Even the Technical Processes of Photography have been Reduced to Popular Terms
In These Days Photography has become so Simplified that every Child can Use a Camera to Advantage
In general, the vacation cannot be more profitably spent elsewhere than outdoors. If a boy cannot actually go into the woods, away from home and the restrictions which modern living must of necessity impose, then the next best thing is pastime or amusement which requires outdoors for a setting. There is much to be said for each and every one of the sports common at the present time, baseball, tennis, football, golf, boating, riding—they are all good—and every healthy child will take part in one or more. Now a book about sport can never teach a boy or girl how to become skilful; it cannot explain the mystery of the golf stroke or pitched curve, but it can and does awaken the spirit of trial and test. It suggests that there is possibly a right way to do things; to play even, if one would succeed. The book may tell of the necessity for team work and organization, for system and regular living, and observance of rules made by others. In other words, the book acts through suggestion, very seldom directly; and for the same reason that one gives children books on mechanics, sewing, pets and gardening, that they may learn of the dignity and worth of these occupations, so also does one recommend books of sport and games, which surely are the more valuable when taken in all seriousness. It is through their games, involving dependence upon the confidence in others, that children acquire the best traits of character.
Aside from the inherent return in physical well-being derived from amusement in the open air—one can use this kind of medicine twelve months in the year—such pastime possesses a second quality of no mean importance; it brings one, ofttimes unconsciously, into communication or hailing distance at least of that nature which is so charming. It is easy to see the beauties of birds and flowers and skies, in camp; and the dynamic loveliness of crisp fall weather, even in a great city, is evidenced out of doors by the animation of passersby. But one cannot read about the beauties of beneficent nature; one must enjoy them personally, and is led on to do so through those pastimes which take place in the open. Several of these have been mentioned, and there is one other: photography.
Photography has almost ceased to be a science; it is a habit. One goes to the store, invests in a comfortably small parcel and a book of instructions which says "press here," and that is about all. The fine succeeding details are minor matters. Whether one merely "presses the button" or goes the whole road and really makes the picture, photography has come to be a regular accessory to sport and enjoyment. No doubt it is evidence of human vanity, but it takes so mild a form and is the source of so much pleasure that the world needs it, to preserve the thousand and one scenes and incidents which comprise the background of life.
