84 PHOTOGRAPHY FOR NATURALISTS. 



is familiar to most people, and so is the common blue- 

 bottle. Both are photographically easy, but the 

 majority of the odd British 3,000 are too minute to be 

 of any particular photographic value. Generally it 

 may be conceded that, when we have to measure in 

 " lines," photography without the aid of magnifiers, 

 prolonged exposure, and, consequently, killing or 

 stupefaction of the sitters, becomes impossible. If 

 it were not for this, pulex irritans at work would 

 form a fine lantern slide. 



With the orthoptera one's hopes spring into new 

 being. Crickets, grasshoppers, and cockroaches all 

 form interesting objects, and require no qualifications 

 in the photographer other than patience, watchfulness, 

 and the power to secure them. A grasshopper forms 

 the initial letter of the present chapter. He is 

 especially interesting to the writer as having been one 

 of his first essays in the photography of the minute, 

 and as having initiated him into the great secret of 

 insect photography that of bringing the insect 

 within range of the camera rather than the camera 

 within range of the insect. Grasshoppers were 

 practically innumerable in the spot where this particular 

 one was taken. The writer had a half-plate camera 

 with him, and was in search of " views." The number 

 of the grasshoppers suggested the possibility of using 

 plates which might otherwise have been brought home 

 to accumulate pinholes. At first an effort was made 

 to secure a picture by focussing a likely piece of grass 

 and waiting on fortune. The decline of day made 



