BIRDS OF OUR BUSH 



must make allowances accordingly. Frequently the bird 

 will persist in facing in a wrong direction, either while 

 perched or while sitting on a nest. If one of the party 

 moves slowly round the nest, or if a handkerchief on a stick 

 is moved round instead, the sitter will very often move 

 into the correct position in its endeavour to keep the object 

 in view. This method is specially efficient where it is 

 desired that the position of the head only be altered. The 

 little Brown Flycatcher pictured on page 44 was influenced 

 just in this way. 



It will be noticed, on glancing through the illustra- 

 tions in this book, that the majority of the birds are 

 in a position roughly at right angles to a line drawn 

 from the camera. This position is advisable where pos- 

 sible, as all portions of the bird, being approximately equi- 

 distant from the lens, are likely to be correctly focussed. 

 If, for instance, the subject were facing directly towards the 

 camera, most probably either head or tail would be out of 

 focus. 



The beginner will find that the quickness of the bird's 

 movements in visiting and leaving the nest will account 

 for the waste of many plates. With nests having the 

 entrance at the side and with nests built at the end of a 

 burrow in the ground, this difficulty may, in a great mea- 

 sure, be overcome by blocking the entrance thereof. 

 Being unable to enter its home, the bird often remains 

 for a considerable time on the spot selected. In other 

 cases a wave of the hand or other movement at the right 

 moment often causes the subject to hesitate for a sufficient 

 length of time. 



We have purposely refrained from giving any instruc- 

 tion regarding development and the like. Such informa- 

 tion is much better obtained from works by experts. But 

 one or two points suggest themselves as applying parti- 

 cularly to the Nature photographer. We always aim, when 

 developing, at obtaining negatives showing as much con- 

 trast as possible. In addition to giving a greater appear- 

 ance of relief to the print, we think that such negatives 

 make better enlargements, and are more suitable for repro- 

 duction. There are ways, moreover, in which soft results 

 may be obtained if desired in prints from hard "con- 

 trasty" negatives. We therefore continue development of 



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