HOLIDAY SNAPS

Greymouth Evening Star, 3 November 1923, Page 7

HOLIDAY SNAPS

HOW TO GET GOOD PICTURES. As an enthusiastic photographer (says a writer in the “Weekly Scotsman’’), 1 make the statement that a holiday spent without a camera, if not exactly a spoilt holiday, is at least not a complete one. When you think about it, a simple holiday snapshot is rather a remarkabe thing. As I write I have before me a photograph of a little beck tumbling down a craggy mountain side, foaming and sparkling in the bright sunshine. Doubtless many other photographers have prints of a similar nature, and the non-photographer may ask : “What purpose does the taking of these snapshots serve when one can easily pur--5 chase a picture postcard of the same ■ scene for a penny or so?” Well I derive considerable pleasure 2 in the ’mere act of photographing such 1 a scene, and the very fact of doing so impresses that particular place upon my memory in a way that the picture ’ postcard would never do. It is a perS sonal snap, and it serves as a memory stimulant in days long after that holiday is obscured by the passage of time. Our memories are very, very short, 5 and anything that serves to recall the pleasant passages and days of life is doing something very useful and valuable. Life is largely composed of memories. The happier one’s memories - the saner and pleasanter is one’s outlook on life. Not only does that simple snap recall the beautiful phenomena of Nature to me in a very vivid manner, but it also awakens a train of reminiscences that are connected with the photographing of that snap. But to be of real use one’s holiday ■ snapshots should be as good as one can make them. It is surprising what a great number of indifferent snaps are taken which could have been vastly better if the photographer had taken a • little time to think before he snapped off his shutter. lam not concerned so much with the more technical details > of exopsure, focussing, and so forth. What I mean are the pictorial or artistic qualities of a good snapshot ‘ which help to make it an interesting and vivid reminder of a particular holiday scene. What is it that enables one man to make really good snapshots and another man can only get bad ones? It is not the camera, for even the simplest one will take good photographs when properly used. Neither is it the lens, nor the plates or films. What is more important is the man behind the camera. A careful choice of subject is the most important factor in the art of taking good snapshots. And it is necessary to have an “eye for pictures.” This “eye for pictures” can be cultivated, and the best way to do so is to observe and study the works of good black and white artists and photographers. If you find that you gain a great deal of pleasure from the mere obsercation of pictures, and that you understand and appreciate the idea that lies behind most of these, then you are beginning to develop your latent artistic faculties, and you will gain a love of the beautiful and the interesting that will become part of your own personality, and that you will get into your snapshots. This seems a very grandiloquent idea to apply to a simple snapshot. But it is true. Even the humblest work of art has something of the essence of beauty in it which makes it better than the average. The majority of holiday snapshots fail to convey a convincing idea of the country and the scenes which the photographer has witnessed, because he does not take enough care to understand the principles and the limitations of photography when applied to picture-making. For this reason the average travel snapshot of mountain and moorland scenery is very disappointing to its owner. Most likely he was impressed by the height and majestic grandeur of a distant mountain, but this mountain when reduced to the few square inches of a photograph loses its impressiveness and seems little better than a mere molehill. The experienced photographer knows this will happen, however, and in order to retain this impression of height in his mountain snaps he resorts to one or two simple dodges. If a group of frees are included in the foreground of a mountain scene it will serve as a scale of proportion hy which the eye willmea sure the height of the mountain. Trees growing on the slopes of hill and human figures in the foreground also add to the impressiveness of the mountain, and convey a sense of strength to it. A strong foreground gives a picture thta valuable pictorial effect known to artists as “atmospheric perspective,” which simply means that it makes. a mountain which is a mile or two distant, look a mile or two distant, when rendered on the .single plane sur face of a photograph. Picture making is all illusion. The artist, whether he° is a photographer or painter or either, has to show height, breadth and distance on a perfectly level surface in one plane. A good collection of holiday snapshots should not, however, consist mere of scenery snapshots. It should really illustrate, like a diary, all the interesting events, people, qnd things which one experiences and st s. There are heaps of interesting thing: taking place everywhere which are worth photographing; snapshots of country people at work and at pleasure actually engaged in doing something, or showing “action” have convincing snapshots which are heaps more interesting than a group of village children photographed gazing directly at the camera. When figures like these can be introduced in a village setting they make snapshots which convey the “atmosphere” of the village far belter than a common-place view of the High street will do, such as one can buy on a picture-postcard. In the majority of cases it will be found that a “bit” of the village is far better than the whole for picturemaking. If you observe the little sketches of nooks and comers which many artists are so fond of sketching you will agree with me at once. They seize upon some sunny old-world cornel-, and the result is a delightful little picture, quaint and wholly picturesque, winch not only delights the eye and gives one pleasure, but also conveys a great deal of instruction on the way old places are built, the material ' they are built of, in a very interesting , manner far more convincing than pages of guide book matter would be. Tn all holiday photography it is a . distinct advantage to have a definite i idea behind each photograph that is t taken. This is much better than mere- ’ ly exposing plates and films in obed- - ience to a wayward fancy. Whether ‘ at the seaside, in the country walking, ' cycling, caravaning. or boating a cen--1 ti-al idea or theme should form the bas- ’ is <>f one’s photography, and the photographs built iqp around that, but even if this is not carried out it should always be borne in mind that most;

good snapshots are not the result of chance, but, are obtained by thinking well before snapshotting.