14 Photography for the Sportsman Naturalist 



Of course, if one wants simply pictures of the 

 animals themselves, this method is all right ; but 

 then we should not attempt to give the impres- 

 sion that they were photographed in the open by 

 using home-made surroundings and accessories of 

 grass, leaves, tree-trunks, rocks, etc., but should 

 photograph them free from all surroundings and 

 leave the products to speak for themselves as 

 mere anatomical studies of the animals. The 

 use of these accessories is misleading in its 

 results, for while these results may be perfect 

 pictures of the animals themselves the idea con- 

 veyed by them to the average mind of how these 

 same animals live their everyday life is almost 

 certain to be erroneous, for there is almost 

 invariably a false note struck somewhere. 



I have in mind a certain picture of a woodcock, 

 taken by a well-known advocate of this method 

 of work, in which, while the photograph of the 

 bird itself is admirable, the setting is so obviously 

 manufactured as to give one the impression that 

 it is nothing more or less than a reproduction of 

 a rather poorly mounted specimen. 



It may be that I am hypercritical ; that, having 

 worked for years among the inhabitants of the 

 fields and woods in my chosen branch of study, 

 natural history, I have come to know our wild 

 neighbors of the ground and air too well, and that 

 in consequence I can too easily detect any false 



