Enthusiastic amateurs

The rage for amateur photographing increases as each year rolls by, and as it has come to be so popular for its artistic pleasure and unlimited possibilities in the way of perfections, it is no wonder it has been taken hold of and studied in its many branches by such a large number of our local people. In fact, all stages of society have their representative amateur photographers, and no association, party, club, or meeting of nay kind is considered complete unless pictures of the proceedings can be had to keep as souvenirs. The dramatic club, with is complement of actors, would no more think of undertaking a performance without a photographic display of the characters and surrounding at its close, than would the picnic party or the family group at a dinner, where four generations participate. It has almost become a breach in etiquette to give any social entertainment, unless the scene be photographed as a keepsake for those in attendance, and it would be quite a difficult matter to select a fair-sized company of this entertainment without including among the list an amateur photographer. Photographic concerns, realizing what an important part this will have to do with everything of a social nature, independent of the other various uses to which it can be put, have almost an endless style and variety of cameras now in the market, with innumerable improvements both to simplify and better the results being introduced almost daily. Outfits are advertised extensively throughout the country for the beginner, from the $10 apparatus to those that cost for the more advanced pupils, away up in the hundreds of dollars, and from which plates are finished that may well grace the drawing rooms of our most palatial residences. Fishing clubs and other pleasure parties making extended tours, both at home and abroad, never fail on their return, to supply a large list of scenes taken fro the enjoyment of the more unfortunate ones who have remained at home, giving for their inspection and comment a fair representation of the fun had and the beauties of the natural scenery encountered, as well as the works of architecture or the ruins visited. For the various subjects, different styles of lenses must be used; for gallery work it requires a portrait. If the subject be landscape view work the rapid produce the best results, while, for views, the wide-angle lens produces the most favorable results. For smaller pictures, where space is an object in packing or carrying an instrument form point to point on ones’ travels, or for use on bicycle tours, the Detective, Kodask or the Instantograph seem to enjoy the monopoly.