Introduction xv 



posed while wet and developed immediately after the 

 exposure, before the surface had time to dry. 



While a collodion dry plate was invented shortly 

 after Archer's process was given to the public, still it 

 did not supersede the wet plate, and it was not until 

 the late seventies that the gelatine negative plate was 

 introduced. 



The years from 1877 to 1880 could be called, photo- 

 graphically, the years of the struggle between the wet 

 and the dry plate processes ; but the dry plate won, as 

 was bound to be the case from its greater practicability, 

 and in a few years it completely took the place of the 

 antiquated wet plate. 



Now commenced the rapid advancement in photog- 

 raphy that has not yet ceased. New and better appli- 

 ances were constantly being perfected. Every year 

 saw a faster lens and shutter on the market. Men of 

 the arts and sciences took greater and greater interest 

 in photography, until, finally, when the apparatus had 

 reached that stage of perfection that permitted it, 

 nature workers took up the camera. 



Nowadays the equipment of a worker in any of the 

 branches of the natural sciences is incomplete unless 

 it includes a photographic outfit, and it should be so 

 with the sportsman. 



It is in the hopes of inducing many who have here- 

 tofore never used a camera to take it up, and of helping 

 those who wish to photograph the wild denizens of our 

 woods, fields, and streams, that this book is written. 



It is distinctly a book for the beginner, and to the 

 expert in nature photography it will probably prove of 

 little or no use. The suggestions and advice which I 



