Dear Sir: After reading your article "Get Close to Your Subject” in the December issue I decided to take a crack at close-ups with my $25 German film-pack camera. The result is enclosed. I used a supplementary lens (Kodak Portra plus 3) over the regular lens with bellows fully extended . . .
ANYONE who has paid reasonable attention to the photographs appearing in the national magazines during the past four or five years will have noticed the trend towards indirect natural lighting and away from the slick, studied sharpness and contrived dramatics of multiple flash.
CARL VERMILYA, photographer for The (Portland) Oregonian, won the sweepstakes award in the annual Associated Press Northwest news photo contest for his excellent photograph of a Portland fireman forced by heavy smoke to leave a fire, his face begrimed and eyes smarting.
THESE Salons are comprised of top prize-winning prints from the POPULAR PHOTOGRAPHY Contests. Representing some of the finest examples of contemporary photography, the subject-matter ranges from the dramatic and human interest to serene landscapes.
Here’s another of Popko’s inimitable photographic puzzles, guaranteed to amuse, if not confuse you. Sharpen up a pencil, summon your wits, and hit the deck. Place a check mark in the square before the answer you feel is most like the right one, and when you’ve finished, turn to page 122 to learn the correct ones.
THERE is an interesting mental attitude, a peculiar misconception, which is quite prevalent among newcomers to amateur photography in any generation. This is that photography, as they know it, existed only a very short while before they discovered it.
A round-up of recent developments and significant trends
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NORMAN C. LIPTON
Sapphire Lens Perfected. University of Rochester scientists recently developed an “excellent” f/1.5 cine lens employing two artificial sapphire elements and two elements of dense flint glass. This disclosure was made by Robert E. Hopkins and Brian O'Brien of the University's Institute of Optics during the annual meeting of the Optical Society of America last October.
WINTER is here, and to the photographer it means more than ice and snow, crisp days, and chill winds. For the camera owner it means sparkling pictures—glamorous scenics, exciting sports action, bold contrasts. Nature has seen to it that each season of the year is rich in beauty, and those who have learned how to find it experience great satisfaction.
Go along with Eileen Darby as she works—and learn how she achieved success in the challenging field of theater photography
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RAY MACKLAND
DURING THAT late unlamented period when Broadway was so boomy that just any ordinary theater ticket could pretend to the indefensible respect usually reserved for hit shows, Eileen Darby could be particularly nonchalant about such rare items as tickets for Broadway shows.
Consistent winner of contests and a prolific salon exhibitor, A. Aubrey Bodine tells how he achieves the print quality that makes his pictures easily recognized wherever they are seen
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PRINT QUALITY, that elusive charm which too few photographs possess, has been a subject for discussion ever since Fox Talbot first made a print on paper in 1839. To describe print quality in detail would be like describing a beautiful woman— each should attain the zenith of perfection.
Keep portraiture out of your parlor! There’s no muss and no fuss for the rest of the family when you have a spot all your own in which to work
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ROLLAND MORRIS
AFTER a more or less steady diet of pets, children, scenics, candids, and attempts to take human interest pictures having “story values,” the average amateur photographer begins to consider portraiture seriously. He pauses before studio window displays and tells himself that, Heck, he can do that well for half the price!
Improved color processes, leases, lights, and techniques lead the fascinating parade of advances that marched through the industry.
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DR. WALTER CLARK
COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY again led the field in progress during the past year. There are more than thirty different color products on the market, although, of course, the number of basically different processes is appreciably fewer than this. It was, however, probably a record year for the number of new processes to be introduced and of improvements to be announced in existing ones.
Electronic flash solves most lighting problems for Harry Litof, New York illustration photographer
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DAVID B. EISENDRATH
WHEN ELECTRONIC FLASH emerged from the laboratory, its startling ability to “freeze” fast action captured the fancy of photographers everywhere. The early users of speedlight equipment exploited this characteristic to the limit, and we saw amazing pictures of whirling fan blades, breaking eggs, and squirting seltzer bottles, all without a trace of blur due to motion.
YOU can get more than ordinary pleasure out of working with color if you enjoy experimenting, and one of the most interesting possibilities to explore is the use of colored light. Not all types of subject matter lend themselves to this approach, of course, but it can produce striking results with tabletops, still-life setups, figure studies and, in general, with more abstract material.
THERE is a common saying that many photographers have a screw loose somewhere. But there is a great difference between the very earnest, considerate cameraman who goes about his business with dispatch and a professional air, and the upstart who attempts to fly under false colors to cover up his inefficiency and also, in many instances, an adolescent ego.
