Twice Told Tuesday - Do Your Best

Twice Told Tuesday features a photography related article reprinted from old photography books, magazines, and newspapers.

In the March issue of Shades, Behind The Camera featured a woman behind the camera, Mrs. E.N. Lockwood. She was a photographer and author of photographic related articles. Twice Told Tuesday reprints one article for the magazine Photographic Mosaics. MRS Lockwood cautions us to always "Do Our Best!" I wonder if this article was the inspiration for "The Devil Wears Prada."

(Written for Photographic Mosaics.)

DO YOUR BEST

BY MRS. E. N. LOCKWOOD

D0 Your Best! Nothing was ever gained by slighting anything you attempted; for whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well.

You may be hurried or wearied with your work, or something may have gone wrong in the day's labors to make you feel almost discouraged—when, in comes a customer for a sitting. You feel almost angry that they should dare enter your precincts, and the impulse is, not to care whether you do your best or not, if you only get their money, and get rid of them quickly. But, if you fail of doing your work as well as usual, or treat your customers as inward ill-nature is apt to do, under such circumstances, you injure yourself mentally as well as financially; and lose one whom you might have made a lasting friend and patron.

I find this phase of life in every department of business pursuits; and those who succeed are the ones who have learned to do their best, at all times and under all circumstances, letting nothing turn them from their fixed purpose of doing right, and being conscientious in their work, from the smallest to the largest and most important part.

You may be only an apprentice, just beginning in your art-work, having all the drudgery—as it seems to you—to do, and you "hate it, and, in consequence, slight it. Your paper is so carelessly silvered, much has to be thrown away; your glass, also, so poorly prepared, the negatives lose brilliancy and strength. Your workroom is all ''upside down," and littered-up, lacking order in every corner; and you feel just like your room, every time you enter it, not knowing why.

Look within yourself, and see if the fault is not there; and then, at once, make up your mind and determine to do your best by yourself. Search the inner garden of your life— your thoughts; pull out every weed, and give only that which will bring some good to you, or those you labor for, a chance to thrive; and you will soon be surprised at your progress, and the confidence and respect you will acquire from everyone with whom you come in contact.

Try it, young men; try it, young ladies (and even the older ones are not past reformation); and you will never regret the result.

An example of an Egyptian Photograph and

a specialty of Mrs. E. N. Lockwood

discussed in the March Issue of Shades.

Shades also Gives Her Face A Place. This nameless woman photographed by Wagness, Cor. of 11th & Pacific Ave., Tacoma, Wash.

Sources:

Lockwood, Mrs. E.N., "Do Your Best."Photographic Mosaics, June 1883, 104.

Unknown Woman, Wagness. Cabinet Card. Privately held by the footnoteMaven, Preston, Washington. 2007.