LOCAL SNAP SHOTS. - ACTIVITY AMONG AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHERS. - San Francisco Chronicle, 18 May 1895

=== LOCAL SNAP SHOTS. ===
==== ACTIVITY ALONG AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHERS. ====
===== A Cycling Annex in the California Camera Club - Personal Notes and News. =====
Activity has begun for the season in the amateur photographic world. The California Camera Club has already had several outings and is planning more, which it is intended shall be on a greater scale than ever before in the history of the club. Cameras are considered necessary adjuncts in all outdoor sports, and hundreds who are members of no club are planning for excursions in the coming weeks and during the summer.
During the last week the members of the California Camera Club have had three outings, one to Golden Gate Park, another to Haywards and a third on the bay in the steamer Caroline. A bicycle annex has recently been organized in the club and has struck popular favor. Over thirty members have joined it and have outlined some ambitious plans for the summer. Every outing of the annex is to be recorded photographically. An official photographer is to be appointed and specially commissioned to prepare an album of scenes and groups "snapped" on the way.
Both ladies and gentlemen are members of the bicycle annex, and all carry their cameras on the different runs. At the
outing to Haywards last Sunday some exceptionally good pictures were secured. Miss Faucompre obtained one of the best series of pictures at Zeile's and Haywards. The wheel figures prominently in them all. During the trip the ladies of the party were caught in a group while crossing the street at Haywards. The result was a liberal education in bloomers. J. J. B. Argenti was one of the most successful of the party, obtaining several splendid pictures at Fruitvale, San Leandro and Haywards.
The Camera Club is renovating its premises in the Academy of Sciences building, remodeling its darkrooms, and extending its photographic facilities. It is discussing a project of joining bands with the Half Million Club and assisting in a general advertisement of the city and State. It has already done an incalculable amount of good in this direction. In the system of photographic exchanges of which it is a member it receives pictures of California scenes very frequently. They are sent from clubs in all parts of the Union and even from England and the Continent. It is perhaps, interesting that the set of Midwinter Fair slides prepared by the club has gone to every city in the world where there is a camera society. These slides were technically perfect and made California better known to the world, perhaps, than any other medium of advertisements.
On Wednesday night last the club held its regular weekly demonstration. It was of more than usual interest, touching upon a phase of photography now very popular. It was a demonstration in contact bromide and platino work by E. L. Gifford, who is said to have no equal in this work among the amateurs, or professionals, for that matter, on the Coast. The work in which he is sp expert gives some striking black and white results. It can be obtained at night by gaslight or lamplight, and is permanent. Each picture may be toned to any color. The demonstrator was closely followed to the close of his address.
The regular monthly lantern slide exhibition was given in the clubrooms last night. There were two sets, one from the Chicago Society of Amateur Photographers and the other from the Toronto Camera Club. City scenes prevailed, but here and there was a touch of the rustic and a marine. It was a matter of some surprise that the Cliff House was among the slides shown. On the 31st inst the next public lecture and exhibition of the club will be given. It will be one of the very few ever given by a member of the club. The lecturer will be William Alsford. He will present views of London, Antwerp and Brussels. He possesses an exceptionally fine set of slides.
Charles Weidner has just returned from a bicycle trip to the Geysers, where he took several photographs worth preserving.
Jesse Poundstone is the author of a dainty piece of photographic work, which has been accepted for illustration by the 
Photographic Times. It pictures a shipwrecked sailor standing on a reef and gazing into the distance of the ocean in hope of some passing vessel.
Dr. E. G. Eisen obtained several good marines last Sunday. One of particular merit is a picture of the whaleback Everett W. C. McIntosh, also secured several good scenes on the bay.
B. D. Bent has under way a photographic album which will record all of the runs made by the Bay City Wheelmen in recent years. He has been collecting old photographs and making new ones, and, when bis album is completed, will have a complete record for years.
In the recent competition instituted by an Eastern illustrated newspaper, several local amateurs won honorable mention for
the pictures they submitted. Among them were Miss Banks and E. L. Gifford. The competition was restricted to pictures which had never been exbibited, and many amateurs were in consequence barred out.
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