USING THE ORDINARY CAMERA 185 



will strengthen the contrasts somewhat. If it needs 

 more contrast, make the best possible print on con- 

 trastive glossy Velox, or similar developing paper, 

 and then photograph this print, developing for con- 

 trast. The result may be a very fine printing nega- 

 tive. In this way valuable subjects may be saved and 

 shown to the best advantage. 



When one has learned to make a fairly good land- 

 scape picture, it is time to begin on the easier sort of 

 bird-subjects. The best for first attempts, if the 

 season is right, are the nests of birds. The sort of 

 a bird's-nest picture often produced by the beginner 

 is the puzzle-picture, where one has to hunt for the 

 semblance of a tiny nest in a mass of foliage, in all 

 of which there is probably little detail, only staring 

 black and white, caused by under-exposure, bad light- 

 ing, and poor choice of position. 



Perhaps the best way to explain what to do is by 

 a concrete case. Late one cloudy afternoon in June 

 I was walking through a patch of woods on a side 

 hill up from a road when I flushed a veery, or Wil- 

 son's thrush, from the ground just ahead of me and 

 found its nest with four plain blue eggs, which I pro- 

 ceeded to photograph. It was located very prettily 

 among some plantains and other weeds, with taller 

 undergrowth arching over it. The latter I bent back 

 temporarily out of the way. 



Choosing a position from which the nest and eggs 

 were in full view, with the foliage conveniently and 

 prettily disposed, taking pains to disturb the sur- 



