St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1908-10-31


had kept at it, forever. 1t wasn't be-
cause Of any little catch or anything
like that, nothing mechanical, but one
of those little occult demonisms, like
the family scissors deliberately crawl
ing away and hiding in the ice-box.
In taking animals, it is well to re-
member that horse or COW is not
all head. This will be driven into the
intelligence after taking few snap
shots Of these interesting animals and
having them show up with heads like
the pyramid side of house and bodies
that taper off to diminutive proper
tons. Take these brutes profile, never
head on" and you will get better re-
suits Sometimes, of course, just as
you are getting the most pleasant and
intelligent look on cow or rooster,
it will turn it's head or pick at its
feathers and spoil the effect. But this
is one of the things which is to be met
with fortitude.
Speaking OF cows, we never failed
to get a cow in all of our pictures.
There were so many COWS in the
n6lSuUOIuOOU,
/ inevitable accompaniment of all rural
scenery, that we very soon became
| reconciled to the appearance of the
| phant cow In our pictures. These
kodaks have a most "reachy' habit in
regard to perspective, and while you
may think you are only taking lone
| tree, or a family group, you may be
taking in a line of land that pretty
nearly includes the whole township in
the direction in which the machine is
pointed. And somewhere on this
angle there will be cow. Either ly-
ing down or standing up, or grazing,
or chewing the cud, or getting MIXED,
or driven in or out to pasture, or try
ing to worm through fence, or some
! other thing, and when you get the pic
| ture back from the reproducers, or de-
velop it yourself, you can always bet
on the cow. @
We never had any particular trouble
i with sheep, or hogs, or horses. They
are not nearly so apparent as COWS
are in the country. Sheep are fine OBJ
4 jects, and give very fine results in the
way of snapshots" either grazing on
! the hillsides, standing in groups or
budding at the approach of a human
being, or lying in the shade of the
trees at noon, they are always pictur-
esque. But it is one of the cardinal
| principles of using kodak to have
your object in the sun, and the cam
era fiend" should have his instrument
of torture shaded; so that a great
deal of ingenuity is needed at times
to get your animal out into the sun.
and just where you want it in
order to prepare for successful
SNAP"
Sheep are very suspicious and PAN
icky creatures, and are apt to stick
their tails up and go "baaing" over the
hillsides just when you have teased
them into an attitude Of woolly curl
osity. This is one Of the uncertain
ties of the sport and requires sturdy
patience and invincible good humor
to counteract. A horse is different. A
horse is one of the vainest animals in
the world, next to man, and rather
likes to have his picture taken. But
as for intelligence, horse is the most
Anticipated brute in existence. He
will shy at a bale of hay, run back
into burning barn from which he has
just been dragged, and snuff at a wa
ter trough as though it was full of
humble bees. But he Frances out to
have his likeness "took" much as
though he thought he was the pick of
his tribe.
The best time for taking pictures,
so we were informed by our little
book, was between ten and four; but
we discovered that this dictum had it's
limitations. For instance, some of the
most sketchy and beautiful effects we
got in landscapes were taken after
four o'clock, and even after FIVE, and
the results gave hazy, shadowy feel
ing in the little pictures which was al
most as good as miniature etching
: On a few of the gray leaden days, We
got some of our cleaTest pictures, and
on some of the absolutely cloudy days
we got some of our most notable fail
ures. 1t was veritable lottery so far
as we we're concerned, for we never
knew when we were going to get good
results or poor ones. AS q fairly &C
curate thing to go by, we could tel
that when we were most anxious tc
get good pictures they turned out
miserably, and that when we were moi
: caring very much about it we got
J dreams"
J The most interesting work was In
, taking pictures of our neighbors anG
t our neighbors' children. In taking &
) child, care should always be taken moi
: to try to get the child's attention at
| tracted. If that is done, some of the
y weirdest effects in human physiog
: nomy possible will be the result. The
children will have that haif-scared
! halt-shamed look which Is so common
y to regular photography, and will be
at the moment Of Swapping" as alb
!. solutely unlike themselves inside AMI
I out as it would be conceivable to ina
CINE. And that is one of the mistakes
: of photography To take picture
g right of a human being it should b
a taken with the mask of. Children
D wear masks when they are noticed, o.
/. told to look this way or that Men ant
i women wear masks excepting whel
i they are alone The result is tina
t children should have their pictures
! taken when their attention is strict.
s attracted elsewhere than on the pho
) tographer, and grown persons shoul'
!, have their pictures taken from am
e bush
t Every biped from the age of 16 NJ
| I,irnrn1f a