Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-11-02
HUNTING WITH CAMERAS
TOLD OF BY HASKIN
Daily Letter by Frederic J. HaskIn

WASHINGTON, Oct. 30.-The
new sport of hunting with a camera
instead of with a gun is gaining
thousands of recruits this season.
This is distinctly noticeable all
through our eastern marshes and
woodlands, where field glasses and
cameras are now almost as much in
evidence as uns
Evidently the younger generation
of American sportsmen, being ex-
members of outdoor study clubs or
ex-Boy Scouts. are aware of a fact
that well known naturalists have
long since urged upon attention
namely, that it is much more ex-
citing sport to photograph wild life
than to kill it. AS DR.. William Horn
aday says, ANY duffer with a good
check book, a professional guide and
a high power repeating rifle can kill
I big game, but it takes good wood
craft, skill and endurance of a high
order to enable a man or woman
to cur a really fine photograph of
a fine wild animal in its unfeathered
haunts."
This very difficulty, while fright
ening off the lazy and timid, is an
additional incentive to the man who
seeks in hunting not the spoils of
an easy victory but the satisfaction
of matching his skill and cunning
against the superlative cunning of
wild animals. Furthermore, a game
bag filled with squirrels or reed birds
represents but a temporary triumph
while a game bag filled with photo
graphic plates represents a perma-
nent achievement. Then there is a
qualification of the creative impulse
- Z : /
now almost totally absent in killing
game. Our ancestors used to kill
with a constructive purpose-be-
cause they needed meat or clothing
for their families-but since the nee
essity motive has been eliminated
from hunting, shooting expenditures
have largely d~egenerated into little
more than cruel orgies.
1t was the introduction of the
light, ~ever-ready, universal kodak
about the beginning of the present
century which first suggested the in
teresting possibilities in photograph
ing wild animals. BY this time, ac-
cording to DR.. Hornaday, the long
continued slaughter of American big
game had begun to produce on the
public mind certain strong effects.
People began to realize that the
deadly efficiency of the high-power
repeating rifles and automatic shot
guns was rapidly DISCRIMINATING the
game of America, great and small.
Consequently, thousands of sports
men became so disguised with game
slaughter that they hung up their
guns forever. ITO this group" says
Hornaday, the possibilities of hunt
ing with a camera instantly appealed.
Hundreds took to the camera"
Originated in Colorado
To Mr.. A. G.. Wallihan, or rathet
to Mrs. A. G. Wallihan, belongs the
credit of furnishing the first great
impulse in America to the photo
graphing of wild game on the hoof,
free in its own haunts. Like most
great pioneers, the Wallihans
CHANGED upon their discovery quite
Wallihan was crouched in the sage
brush on the outskirts of her home
town of Lay, Colorado, she looked
up to find herself closely surround
ed by a herd of mule deer. What
a wonderful picture" she thought,
"if it were only possible to take 1t
with a camera" On the way back
to the house, she pondered the idea
the idea of photographing wild
animals with the aid of a blind, a
fixed Gamers
Mr.. Wallihan, who was a profess
sionaI photographer, at once recog-
nized the value of his wife's sugges-
ton. In a short time, the couple
were in pursuit of wild mule deer
and prong-horned antelope and elk,
armed with heavy tripod cameras,
which they carefully set up ana
tended along the game trails. They
camped, cooked, packed and trailed
and fought wind and weather for
ten adventurous years in order to
i secure the delightful pictures pub
lished in 1901 by Doubleday Page
| & Company under the title, Cam
era Shots at Big Came"
This publication practically mark
ed the beginning of a new art, fol
the pictures were hailed with re-
spect not only by biologists but by
famous artists as well. Paintings o.
wild animals, with few exceptions
have always been something of 9
Joke to biologists, as the artists
studies have generally had to be
made in ZOOS and museums, where
the animals have quite a differen'
appearance from those IN the wilC
state. On the other hand. photo
graphs Of wild game have often pro
voked snorts of disgust from artists
because they have lacked compost