The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1908-05-02
A Camera
in the Country

Various devices are used at differ
ent times by city people who happen
to reside in the country for any length
of time Sometimes a cheap phono-
graph IL purchased. with its raucous
blars Of rag time" melodies, and blat-
ant monologue: sometimes pianola
is harnessed to the piano. and muscu-
lar music ground out by means OF lib
eral knee action" sometimes the
baleful game" OF croquet 10 employed
to exc out the hours of those to whom
time drags heavily. But for us.
harmless. necessary kodak" was
never failing source OF pleasure and
amusement all during our stay on the
farm.
We never thought Of going on
walk or a drive without carrying along
our pictorial recorder, in case any
thing new or strange crossed our line
of vision. Our walks were daily oc-
currence, rain, hail or sunshine. but
when the weather permitted we car
ried the kodak. Our drives we're more
infrequent, being a matter Of sending
in to town for rig" and making an
all-day trip of It, And in this latter
way we covered the country for many
miles on all sides. traversing the river
bottom roads and coming into towns
where the houses were SO old that the
wind and rain and sun had bleached
and then Drowned them until they
looked like frame mummies more
ancient than the human ones ten
century old in Egyptian tombs.
A kodak is an amusing little beast.
and can no more be depended on to do
the same thing twice than rabbit,
and no two of them are alike. You
may borrow one, as l did once, and
It may turn out excellent pictures reg
ularly. You may buy one. and it may
acquire the habit of taking some good
and some bad ones. Each lens, SO
they say. is turned out exactly alike,
but alas for human skill, each lens
isn't alike. 1t is one Of the Joys OF
amateur photography that you can
never be sure OF any particular re-
S,sults. Sometimes on a perfect" day,
with all the care in the world. the pic
lures will be fiat failures. On other
days, gray days, maybe. when you had
no license to expect any results at all.
the picture-taking will turn out to be a
screaming success.
The best general rule in using these
little machines is to follow directions
siavishly and not expect anything. In
this way you can every once In awhile
surprise yourself with the pictures
you will get. Sometimes the sun will
be watching you, and just as you are
alb out. ready to snap" the slide, the
IL vt
into a convenient cloud-bank and stay
there for an hour The sun can be de-
pended upon to do this every time 1t
gets chance; don't tell ME that heav-
enly bodies are not endowed with
sense of malignancy. l have seen a
sun that rose on a comparatively clear
day make the most unseemly haste to
get behind a bank of clouds when
there was only one cloud-bank in
sight, and lay there for hours and
hours until 1t was too late to take pic
lures and then go down with a red
grin on 1t as much as to say "gc: you
that time" The best way is to hide
the camera when you first start out,
for II the sun sees it you are apt to
have trouble.
When you have studied the little
book of instructions that goes with
the kodak you &ill find invariably that
there was something you overlooked
.hen you first started out. Thus,
hitter taking one picture, 1t is neces-
sasry to turn the crank around several
times in order to get the next number
on the spool" ready for exposure.
The directions plainly indicate this
but every once in awhile you forget
this and try to blend the composite OF
a flock Of sheep with a woman spin
ming at an old-fashioned spinning
wheel, or something equally as blend
able. And then when such a picture
comes out there is the spectacle of a
flock Of sheep trying to spin an old
lady into a wooden stocking, or flock
OF spinning wheels trying to spin an
old lady into a sheep, or flock of old
ladies' trying to spin a sheep into
spinning wheel.
Always remember to turn the crank
until the next number comes plainly
into view. Another pesky nuisance is
that the plagued thing won't always
give out a clear Click as you move
the slide. Beware of this, for 1t
means that you are not taking pictures
at all, but Just going through the mo-
tons When you take out such a roll
OF flms to develop" you are simply
wasting your time on q pack OF "jok-
ers," for there hasn't been a single i'm
preston taken. We once travelled on
foot seven miles to take a family
group and some individual pictures.
and all We got from the IL expos
ures" was . dozen beautifully assorted
blurB.
A camera IN nnA of fhA hest thinxs