Landscape and Architectural Photography

For general outdoor photography it will be necessarv to have plenty of lenses, and the most improved camera box. Attempting to do work of all kinds with a single lens and an old-fashioned box will not answer. For instance, with an old-fashioned rigid, portrait camera box and a 4-4 portrait tube, trying to take a view of a five or six story building in a narrow street, or a view of a fine dwelling inside of a row of trees, the front of the camera not sliding up and down, the box has to be pointed upwards at a sharp angle, and the result is a picture without parallel vertical lines. No wonder that customers complain that there is something wrong, or, as one remarked to me, that his house looked as if all his cider barrels in the cellar had burst, and the picture was taken as the house was going over. Another instance I have seen this summer, viz., but has been long discarded for the twin tubes.

In going but a short distance from home,you will only require a dark or tent with all necessary chemicals, camera, tripod, and negative box; but for an extended trip you will need a chemical box or miniature stock depot, divided up into square compartments, to pack your bottles and extra stock in, as on railroads they are handled rather roughly. In travelling over mountains on mule-paths, you will require boxes long and narrow. They can be packed readily on each side of the mule, and can be well tied, so that, in case the mule should roll over, he cannot hurt anything. It is always best to make out a careful list of everything needed, for if you wish to do good work, go prepared for it — do not begin to make excuses about this or that article. Take all inconveniences you may meet with in good part, and keep your temper and powder dry. It is better, if you have the time, to reconnoitre the place on some day previous to working. Pick out your standpoints, and look out for what will make good stereo views and 8 x 10 or larger sizes; mark down the time of day the light is most suitable. 

My latest mode of working is to give a good exposure for details; and, in developing, get out all you can, but do not overexpose or develop so as to get a foggy or flat negative. For general work a well-lighted picture will not require, if your chemicals are in good working condition, any redeveloping or intensifying, by using Anthony's new negative collodion.

Some of our landscape photographers have been for some time developing in the field, and finishing up at home in the evening or next morning.

If the above may be of some benefit to those who are working in the field by the wet process, I shall be abundantly rewarded.