CHAPTER NINE 



It is obvious how important, as well as interesting, photographic 

 records of fishes can be. In writing on the subject in the hope of having 

 others enter this field of work, the author presupposes a fair photographic 

 technique to start with. The main requirements are a small aquarium 

 with a front of thin plate glass and an adjustment for keeping the subject 

 in focus, a few card backgrounds of different shades, a sliding board on 

 which to focus the camera by moving the whole instrument (preferably, 

 but not necessarily, of back-focus design), and a lens working at about 

 F5 to F6. The author does his own work on a board, the ends of which 

 are laid on the seats of two chairs, fastening a piece of cardboard to the 

 back of one of the chairs to act as a background. The aquarium, with a 

 front seven inches square and a thickness of two and one-half inches, is 

 usually stood about a foot from the background, to keep it out of focus 

 and to avoid shadows from the edges of the aquarium. The fishes are 

 kept in the focal plane by use of an adjustable glass partition. For 

 holding small fishes in place the following simple arrangement is used: 

 three pieces of glass are cut about twice the width of the thickness of 

 the fish, and of a length from three to five inches, according to require- 

 ments of length of fish. The ends are fastened together with adhesive 

 tape like three sides of a square. The free ends are given a cut to end 

 them off at about forty-five degrees or less. These free ends are fastened 

 to top edge of partition by clips, first filing a nick in the beveled surface 

 for the clip to catch in. The glass partition with this three-sided cage 

 attached (open at top) is then pushed up against the front glass and the 

 apparatus is ready to receive the fish. This not only confines the fish 

 strictly in the focal space, but keeps it out of the corners of the aquarium, 

 where it would delight in exhausting the patience of the photographer. 

 It is a good plan to have a number of these little cages made up to 

 different sizes to suit the measurement of the fish to be photographed. 



Photographing to about two-thirds size is usually satisfactory. 

 Larger than this cuts down speed and focal depth too much. Water 