Here is a fascinating project that will enable you to put your camera artistry to good use in brightening up that home library
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ROBERT B. KOHL
HERE’S a chance for you to put your camera to work. If you have ever made a photographic greeting card you know the pride you felt with the results. This interesting darkroom project will give you just as much pride of accomplishment and dress up your library with a personal photographic bookplate, too.
as portrayed by Willard Conrow of Pasadena, California. His ingenuity and imagination converted a routine portrait of a girl into an interesting color fantasy
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TECHNICALLY good color pictures are always pleasing, but when a little originality and know-how are used in planning a setup, the results can be outstanding. Here is a good example, and, oddly enough, one that can be duplicated by anyone who has an inexpensive pen-type flashlight.
This glorious color shot is the reward a photographer earned by planning his picture well in advance and rushing to the scene at the opportune time
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Maurice Fisher
BENN MITCHELL of New York City has proved with his beautiful picture, “River Sunset,” that it is not difficult to obtain a striking color shot in the heart of a metropolitan area. Whether it’s a country or urban scene, it can be captured vividly if the photographer is alert and has an inherent feeling for color.
The past and present of photography in all of its phases are now presented at George Eastman House. Here professional and tyro find exhibits to thrill them
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NORMAN C. LIPTON
SOMETHING of genuine value to everyone interested in photography and picture taking—from the snapshooting tourist to the specialist in some phase of the photographic process—will be found henceforth in George Eastman House, at Rochester, N. Y.
Many a negative has been ruined by electrical discharges. To avoid their ill effects you have to understand what causes them
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THE STRANGE LOOKING dots and dashes, branch-like marks, and tiny stars illustrated on this page have baffled many photographers who tried to understand why such defects invaded their films one day and were absent the next. They are “static marks,” caused by discharges of friction-generated static electricity.
Western Girl, the eye-catching photograph which introduces this month’s picture section, was taken by Peter James Samerjan in an old barn at Sherman Oaks, Calif. The photographer used a 4x5 Model D Graflex equipped with a 7½-in. Kodak lens.
One of PHILIPPE HALSMAN’S favorite movie actors is the French comic and pantomimist, Fernandel. One day last winter, the two met for the first time and Halsman, eager to enlarge the Frenchman's American audience, conducted a photographic interview.
Good pictures are a forceful means of promoting positive thought and action in the battle against polio
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THE potentialities of photography as a hard-hitting medium in poster art have been demonstrated by entries in the contest held recently by the Museum of Modern Art in co-operation with the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. Four of the poster designs entered by outstanding woman photographers are reproduced herewith.
The building and equipping of a spacious, up-to-date darkroom for the Boys’ Club of Newport News, Va., is just one tangible benefit bestowed on the youngsters by the James River Camera Club of that city. In addition, camera club members have been contributing their time and abilities to instructing the teenagers in how to take, develop, and enlarge photographs.
Thrill and mystify your audiences with home movies that are pepped up with startling tricks. You and your camera can do the job easily
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MAURICE L. FISHER
THERE’S nothing more soul-satisfying to a cine amateur than to show some of his films to an audience and receive their wholehearted approval. Everything in life is rosy when, sitting by the running projector, the movie maker hears his audience chortle with glee, gasp with amazement, or notices heads being scratched in utter bewilderment.
This film, done solely by animation, screens comprehensive study of free enterprise. Looking in on a boy, Freddie, we find him lamenting having to stir soap for mother when he could be at play. He dreams of making soap better and faster, and after years of research, perfects a cake soap.
Conducted according to the recommended practices of Photographic Society of America. First Louisiana Amateur Photographers Salon and Competition*, Louisiana Art Commission, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. On exhibit at Louisiana Art Commission Galleries, Baton Rouge, Jan. 3 to 29.
CREATED TO PROVIDE a miniature outfit, especially for picture taking in color, the new Kodak Pony 828 camera is announced by the Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, N. Y. The camera is equipped with a 3-element coated 51-mm Kodak Anaston f/4.5 lens, focusing from 2½ feet to infinity, and the new Kodak.
Whether you use the simplest box camera or the most complicated miniature, this book will do two things for you: it will show you how to take top-notch baby pictures; it will inspire, with its more than 100 baby photographs, new ideas for different and unusual poses and cute situations in which to snap your child.
IOWA DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION will conduct the 4th Annual Greater Iowa Photographic Contest, offering $300 in cash prizes for outstanding photographs of Iowa. The Contest is open to anyone, but each picture submitted must have been taken in the state.