METHODS IN AQUATIC PHOTOGRAPHY 



By William Alanson Bryan 



During the past year I have spent considerable time in 

 putting" into final shape certain material I have long been 

 gathering for a popular natural history of the Hawaiian 

 Islands. The preparing of suitable original illustrations 

 had to be taken up at such odd times as various other duties 

 would permit. 



The working out of my problem, alone and in the middle 

 of the Pacific Ocean, without so much as the aid of a single 

 printed page on the subject of nature photography, resulted 

 in the gaining of much valuable experience on one hand 

 and the waste of no small amount of good photographic 

 material on the other. However, my isolation made it not 

 only possible but necessary for me to rediscover for myself 

 much that others may have previously found out, but in 

 doing so I developed certain methods and apparatus on 

 independent lines that appear not to have been in common 

 use. Some of these especially in the field of aquatic photog- 

 raphy have proved so useful to me in my work that I venture 

 to describe them somewhat briefly, thinking the results of 

 my experiences may be useful to other naturalists who, 

 similarly situated, may be struggling with their own problem 

 of original photographic illustration. 



One of the things to which considerable thought was 

 given in my work was the developing of a plan that would 

 give the largest number of illustrations at the least possible 

 expense in the subsequent printing and half-toning. 

 Economy made the use of plates when possible seem most 

 desirable. Owing to the variety of subjects treated in the 

 letterpress, their adoption in this case, in many instances, 

 made it necessary to combine a variety of subjects on a 

 single plate. 



After considerable experimenting the plan of mounting 



