1 86 HOW TO STUDY BIRDS 



roundings just as little as possible, I set the camera 

 on the tripod so that the lens would be about a yard 

 away, as I remember it, from the nest, pointing down 

 at an angle of about forty-five degrees. This would 

 be difficult to manage without the " goose-neck " de- 

 vice described in the preceding chapter, and I used it. 

 Then I focused sharply and got the nest about in the 

 center of the picture, a little nearer the bottom, yet 

 not so near but that there would be some foreground. 

 Next the aperture of the lens was stopped down to 

 about F30. 



The nest was wholly in the shade, which was 

 proper. Had it been in direct sunlight, it would 

 have been necessary to shade it by stretching out a 

 coat or focus-cloth over it. The photographic effect 

 of a nest in glaring sunlight is very bad. The eggs, 

 no matter what their color, will print staring white 

 where the light strikes, and black on their shaded 

 sides, and, if spotted or marked, the markings will 

 not show. This is particularly true if a snapshot 

 should be attempted. Even worse is a patchy light, 

 when the subject is partly illuminated and partly in 

 the shade. 



The next thing is to decide upon the proper time 

 of exposure. A rough estimate would be something 

 like this. In a fairly bright, diffused light, yet not 

 in direct sunshine, at a moderate distance, with lens 

 wide open, about one second would probably be right, 

 with green foliage surrounding, which makes the light 

 somewhat non-actinic. Half that or less would do 



