Daniel Louis Mundy
1874, 25 December
Photographic Experiences in New Zealand

Magazine page
Google Books
D.L. Mundy "Photographic Experiences in New Zealand" The British Journal of Photography, December 25, 1874, p.618-620
 
My usual plan of proceeding was to erect an ordinary digger's tent, supported upon a couple of forked poles and well fastened down with guy-ropes; then, from the ridge of the structure, suspending a square photographic tent mode of mackintosh material, with black calico skirts resting on the ground and kept securely fixed with stones. In fine weather this supplementary operating-tent was erected outside the ordinary dwelling ; but at other times better protection was afforded by suspending it within the larger tent. A square window of yellow oiled silk, measuring about eighteen inches in both dimensions, admitted enough light to work by, and was, of course, proof against fracture during my journeys. A pack-horse carried a couple of strong leather trunks slung from the saddle, in one of which the chemicals were packed, while the apparatus was placed in the other. The camera-legs, folded tent, and stereo, camera were carried aloft on the back of the animal, between the panniers, and the second horse had enough to carry in the shape of the ordinary impedimenta of a traveller. When disposed for work the two boxes were placed within the tent, unpacked, and the dipping bath filled from the contents of two or three Hollands' bottles holding the silver solution, secured until now by corks protected with india-rubber finger-stalls. The top of each bottle was carefully tied over with a piece of cloth. I have never used stoppered bottles, preferring to carry collodion and solutions packed in this manner. I learnt this from a sad mishap I once had, when I lost nearly everything through using stoppered bottles. One of the empty trunks was used to support the dipping bath and screen it from the light and dust whilst sensitising ; and the other formed a convenient table with a primitive stool in front, consisting of a wooden board twelve inches long by four inches wide supported upon a single leg. My developing dish was a square tin tray six inches deep, and measuring about 20 x 16 inches.
 
Besides the stereoscope camera I carried a 12 x 10 Kinnear bellows camera. The optical instruments consisted of Ross's triplet for distant views (some of my Alpine views were taken by this lens; No. 167 shows the Alps forty miles away up the river beds), while I used Dallmeyer's wide-angle rectilinear lens for closer studies. Some idea of the range and performance of the last-named instrument can be judged from plates 117 and 133, where a palm tree thirty or, at most, forty feet from the camera is seen with satisfactory definition, the distant ranges, four miles away, being likewise sharply focussed. With a quarter-inch stop eight seconds was the ordinary exposure, and I never, as a rule, exceeded twelve seconds.
 
I may mention that it was found necessary in a dry climate to pass a moistened sponge once round the inside of the camera, and then to wash out the dark slide, so as to guard against the too rapid drying of the plate, and that thirty-five minutes was the longest interval that was allowed to elapse between the preparation and development of the negative. Three or four folds of moistened red blotting-paper applied to the back of the sensitised plate likewise assisted in preserving a moist film ; to keep out light and dust the carrier was always enveloped in a black velvet bag. I should mention, also, that a very convenient dipper was made for me in the colony out of a flattened ribbon of pure silver, made in the usual form of the wire dippers, but with strengthening bands placed at intervals to give greater rigidity. Out of seventy plates exposed during one of my tours it was only necessary in four instances to repeat the operation on account of misjudging the time, and the same number of negatives (four) were lost by fracture during transit. For developer I commonly used a thirty-grain solution of the double sulphate of iron and ammonium, containing, in addition, half its weight of sugar, and intensified, when necessary, with pyrogallic acid and silver. All the plates were fixed with a dilute solution of cyanide of potassium, and then washed with water from a tin kettle holding about a gallon, which served me, besides, for making the tea and for other culinary purposes. The collodion and varnishes were supplied to me by a well-known maker, and I had never any trouble with them. The glass baths furnished in my original outfit unfortunately got broken; and this mishap occasioned a delay of three months whilst another dipping-bath, made of porcelain, was being forwarded from Sydney. This I found far preferable ; there was less danger of breakage, and I could always have a clean bath by changing the bottles holding the bath solutions.
 
Under favourable circumstances my kit was unpacked, mounted for use, and the 12 x 10 plates, besides the stereo, negatives, taken in the space of three-quarters of an hour. This was when not camping down to stay. I had simply to choose a sheltered place from the wind and sun, make my tent fast under the limb of a tree, and commence operations. All the boxes were fitted with divisions, so that everything could be replaced for resuming the journey in the shortest possible interval.
 
The supply of water was at times one of my greatest difficulties; for when near the boiling springs I found everything so charged with sulphur and mineral matters that it frequently became necessary to send a distance of two miles or more to obtain a sample sufficiently pure. The natives generally knew where to find it; but it was so thick, from being ladled up with a calabash, that I had to allow it to settle before using it. The springs also were often far away from my scene of operations, and fetching the water was sometimes a very vexatious undertaking, much more so than the cooking of food, which in this district was almost an automatic proceeding.
 
LL/43198