question
on these subjects so far as possible. Correspondents should
address Editor Stamp Department.

HOW TO CATCH CLOUDS.

7th. About
11th. this
14th. time
17th. look
21st. out
28th. for
31st. storms.

This was usually the weather warning in the old-time almanacs which the
farmer was in the habit of consulting nightly, in order to make his
plans for his haying or harvesting, his sowing or reaping, the success
of which depended on the state of the weather.

The amateur photographer who makes a specialty of landscapes should put
this warning in his note-book, substituting the word clouds for that of
storms, changing it to read, "About this time look out for clouds."

A picture of a landscape with clouds in the sky is much finer than where
the sky is perfectly white, and cloud pictures themselves are very
interesting.

It is not an easy matter to catch the clouds even when the sky is full
of them. If they are obtained in the negative, they are usually lost in
the printing, as the landscape portion of the negative, being less dense
than the sky, prints much more quickly, and to obtain a print of the
clouds the lines of the landscape would be almost black from
over-printing.

There is a device called a "cloud-catcher," which is a shutter so
arranged with adjustable disks that the foreground or landscape part of
the picture is given a time exposure, while the sky is taken
instantaneously. This is supposed to give the proper time of exposure
for each part of the picture.

The amateur cannot always afford such an attachment, and, in order to
obtain clouds in his landscapes, must resort to various devices of
developing and printing.

The most common method is to take two pictures, one exposed for the sky,
and the other for the landscape, and print from both negatives. In
printing from a "sky"-and-"landscape" negative, print the sky first,
covering the part of the sensitive paper on which the landscape is to be
printed. After printing the sky, place the other negative in the frame
and print the landscape. It does not matter if the opaque paper which
covers the landscape does not follow the horizon lines exactly, as the
darker tones of the landscape will blot out the outlines of the clouds
if they lap on the horizon.

If one has a negative where the clouds are good but will not print out
unless the rest of the picture is over-printed, a good print may be
obtained by this simpl