The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1902-04-26
NATURE PHOTOGR .PHY.

With the recent increase of interest
in all matters pertaining to natural
history, there has risen corresponding
desire on the part of nature students to
keep records of their observations.
The necessity of keeping such records
is in direct proportion to the number of
observations made in a given time; If a
man is observing, every day, the keep
| ing of records is an absolute necessity,
The memory, willing and useful as 1t
Is, has its ations, and as the facts
are crowded into it day after day, the
earlier ones are pushed further and
| further back, and become more and
more hazy and indistinct, Many peo-
pie simply keep note books but others
| find great pleasure in supplementing
| their written notes with photographic
| Illustrations of the natural objects
which they observe. l have had some
success in the making of such illustra-
tons, and I am frequently asked to re-
commend lens and camera, suitable
for nature photography.
My answer is. in a general way
Buy the best you can afford" While
fully believe that any camera even
dollar one, is better than no camera,
strongly recommend any one who in
tends to do considerable amount Of
serious work to get one with high
grade, rapid lens, and shutter fast
enough to do Justice. ] advise this on
the score of economy alone; by using
IA cheap instrument, one can easily
fritter away, in time, plates and chem
=,
first-class one. Personally | use a Go
cry lens. series III, No. A. fitted to a
reflex camera, with focal plane shut
ter, and that combination suits me bet
ter than any other | have used. 1t
gives a man great confidence to feel
that he has an instrument in his hand
which is fast enough to take an animal
no matter how fast it may move, and
with which he can make instantaneous
pictures even on dull or hazy days. AS
far as plates are concerned, any of the
high grade ones will give satisfactory
results.
For taking flowers, butterflies or
other objects having red or yellow in
them of course isocrromatic plates
should be used as they are made on
purpose; ordinary plates are scarcely
affected by these colors, and red and
yellow flowers will come out black or
nearly so. To obtain white cloud eff
fects, a ray filter must be used in addi-
ton
The nature photographer has wide |
range Of subjects to choose from IL
he is working chiefly for amusement he |
can get it by taking anything which |
happens to please him-now a birds |
nest, now wild flower, now bullfrog |
but If he wishes to do serious work !
without devoting his entire time to it, |
he will be forced to take some special |
ty.
In all work of this nature the photo |
grapher will find problems which he |
will have to solve for himself, and the |
Keynote of success is to be found in the |
word ingenuity The Kearton !
brothers. who have been so successful |
in photogfaphing British wild birds |
and their nests have resorted to many |
interesting expedients in order to APP |
proach sufficiently near to their living |
subjects Amongst other things they
have made an artificial tree trunk of
painted canvas, stretched over a light
wooden frame. This is set down near
the nest or other spot frequented by
the bird to be photographed, and, it be-
ing hollow the photographer can get
inside, and await the approach Of his
subject. At other times they utilize
such cover as happens to be at hand
and hide with their cameras beneath a
haycock or In a wagon partly filled
with hay. One of their most useful
Is stuffed OK. with a
hollow inside it large enough to accom-
modate q man. This OK appears to be !
grazing and birds are not at all ner-
yous in its presence. Another bird
sings himself, Indian
fashion, beneath the belly of horse,
and in that way approaches much
closer to birds than he could possibly
do on foot. Another man uses decoys
and still another takes advantage Of
the violent hatred which many birds
have for owls, and brings them in
front of his camera by simply putting
up mounted specimen of an owl in
place.
| have had some success i'll photo
graphing birds which have been at