PREPARING TUK SPECIMENS. 



Poorly proparod specimens spoil iiiaiiy an insect photoj^rapli. The 

 value and beauty of the plates in Howard's Insect IJook and Holland's 

 liutterHy and Moth Dooks were greatly eidianced by the care used in 

 selecting the best material ,'ind getting the wings, legs, and antenna) 

 in as neai-ly symmetrical or natural positions as possible. I often 

 spend more time in jjreiiaring a si)ecimen tlian in photographing it, 

 and the resulting lialf-tone always pays for doing it. 



In photographing from life, of course, one can not always po.se the 

 insect, but I find that insects can be coaxed often into desired atti- 

 tudes or positions by a little patient manipulation. To get sphinx, 

 Datana, and many other larva* in their characteristic positions it is 

 often necessary to only jar the supporting bi-anch just before expos- 

 ing. I once coaxed three ]Myron sphinx larxa- into a row on a branch 

 and then got them to all i-aise the front part of their bodies, thus 

 reminding one of a "cake walk." A little pinch often keeps larva? 

 quiet a few seconds, and it is necessary with Papilio caterpillars to 

 get them to project their osmateria. To get the best results, it is 

 absolutel}' necessary to have the insect perfectly (piiet for a few 

 seconds. 



Some insects are so restless or active that one can not pose them 

 alive. In such cases I often kill them in the cyanide bottle, and after 

 they become limp, arrange them as naturally as possible. The army- 

 worms on the eaten corn plant in my mucli-used picture were brought 

 5U miles, killed, and stuck on the plant the next day with tliick 

 Canada balsam. I have also obtained in this way quite lifelike pic- 

 tures from alcoholic specimens of larva* preserved for a year or more. 

 Patient and painstaking efforts of this kind are often repaid by verj' 

 good photograplis of otherwise impossible subjects. Sometimes I jnn 

 the insect in the desired position and paint out the pin on the negative 

 or print. 



BACKGROUNDS. 



Smootli wliitt' paper furnishes most of my backgrounds. Tinted 

 papers have helped me very little. Light-colored insects need a 

 black background, and the l»est thing I have found for this is a piece 

 of fine black velvet. 



FOCUSIN(; AND EXPOSING. 



One can save mucli time by marking on the side bars of the camera 

 the distance it is necessary to di-aw out the bellows to get an image 

 natural size or twice or mort^ enlarged. Our ground glass is marked 

 o(T with a pencil into areas of the size of tlie di(Terent-size<l plates 

 used, so it is easy to center the image and determine what size of 

 plate will be required. In the center of tlie ground glass we also 

 cement with Canada balsam a large, sciuare cover glass used on micro- 



