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Nature-Faking With the Camera. 



BY RALPH OSB0RXE, IN PHOTO ERA. 



The amateur photographer who has 

 exhausted the subjects generally found 

 about his home will hail with more or 

 less enthusiasm a new field for his 

 camera-activities. Although there is 

 nothing surprisingly novel about the 

 branch of photography I am about to 

 describe, for it is neither more nor less 

 than "table-top photography," yet it 

 appears that all too few amateurs avail 



Yet he is not censured for it, so why 

 should not the amateur photographer 

 be allowed a similar privilege? 



The idea of this sort of photography 

 came to me from a desire to do some 

 still-life studies — something a little dif- 

 ferent from the eternal over-turned 

 basket of fruit, vegetables and the like. 

 While passing an Easter display in a 

 shop-window, it occurred to me that 

 these same chicks and goslings, with 

 which the window was decorated, 



THE EARLY BIRD CATCHES THE WORM. 



themselves of this interesting pastime. 

 It consists simply in using for photo- 

 graphic models, stuffed and imitation 

 animals and insects that may be picked 

 up in the shops for a few cents. 



At the outset, it must be said that 

 these stuffed-animal studies are in the 

 nature of a "fake." Yet it is just this 

 very trick that the painter uses when 

 he causes his lay-figures of men and 

 beasts to assume natural poses and then 

 paints them as actual, living creatures. 



would make excellent models for my 

 new venture- I therefore set about 

 collecting a stock of what in the theatri- 

 cal profession would be called "prop- 

 erties." My stock at present comprises 

 a small family of chickens and ducks ; 

 a rubber snake that does not look too 

 unreal ; a spider whose legs are made of 

 wire springs that joggle like fury at 

 just the wrong time, thus making the 

 photographing of him exceedingly dif- 

 ficult ; and a grotesque dog that I dis- 



