Alpine Photography



Alpine Photography


Alpine Club
Quarterly Meeting.
 
The first quarterly meeting of the New Zealand Alpine Club took place in the Art Gallery yesterday evening. There was a fairly good attendance, several ladies and other friends of members being present. Captain Hutton, the President, was in the chair, and announced that the Club had, at the present time, thirty-four members and six subscribers, and was in a position to undertake the publication of a journal recording exploration and ascents in the mountains.

He might mention that any one was eligible to become a subscriber simply by being elected, no climbing qualifications being required. Subscribers were entitled to all the privileges of members, except that of voting at the meetings and serving on the Committee.

A very important part of the duties of the Club was the helping of Alpine photography, and the Secretary, Mr Arthur Harper, had prepared a paper on that subject. It would be illustrated, by means of Mr Crook's lantern, with photographs of Alpine scenery, all of which, he was pleased to say, had been taken by members of the Club.

In his paper, Mr Harper mentioned that in New Zealand very few persons had carried the camera into the Alps, and only three, he believed, had taken it beyond the snow line. He explained the difficulties which the Alpine photographer in New Zealand had to contend with, and compared them with the facilities which were to be found for similar work in Switzerland.

It was, he said, wonderful how, twenty-five years ago, Mr Sealey (sic) [Edward Percy Sealy] managed to get his cumbrous wet-plate apparatus, to such a height up the glaciers of the Southern Alps, and to produce such good results. Mr Harper stated that he himself had found the most suitable camera for Alpine photography to be the half plate Meagher, which, with case, to be carried on the back, and supply of light plates, weighed but 15 1/4 1b. He had found that better pictures could be obtained by using glass plates than by the use of films, though glass plates were to a certain extent, objectionable on account of their weight. The question of what plates to use was, however, one for each intending photographer to decide for himself. He had found it possible to dispense with a tripod for supporting the camera, and had made a capital rest for it by sticking the handle of his ice axe in the ground and affixing the camera to the head by a screw. He explained that the great drawback of Alpine photographs as pictures was that they gave no idea of relative size.

After the conclusion of the paper, a number of very good photographs, mostly taken in high places in the Southern Alps, wore shown by means of Mr Crook's lantern, and afterwards those present inspected a collection of ice axes and other appliances used in Alpine climbing.
Star, Issue 7151, 9 December 1891, Page 4


 
Alpine Club.— A meeting of the New Zealand Alpine Club was held last evening. There was a good attendance, and the proceedings were very interesting.

The principal interest centred in the exhibition of photographs, of which a large number were shown. They included three splendid panoramas of the Mount Cook glaciers and a number of slides, taken by Messrs Wheeler and Son, and a selection of new glacier pictures by Messrs Burton Bros., Dunedin.

Messrs G. Mannering and Harper (Secretary) gave descriptive remarks on the various views, which were shown by lime-light by Mr Seager. Captain Hutton was Chairman.
Star, Issue 4665, 8 June 1893, Page 3

 

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