CHAPTER III 



TENT AND CAMERA: THE TOOLS OF BIRD-PHOTOGRAPHY 



T")HOTOGRAPHY has become so essential to the practice of 

 1 the other arts and sciences that the student need not 

 suffer from lack of advice, or of detailed manuals which treat 

 every branch of the subject. 



In the notes which follow I shall confine myself mainly to the 

 results of personal experience in working with the tent. 



The Observation Tent. To satisfy the student and photog- 

 rapher of birds, the tent must not only afford a perfect means 

 of concealment, but must be light, portable, easily adjusted, 

 and to the fastidious a most important consideration com- 

 fortable for the worker. 



The first tent constructed which meets these requirements 

 fairly well, and has seen service for five seasons, will now be 

 described. It is made of stout grass -green T denim, and with 

 the frame weighs only six and one half pounds. It can be 

 pitched in ten minutes almost anywhere, and may be com- 

 pactly rolled, and carried for miles without serious inconvenience. 

 It is 6i ft. tall, 3 ft. 8 in. long, and 3 ft. wide, dimensions which 

 will be found suitable for a person not much above the average 

 height. One may spend any number of hours in it by day or 

 night, and with a fair degree of comfort, excepting in very hot 

 or sultry weather, when exposed to the sun on all sides. I 

 have suspended operations but once on account of the heat, 

 but there have been occasions when to have done so might have 



1 Brown or gray might answer as well. The green color serves to 

 render the tent inconspicuous to both animals and men. 



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