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.Aberdare and District Photographic…

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Aberdare and District Photographic Notes. BY ROI,LO." September has quite come up to tra- ditional report that it is far and away the best month for holidays. Alas and alack the majority of us have to take them just when we can get them, and perhaps be thankful that we can get any at all. Still those that can select, and again those whom circumstances will omly allow them to go off in September, have this year at any rate been es- pecially favoured. It has been a very pleasant month, if somewhat cold, but there has been, and always will be in this particular month, compensating ad- vantages that are denied to those of my readers who like myself, have to take their few days holiday earlier in the year. In this month the leaves begin to turn to the Autumn tints which are a glory to the pictorial photographer. The trees are all sorts of tints and shades of sweet soft colouring; the shadows are mellow, the tree trunks are moss laden or ivy clad, breaking up the harsh scarring and lending added charm to the graceful curves that cannot be found at an earlier period in the fast departing year. In the woods and plantations the russet carpet is now bearing its gentle burden of dead leaves, showered down with each gentle whisper of the sweet Autumn breeze, while the hedgerows are bearing their last lingering Autumn bloom, mingled with the hazelnut and ripe blackberry. The evening sun sets in a burst of fiery glory, dazzling the eye with Nature's fulsome colours, colours that are at oncethe delight and the despair of him who would fain por- tray them. Early morn with its mysterious mists out of which islowly emerge well-known landmarks, now take on an added in. terest, showing up in a succession of pearly greys that take away all the grimneas, all the hardness that we know are associated with them. It seems to me that the gentle month is trying to break the news to us, gently if sadly, that Summer has departed, and that grim Winter is knocking at the door. Yes it is a kindly month, one fraught with hosts of opportunities to the earnest Worker, golden moments that should not be lightly passed over. Armed with his camera, loaded with a well-backed Iso- chromatic plate of good speed, similiar to the Barnet" extra rapid, if not of that make-and I know none that are better-careful not to forget his Iso- screen, he should be ready for anything and everything that presents itself to his delighted eyes. He sees new pic- tures at every turn, no matter how familiar the scene, new presentiments of old faces; what was hard and glittering, is now soft and coy. Cloud forma are well-marked, and can be secured upon the plate at the same exposure given to the landscape. The fields, the roads, the hedges, the streams, the paths and byways, all have a different appear- ance to what they gave us in the early Spring and later Summer, and these should not be neglected. Nature now in all her glory, Gives us of her best." In treating our exposures at this time of the year it is highly necessary that we should prepare and use our developer at its full strength, and it is not too soon to take care that the working^ solutions are not cold. Early morning and late evening new begin to show a decided lowering of the temperature, and if we are to get all out of the plate that we desire, we must take precautions accordingly. We are still able to give short ex. posures, short enough to secure slowly moving objects, but we can only obtain sufficient density in our negatives by using our developer at full strength. We thus assist the exposure, as it were, and secure good printable negatives full of detail and gradation, without which we can never hope to show a reasonable number of good results. A corespondent writes asking me to give a good developer for use with holi- day exposures. He tells me that he has been to Barmouth and has about seventy plates to develop. My best advice to him is to use the formula that is set out upon the box he had the plates in, and as it is the makers' tried formula, he may rightly expect that it is so adapted that it will give him the best results. If the light was at the time of exposure very strong, and he has not worked out the right exposure with his meter upon each and every exposure, or if he has ignored the usual instruction of cutting the shutter speed down when working at the seaside (if Barmouth is a seaside town, I confess I do not know), and he has any fear of over-exposure, then there is one thing that will help him, and that is to dilute his developer with an equal volume of water. He will soon find out if his plates are over-ex- posed, and if they should not be so, it is an easy matter to bring the solution up to full working strength. Personally, I like a somewhat dense negative, but I do not grieve it my negative is tlun, pro- viding it has plenty of detail and there is sufficient gradation to give me a true print. I can print in the shade on P.O.P, 01 again I can use one or the other of the various grades of gaslight paper that are prepared for such cases, while if I am not satisfied with these methods, I can intensify very readily with either of the many formula that are given in all photographic tomes and periodicals. For intensifying a negative similar to the one I have just described, I find that one of the most useful products for this purpose is the Agra." It is easy to prepare and use, it gradually builds up the strength of the plate, and if the density at the end is not enough, we can repeat the process until it is as dense as required. One word of caution, if you try this preparation. Do not judge the density of the film by the colour. When the plate is held up to the light, it is very deceiving, and the intensifier; has the property of imparting to the film a colour that is not very susceptible to the actinic rays which give us the printing quality. Hence it is better to slightly intensify, that is, to allow the plate to remain in the bath only a short time, and then to wash and dry. When we have taken a print oft, we have no diffi- culty in deciding if we have gone far enough if not, we can then repeat the process, and try it again. To be in the fashion I conclude this week with a Limerick. There is no prize for a fitting last line, but if any reader can supply one on a postcard, the line to be of exceptional merit, we will hand his name down to posterity, by printing his effusion in an early issue, together with his name and address, so that a long suffering public may take their revenge, if so inclined, A young lady in Sweet Aberdare, Took her camera down to the fair, But a naughty young man, Said, Miss I see if you can,

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