a picture
right Of a human being it should be
taken with the mask of. Children
wear masks when they are noticed, or
told to look this way or that Men and
women wear masks excepting when
they are alone. The result is that
children should have their pictures
taken when their attention is strictly
attracted elsewhere than on the pho
tographer, and grown persons should
have their pictures taken from am
bush.
Every biped from the age Of 16 up
wards is thinking about himself or
herself when facing photographer,
and the mask is on. Did you ever no.
tice the difference that sleep, or death,
makes in persons features? Well,
the lack of self-consciousness is the
laying aside Of the mask, and never
until people are painted or photo
graphed without their knowing it will
either portrait-painting or photog
have fairly decently after all.
"Flash-light" pictures we never at
tempted. There is a limit in every
thing. and amateur. or even profes-
sional "flash-light" photography, so.
called is the limit Of limits. They
give CHASTITY jovial expression to
some faces, and a chalky, corpse-like
deadness to others, and . group of
"flash-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 off guard" but just
as sure as 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 a
hazy patch of white dress. But the
| parents always avowed it was as life
like as anything they ever saw.
|
landscape can be depended on to
keep still, and always wears its 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 campflres
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 a bit of silky
ribbon will enhance the picturesque
ness of a 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. 1t was GER
tainly fascinating and costly expert
ence. You got so that you wanted to
take snap" of everything you saw
and when you sent your films away to
be developed and printed it cost al
most as much as 1t 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
the average bird is to have him
mounted and photograph him after
wards. got very fair picture of a
catbird once. as those to whom the
catbird was duly pointed out were free
to admit. but as rule photograph.
ing" the birds was sad waste of time,
energy and money. would creep eau
tiously up to robin sitting on its
nest and take It's picture. and then.
when the picture came out, 1t would
be an elegant picture Of everything
but the nest and the robin. AS for a
moving bird, 1t was about as easy as
photographing brook trout In the
water.