138 The Field Naturalist' s Quarterly May 



Animal Photography. 



By Alfred Watkins. 



Within the last ten years a very striking change has taken 

 place in the illustration of natural history subjects. Photo- 

 graphy has been available for many years ; but the naturalist 

 had rather overlooked it, and if he wanted photographs, had 

 to call in the professional to his aid, with most unsatisfactory 

 results. It is the same now as in the days of Bewick — no 

 one but the naturalist himself can illustrate his own writings 

 so as to be in complete touch with the subject. 



A new school of naturalists therefore — quite free from the 

 old contempt for the " mechanical photograph " — have made 

 themselves masters of the handicraft, and being naturalists 

 first and craftsmen afterwards, have raised photographic 

 illustration in these matters to a higher level. The names 

 of Saville Kent, the brothers Kearton, Lodge, Pike, and 

 English, will illustrate this point. Who can now lecture on 

 a subject requiring illustration without photographic slides ? 

 And how much more effective such illustrations are if they 

 are obviously the lecturer's own work. I write, therefore, 

 with the idea and hope of helping those naturalists who wish 

 to avail themselves of the modern means of illustration so 

 ready to hand. 



At the very outset there is a pitfall ready for the unwary. 

 Innumerable are the varieties of tempting hand-cameras of 

 every type. I have nothing to say against these for the 

 summer tourist, or for the reader who does not wish to go 

 beyond an occasional snap-shot of sheep, horses, cattle, and 

 so on ; but to the average member of a Naturalist's Field 

 Club — the readers I am writing for — the following considera- 

 tions must be noted. 



It will often be required to photograph an object full size, 

 and to do this the camera must rack out to double the usual 

 focus of the lens. In the great majority of cases the camera 

 must be fixed on a stand, not held in the hand. I think 

 it will be found that almost all the good work of such 



