Fig. 3.
Now your portable camera is complete. To use it, all you have to do is to hold it in your hand, with the lens turned towards the picture you want represented, and the shade raised, then to pull the focusing-drawer in and out till you have a clear, well-defined picture on your ground-glass top. When the sun is shining brightly the effect is charming; but you yourself and camera ought to be well in the shade.
Now, the instrument I describe is very simple, but its principles may be extended. You might have it on a stand with racks and pulleys for adjustment; and you may have a dark cloth over the shade: the picture will then be ever so much more bright. The great charm of a camera like this is to have a real and lifelike picture in natural colours spread out before you, to see still life as it stands, the trees waving in the wind, and flowers nodding in the sunshine, and every human being or animal that passes walking and moving on your plate.
SECTION VII.
THE BOY’S OWN WORKSHOP.
