Ideal Home Life - online book

A valuable and well-organized system for home education(homeschooling) 3 to 12 years.

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	i HOME HANDICRAFT                             361 be carried in the pocket. They can be put into the camera in daylight. If you are wise, you will buy an inexpensive film camera, to start with, either of the box type, and technically known as "fixed focus," or of the folding variety which slips in the pocket. "Fixed focus" is a term meaning that the lens is always stationary with relation to the film or plate, and re­quires no focusing at any time. For scientific and impossible-to-get-over reasons, all fixed focus cameras are for comparatively small-sized plates or films. They are rarely 4 by 5 inches, more commonly 3 1/2 by 3 1/2 which is a good size to begin with. The smaller size has the added advantage of making the supplies, the rolls of films, cost less. The First Step But whether you buy a fixed focus box camera or a fold­ing pocket Kodak, the first thing you should do is to sit down at your leisure and examine the thing carefully. If you have a box Kodak, in front, in the center, you will find a hole. Behind something in this hole is the lens. The something is the shutter. Not knowing the particular variety you have bought, I cannot tell you exactly how to operate your shutter, but it is probably by means of a little projecting lever on top or at the side of the box camera, or a little lever or a rubber bulb in the folding Kodak. Find out from the instruction book, and work it. Work it a lot. See just how much mus­cular force you need to press it to make the shutter wink back and forth across the lens. Practice doing it with the camera held about in the pit of the stomach by the left hand, and try to hold it steady. It is very essential for the success of any picture taken when the camera is held in the hand, that ft, the camera, be held steadily, and with as little jar and shake as possible. The next thing is to learn how to put the roll of film in the camera. Right here spoil a roll of film to know just how it is made. First break the seal of paper which surround^ it. Then unwind it completely. This unwinding will utterly