Cameraman

“ Then those of the players who had been looking on and wondering at Mr. Switzer's cries could hurry to his rescue.
For it is a crime out of the ordinary in the annals of moving pictures for any one not in the scene to get within range of the camera when an [31] act is being filmed. It means not only the spoiling of the reel, perhaps, but a retaking of that particular action. When Russ ceased to grind at the camera crank, however, it was the same as when the shutter of an ordinary camera is closed. No more views can be taken. It was safe for others to cross the field of vision. ”

“ The operator is not trammelled with a bulky outfit. He carries his camera in his hand or slings it across his back in the manner of a knapsack. When he wishes to film an incident he is not harassed even by the crowd. He is not compelled to set up a tripod or to climb to an elevated point to get clear of the sea of heads. He can hold the camera above his head, and by means of a second and special view finder placed on the under side of the instrument he can sight and follow the subject while pressing the button. ”

“ Turning a handle on the outside of the camera operates it. So that when the scene is ready to be photographed the actors, whether men or animals, begin to move. The handle turns, and the unexposed film is wound from one reel to the other, inside the camera, passing behind the lens, so that the picture falls on it in a flash, just as you take one snapshot. But, as I have said, the moving picture camera takes snapshot after snapshot—sixteen a second—until many thousands are taken, so that when the pictures are shown afterward they give the effect of continuous motion. ”

“ That answer may certainly be deduced from the absolute identity of the impressions received by all the spectators. But to-day I am adducing a direct proof which I consider to be unassailable. The camera refuses any sort of suggestion. The camera is not a brain in which the picture can create itself, in which an hallucination is formed out of internal data. It is a witness that does not lie and is not mistaken. Well, this witness has spoken. The sensitive plate certifies the phenomena to be real. ”

“ He and his lens see at least so much of a given battle as any man with a pencil, and what they see they see with unfailing accuracy. Take that battery in action which Mr. Wollen choses to cite as a subject wherein the powerlessness of the camera is supposed to be illustrated. The camera man does not fear the test. He can show the guns coming into action, record their unlimbering, depict the preparation for firing, and time a photograph at the actual moment of firing. It is true that his picture will not show quite such a volume of smoke as the sketch of the man with the pencil. ”

“ He placed a large detective camera in the corner opposite the till, and beside it, and a little behind, a quantity of flash-light powder in a receptacle. This powder was connected by electric wires with the till in such a manner, that when the drawer was opened the circuit would be completed and the powder ignited. Everything worked to perfection. The office is always left dark at night, so the shutter of the camera could be left open without spoiling the film. The camera was in place Sunday evening, but the thief stayed away. It was set again on Monday night, and that time we got him. ”

“ And while the great majority of the attempts to get them prove failures, the photographer—usually an amateur-needs only to provide an avenue in front of his lens a short distance, that is free from falling flakes by the use of a shelter such as a tree or porch. The slow snapshot necessary in cloudy weather will not stop the motion of the flakes nearest the camera and these passing through greater angles of space in equal length of time than those farther away, will blur on the negative. ”

“ THE CAMERA OBSCURA AND CAMERA LUCIDA. The construction of the camera obscura is founded on the fact that the rays of light, when collected into a point either by being passed through a small hole or a converging lens, form an image of the objects from which they proceed at the point of meeting. This may be readily tried by piercing the shutter of a room with a small hole, and holding a piece of paper within a short distance of it. It will be noticed that the smaller the hole the more distant will be the image formed. ”

“ The subject was placed in front of the screen, the room darkened, the camera being placed in front of the sitter and screen. A Blitz-lamp exposure of five to six seconds was then made. Result--not a single specimen that equals our old silhouette. So much for our Viennese photographic cousins. In these great United States we simply tack a piece of muslin in front of a window, place the subject directly in front, shut off all other light in the room, focus, fire, and develop. Result--a good sharp profile almost all the time. ”

“ I came once upon a gang of such young rascals passing the growler after a successful raid of some sort, down at the West Thirty-seventh Street dock, and, having my camera along, offered to "take" them. They were not old and wary enough to be shy of the photographer, whose acquaintance they usually first make in handcuffs and the grip of a policeman; or their vanity overcame their caution. It is entirely in keeping with the tough's character that he should love of all things to pose before a photographer, and the ambition is usually the stronger the more repulsive the tough. ”

“ Bertillon has cleared up many crimes with this help, such as the mystery of the shooting in the Hotel Quai d'Orsay and other cases. The metric photograph, I believe, will in time rank with the portrait parle, finger prints, and the rest.
"For instance, in order to solve the riddle of a crime the detective's first task is to study the scene topographically. Plans and elevations of a room or house are made. The position of each object is painstakingly noted. In addition, the all-seeing eye of the camera is called into requisition. ”

“ I said; for by that time I had seen a bruise on one corner of the camera where I dropped it once.
“All right,” said he. “Come along. You go after the man, and don’t lose sight of him, and I’ll go around this little building and meet him.”
So we did. And it worked first-rate. The guard was a fly sort of a fellow, and instead of asking the man whether that was his camera, he asked him whether he had a permit for it. ”

“ I’m beginning to realize the tremendous possibilities of a camera at times. That evidence would be accepted in court as conclusive. Go, and wash the film carefully, Will. If you fail to get a few great scenes, you don’t lose everything, it seems.”
“Isn’t that the Peters tribe setting sail, Frank?”
“Why it is, as sure as you live. I wonder they stayed so late. They must be pretty hungry by this time if that educated ape got away with all they had. ”

