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Making Photos as Big as Billboards

WHEN Uncle Sam does anything he generally does it on a grand scale. And at the photographic bureau of the Department of Agriculture he carries out these well established principles by turning out photos that are as big as billboards.

These photos when completed are distributed throughout the country to the various agriculture schools and to special agriculture classes carried on for the benefit of farmers who wish to acquaint themselves with the latest developments in the science of farming. Read the rest of this entry »

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Animate Your Photographs

A pull on a string and this photo comes to life. To make this toy choose or make a photograph of your child (or even yourself) in a pose which shows the arms and legs suitably extended. Make two identical enlargements and glue these on thin Masonite or plywood.

Now you have two mounted prints; on one you will want to use only the torso, so mark off the legs and arms. Read the rest of this entry »

Pigeons Now Take Aerial Photos
AN automatic miniature camera strapped to the breast of a carrier pigeon is the latest method being employed for the making of aerial photographs in Germany. The camera is timed so that shutter is snapped at regular intervals in bird’s flight.

Futuristic Tower Of Light
TO MAKE this trick shot, an enlarged photo was made of a common 1-1/2-in. wood screw. The image of the screw was cut from the print and pasted to another made from a cloud negative. The base line of trees was painted on the combined print with water color and the combination was copied with the camera on process film. The beams of light were worked in by hand on the copy negative and the final print was then made.

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Kinescope Photos

TV pictures ore easy to take, but look what happens if you use a focal plane shutter.

IF you own a television set and camera, you can start a photographic collection of your favorite TV stars right in your own living room. No lights are necessary, in fact the best results are obtained by having all the lights in the room out when you take your shots. The only extra piece of equipment that you will need is a tripod. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo Wallpaper
THROW out that wallpaper! Away with plaster! Your home may now have magnificent new walls—walls covered seemingly with rare and beautiful materials such as hare-wood, woven rattan, marble, even snakeskin—all practically indistinguishable from the real thing.

The Di-Noc Company of Cleveland makes it possible. Using a record-sized camera they take color shots of the material to be reproduced, etch the exposures so obtained on copper plates, and use the plates for printing by the gravure process on an extremely thin paperbacked film. Film with backing is transferred in large areas to any flat surface and the backing stripped away.

Party Fun With This FREAK Camera

IF YOU are looking for something different in party entertainment, perhaps a freak camera similar to that shown here will help.

This camera started life as a store box. A little paint and a trimming of lantern-slide tape transformed it into something resembling a camera. From that point the construction consisted of attaching accessories that have no connection with photography.
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CAMERA COP In Tokyo can take flashbulb picture of traffic violations (for use as evidence) by touching button on handlebar. Any 35mm camera can be used with the mechanism; no photo skill required.

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America’s Five Favorite Hobbies

By EDWIN TEALE

AMERICA is the hobby center of the world. More money is spent annually on hobbies in the United States than in any other country on earth. From old-fashioned whittling to polarized-light microscopy, a thousand and one spare-time interests provide Americans with relaxation and amusement. Seeking relief from the strain of an uncertain future, millions of persons, in recent months, have joined the ranks of the hobby-riders.

Supplying the needs of America’s vast army of hobbyists has become big business. Factories with incomes of millions of dollars annually cater to the wants of men and women who are following specialized hobbies. Each week sees an increasing number of hobby columns in newspapers and hobby volumes on the shelves of libraries and bookstores.
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Fun With Funnygraph Photos

By WALTER E. BURTON

Distorted photographs giving the bizarre effect one obtains on looking into a curved mirror provide a novel form of fun-making. The methods of producing such photos described below can be used by any amateur photographer.

DID you ever see a funnygraph? Or perhaps you would prefer to call it a “phoneygraph.” Anyway, a funnygraph is an ideal means of proving, photographically, how your friends do not look. It is simply a photographic enlargement that has been purposely distorted by any of a dozen or more methods so that the normal features are no longer normal. Read the rest of this entry »

Anybody want to find the current equivalent photos? I’m guessing that almost all of these buildings will be obscured. Plus I think Manhattan is a little bigger now.

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GOTHAM’S CANYONS Up-To-Date

Remarkable Aerial Photos of Manhattan’s Ever – Changing Skyline.
Photos by Ewing Galloway

Mountains of Brick and Glass! That is what O. Henry might have called these man-made skyscrapers. Here is an air shot looking directly down Fifth Avenue. New buildings are pointed out.

Here’s how the famous Battery looks to an airman. The new financial district, the winding 6th Avenue Elevated line and the Staten Island ferry piers can be seen. A symphony in architecture!
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Making Photographs In Color

by Keith Henney

Easy to “shoot”, color films open new opportunities for camera fans.

ALTHOUGH color photography for the amateur has been possible for many years, it is only recently that advantage has been taken of the several processes available. Advertisers have been conscious of the attention-getting value of color for some time; magazine editors have lately begun to use full-color photographs as cover illustrations and have been paying enormous sums of money ($500 to $1,000) for good “shots.” Perhaps this increasing use of color photography in the graphic arts is what has focused the attention of the amateur on the fact that he, too, may take pictures in color.
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