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Show Davig How a Flower Behaves at the Moment Mo-ment of Its Birth. INTER-ISLAND AIR-WATS OVKR MALI, H. I. IT ISN'T often that I cornet a victim where he can't escape. es-cape. Out of Honolulu, destination desti-nation the Island of Maiu, second sec-ond largest in the Hawaiian group, I reached the airport just in time to scramble into the tail pit and take the last seat. Across from me sat a roly-poly red - faced man with sky - blue eyes and a contagious smile. No sooner had we slipped from the earth than he began to fuss with a sixteen-millimeter motion picture camera. Another nut, thought I. Why pictures of the sea? Blue don't photograph well anyhow. j Presently I discovered that he was supplied with films for taking natural color. That settled it; he must be a millionaire gone daffy over the rainbow racket. "They come high, these techni-, color experiments," I remarked. I "Very, especially if you don't ' know what you're doing," he re- , plied, fumbling around in his upper vest pocket from which he resurrected resur-rected a card that he passed over to me. "I've sort of gotten by that phase of photography. Business with me now." Lord of the Lens. I glanced at the bristol: "Arthur C. Pillsbury." Luckily, for me. Here, two thousand feet in the air, unprotected one might say, and no place to go, was the wizard who had with his camera juggled the spectrum and given the laugh to the fourth dimension. A naturalist, scientist, inventor, explorer and Lord of the Lens. With his camera j he made explorations in plant and ' animal life that place him among I the eminent. Fate had delivered : him into my hands. "Sorry, Mr. Pillsbury," I said, "but you're the man I have long wished to talk with." "About what?" he asked, continuing continu-ing his manipulation of the camera. "Flower photography . . . Oh, yes, I've heard your lecture, but there is another phase, not entirely photographic, photo-graphic, which you alone can explain. ex-plain. And that is the resemblance that flowers bear to human beings, particularly in their behavior when they are in the act of blossoming. More frequently perhaps than any other man, you have witnessed this miracle." "Ask your questions. I will reply to the best of my knowledge." "Name the most heroic, the most modest, the most flirtatious, the most deliberate, the most majestic flowers that you have observed through the camera." Up forward, on a sixteen - passenger pas-senger plane, the propellers make considerable noise, luckily for me, cut down 60 per cent in the tail seats. Mr. Pillsbury came across 100 per cent. Tiger Lily Is Bombastic. "If you want to put it that way, the most heroic, or the most bombastic bom-bastic perhaps would suit better, the tiger lily heads the list," he said. "When it is ready to come forth there is a visible straining of the petals, all of which cling together to-gether from base to tip. In the struggle they split down the sides, but remain apparently fastened at the top. Rampant to emerge, the tiger lily, already disclosing a wealth of color within the halfclosed petals, displays what amounts : to physical resistance. I "Most modest is the morning glory; unfolding slcwly, like some-1 thing startled at the coming of sunlight, her petals expanding with rhythmic deliberation. At the sight of the world she retires behind her silken blinds and is forgotten. for-gotten. With the morning glory I associate the daisy, for the very reason that the latter combines a playfulness with her good breeding. "Deliberate is the rose, fashioned to beautify with the solidarity of her color and the perfection of her form, she emerges with stateliness the more magnificent because of its fullness. How Magician Works. "The swiftest blooming flower is the Cup of Gold, which attains its maximum beauty here in Hawaii. Fifteen minutes after the Cup begins be-gins to appear, she is out in full plumage. On the screen, through pictures run at the rate of twenty-four twenty-four exposures a second, this entire transaction in the blossoming of the Gold Cup will consume about forty-five seconds." "In flower photography, designed to show the actual blossoming, do you work outdoors?" "Never! Wind, sunlight, shadows, etc., are never stationary. Only in the studio, under electric lights, equalized temperatures and artificial artifi-cial conditions, can perfect photog-t photog-t raphy in natural colors be guaranteed. guar-anteed. When a specimen flower is about to bloom, I make an exposure every five seconds for a certain period and then an exposure every two seconds. The camera works automatically for one day of twenty-four hours and the picture is shown on the screen at the rate of twenty-four exposures a second. Western Newspaper Union. |