Photographing Nests and Young Birds 



the tripod. A hole may be made (C) so that the regular tripod 

 screw can be used when taking photographs of other objects. 



Occasionally it is desirable to take a photograph of the old 

 bird on the nest, but this is by no means easy. The camera 

 should be arranged and focussed on the nest while the parent bird 

 is away, taking care to remove the leaves or twigs that would be 

 out of focus in the immediate foreground. The instrument must 

 be concealed to some extent by leaves and twigs, and the operator 

 will have to take pains to see that nothing interferes with the 

 working of the shutter. A long tube must be substituted for the 

 short one, and either a large bulb or, if convenient, a bicycle 

 hand-pump will answer the purpose admirably. In this way I 

 have made time exposures with the camera fastened to the higher 

 branches of a tree, where the shade made it necessary to give a 

 five-second exposure and I found that the branch shook if I stood 

 on it. Once a tube nearly forty feet long was used, and with the 

 aid of the bicycle pump I got an excellent picture. 



A very useful accessory to the bird-nest photographer's out- 

 fit is a pair of pruning clippers for removing small twigs and 

 leaves. 



The surroundings of the nest should not be disturbed more 

 than one can help, since this gives an artificial appearance to the 

 picture and is apt to frighten away the owners. 



as 



