Evening star., 1932-12-29
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TKACEWELL.
He stood in front Of q window full

ne $1,000 III lr0nC OF B WWuUW lull
of mirrors and idly wondered why some
Would u do register s '1 the image OF the first
one who looked into 1t.
Then he realized that Photographic
negative does just that.
A bit of film Is magic mirror, so
commonplace that its particular brand
of legerdemain no longer excites
wonder
1t is only when one happens to think
Of 1t from an unusual angle that the
full portent of 1t strikes home.
The Photographic negative was the
end of long search over the ages for
veritable magic mirror.
The flying carpet has never come
true, exactly in that form. The foun-
tain of youth has yet to be discovered,
but the magic glass is a reality.
Thousands of youngsters throughout
the land as the result of Santa Claus
machines for registering the magic
scenes all about US.
Many an elder, too. received nice
new camera, in almost all cases supe-
rior to the old one which had done
duty for SO many years.
1t is amazing how we'll many old
cameras work. Some of the first box
type affairs are still very active, taking
excellent pictures.
Advance in the Photographic art has
been mostly a matter of better lenses
during the past quarter Of century,
and better lenses mean faster ones
mostly.
The principles of photography are to-
day what they were when discovered,
in broad outlines. The actinic rays of
the sun are what do the work, now as
then: 1t Is just question of how long
these rays of ultraviolet are permitted
to act.
The better the lens, as even the new
conner knows, the less rays necessary.
In some of the better movie cameras
of the strictly amateur type the lenses
are SO good that fine pictures may be
secured on the foggieSt, rainiest days,
and even indoors, where an ordinary
snapshot is out of question with slower
lens.
improvement in types Of emulsion as
film coating has done a great deal to
help In this matter. The Latitude" as
it is called, is greater, so that one con-
Germ has even gone to the extent OF
guaranteeing the results
days, which many of us remember.
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amateur at least the average amateur.
was the box type, and the only base for
the emulsion a sheet Of glass.
Those were the days of the so-called
wet plate followed quickly by the
dry plate" still very much in use pro-
fessicnally.
The film brought the camera into
everybodys hands, with the result that
an uncountable number of pictures"
have been taken, with little really
artistic gain as the result OF so much
experience.
Perhaps it was not to be expected
that much art would come from the
multitude.
Art is something OF mind and spirit,
but that is not all-art is deftness COM
bined with mind and spirit. But that
is not all-art is deftness, combined
with mind and spirit, overlaid with
appreciation.
Without an appreciation OF niceties,
there is never any art. whether 1t be in
buildings, or books, or music. or paint
ings, or the pictures we call photo
graphs.
And it is not to be gainsaid. We be-
lieve, that the average human being
lacks this sort of appreciation.
That is why people go on year after
year taking exactly the same sort of
snapshots" with their cameras, with
a resulting failure to get really artistic
results, which even they realize.