Practical Photography April 1969 [antikvár]

SNAPSHOTSfrom the editor's deskThe pracphot perquisiteWE ARE at it again, in this issue we offer you an Agfa projector free, stereo lenses, a Canon camera for 3d. and the London Camera Auction is swinging into its stride, what next ? I can tell you, a set of ten gorgeous glamour slides! I recently spent a couple of days with Michael Barring-ton Martin in his London studio. We were shooting Agfa colour pictures of girls, curvaceous, glamorous model girls. I have now seen the results and they are good, very good indeed. As I have never been one for keeping good things to myself, I'm going to let you in on this one too. In the interests of the promotion of colour photography and of the 35 mm. colour transparency in particular, I am prepared to sell to every reader of Practical Photography, a set of ten of these colour slides. What am I asking for these phenomenal specimen slides? I'm not asking for one pound; I am not even asking for fifteen bob. Gentlemen, the price, believe it or not is 14s. for a set of ten mounted 35 mm. colour slides, packed in a plastic box, and that includes packing and postage.One snag, you can't have them before 18th April, for they won't be processed until then. However, be not dismayed, we are open for advanced orders. Your fourteen shillings, sent to Practical Photography, P.O. Box 45, Oxford, will put you on our priority advance order list.So, I hear you say, "I don't even know what the subject matter looks like". You should worry; for fourteen bob, all will be revealed.Warning I Do not buy these colour4slides if you hate pretty girls, are colour blind, are over 98, or can take better pictures yourself.Enough of the commercials!Expand your interestWhen someone suggests that you should take a hobby seriously, he normally infers that you should spend more money on it and of course, the two factors are interlinked. I can't get away from finance either, but I should like to promote an aspect of photography which doesn't cost a lot of money and yet which allows you to derive enormous pleasure from it. Developing and enlarging your own black-and-white negatives is my theme. The equipment enthusiast is always itching to acquire yet another camera accessory. It is always the next lens he buys which will make his set complete, that is, until he covets yet another lens. All this costs him a lot of money and he often misses one of the creative aspects of photography because he shoots colour transparencies and allows a professional laboratory to process his film and mount his slides. Naturally, I've no desire to change his habits, for I freely admit that precision-made photographic equipment gives great pleasure to the owner.Still, I would dearly like to persuade him to buy a simple enlarger and the rest of the elementary equipment needed to fit out a darkroom. None of it costs a fortune, yet once it has been purchased, a new and fascinating facet of photographyopens up. From thereon, running costs are low. Personal satisfaction begins with the learning stages. It hardly matters whether the tyro gets good prints from his first, second or even third attempt, although there really is no reason why he shouldn't. Once he starts to get predictable results, he is on his way to mastering the real art of photography, and it's a sure bet that his picture-taking ability will improve simultaneously. Just you try looking at the projected image of one of your negatives on the enlarger easel and I'm sure you will wish to go and take the picture again so that you can improve it in some way.If you haven't tried developing and enlarging, you don't know whether it would fascinate you or not. Find yourself a friend with a darkroom and go and watch him. I reckon you will be enchanted.Who won the girl?As I write this, there is a Mr. M. L. Hewett of Shirley, Solihull, Warwickshire, preparing to visit London at our expense to spend a day photographing Maria Frost in the studio of Michael Barrington Martin. We will be there too, for we want to do a picture story on the shooting session.Mr. Hewett tells me that he will use his own 35 mm. camera for most of the day although he would like us to provide him with a Rolleiflex as well. Interesting point this. We were prepared and able to lend him any camera on the market today, and Mr. Hewett chose a Rollei.The "Win A Girl" perk was popular. We had a fair old sackful of entries so I'm going to do it again later this year. Have you any ideas on how we can make the competition even more attractive?A.J.S.Camera winnerThe winner of the Rolleiflex SL 26 camera, which we offered in the February issue of Practical Photography, was Mr. J. Handyside, 62 North Marine Road, Scarborough, Yorks. Mr. Handyside's winning line was C,A,B,E,J,H,G,D,F,I.