“ I'd built one of these last year as a science fair project and had been thrown out of the fair once I showed that there were hidden cameras in half the classrooms at Chavez High. Pinhead video-cameras cost less than a good restaurant dinner these days, so they're showing up everywhere. Sneaky store clerks put them in changing rooms or tanning salons and get pervy with the hidden footage they get from their customers -- sometimes they just put it on the net. Knowing how to turn a toilet-paper roll and three bucks' worth of parts into a camera-detector is just good sense. ”

“ A spot for the scene is chosen, the camera set up, and all is ready. The range of vision of the camera’s eye, the lens, is an angle, and care is taken to indicate to the players the boundaries of that angle. Outside those lines the players may group themselves idly, but within the lines the camera registers everything, once the crank is turning. The first scene taken is to show the thief scaling the fence. The player is rehearsed once or twice, perhaps even oftener, until he does the action in the exact way the director wishes it done. ”

“ And when I made prints from them, and the familiar home scenes and my playmates’ faces were there plainly before me, it seemed to me that the universe could hold nothing more entrancing than amateur photography. Of course I had failures, but they were few compared with the successes.
One morning in May, after I had become thoroughly versed in the art of using the camera and had fitted up a dark-room of my own in the attic, Lester and I sallied out with our cameras, for no other purpose than to secure a half-dozen snap-shots whenever desirable ones might present themselves. ”

“ Since the perfection of modern photographic apparatus, — the hand-camera with its quick shutters, rapid dry-plates and films, — the hunting of wild life with a camera has become a fascinating recreation. Even in sporting circles there is a call to substitute the camera for the gun as the sportsman's weapon. Forest and Stream, arguing for such a change, says: “Every camera hunter must admit that more immediate and lasting pleasure is afforded in raking a running deer from stem to stern at twenty yards with his 5 x 7 bore camera than in driving an ounce ball through its heart at 100 yards. ”

“ A camera is a splendid thing to have along on one's trips abroad. No matter how vivid an impression a certain scene makes upon one's mind, it is bound to fade with the passing of a year or so. But a clear snap-shot taken of that scene will keep it fresh indefinitely, for one needs only to glance at the picture to have all associations with the scene recalled. ”

“ Now I will answer this question before going any further, because it has a bearing on the subject before us—the making of a handy and cheap camera obscura, which cannot fail to be a source of amusement and pleasure, especially when the sun shines.
The reason why the object on the photographer’s ground-glass plate is seen upside down is easily explained. Light, as I need hardly remind older boys, proceeds in straight lines from any illuminated object. It is thus thrown upon the photographer’s plate. A glance at the accompanying diagram (Fig. 1) will suffice to show what I mean. ”

“ Scottie McFadden, a veteran photographer of the Press, was discovered to be entrenched in his favorite dark room.
“Can’t come out for another quarter hour,” his voice sounded out through the walls. “These fight pictures must be out for the early edition. What have you got?”
“One of Jimmie’s candid camera shots,” John Nightingale winked at his friends as he shouted through the dark room walls.
“Candid camera!” came roaring out from the dark room, “You may as well all go home. Nothing big will ever come from a picture the size of a postage stamp.” ”

“ Then there is the swinging camera, by means of which a wide sweep of view can be included in one plate. A device of great practical value is photo-telegraphy, by which portraits for purposes of identification can be sent by cable and by wireless. In modern warfare the uses of the camera are many and varied. They include panoramic photography, photographing by moonlight, photographing of projectiles in the air, even photographing the noise of a gun by recording the vibrations due to the displacement of the air, photo map-making, photo surveying from the air, and the aviation gun camera. ”

“ The camera is the apex of an angle which encloses a breadth of only a few feet in the nearest photographic distance, while it may include a width of miles in the far distant landscape. Whatever comes to the foreground therefore gains strongly in relative importance over its surroundings. Moving away from the camera means a reduction much greater than a mere stepping to the background on the theater stage. Furthermore lifeless things have much more chance for movements in the moving pictures than on the stage and their motions, too, can contribute toward the right setting of the attention. ”

“ I shall place the camera on the parapet of the Embankment. I have fitted the shutter with a specially long pneumatic tube, and the bulb will do its double work as usual when my fingers relax. I have long had it all in my mind. I have written full instructions on the envelope which I shall stick by the flap to the open slide; if we are found by a reasonably intelligent person, the slide will be shut, and the camera handed over bodily to the police. They, I think, may be trusted to honour one’s last instructions, if only out of curiosity ”

“ Keen and kindly they are, twinkling just now as though he were inwardly smiling, perhaps at my very apparent embarrassment.
Before we can get together, however, there comes forward the camera brigade with its flashlight ammunition. Would we pose together? Wells looks hopeless. I must show that before cameras I am very much of a person, and I take the initiative with the lens peepers.
We are photoed sitting, standing, hats on and off, and in every other stereotyped position known to camera men. ”

“ The camera has done its work so well that the very reflection of the sun’s rays and the soft glimmer of the summer air are shown as perfectly as they could be seen with the natural eye. In fact it has been said, and truly so, that the camera is a good detective, for it discovers objects which are invisible to ordinary human sight, and prints them indelibly upon its sensitive plates. Hence good photographs, like those in Glimpses of America, are in many respects more desirable than a visit to the scenes themselves. ”

“ When they had escaped down the Potomac with the ransom, they forgot that a hundred cameras were trained upon them. Even their stupendous speed could not outstride the sensitive plate that can catch a perfect likeness in one two-thousandth part of a second. The duplex shutter is craftier than the criminal. The camera can outwit the cannon ball. ”