82 Photography for the Sportsman Naturalist 



better able to choose for himself than I am to 

 choose for him. 



It is said that a good workman can work with 

 any tools, but it is not so in photography ; for no 

 one can take a picture requiring an exposure of 

 J^-Q of a second with a lens whose limit of capacity 

 in speed does not exceed ^ of a second, and no 

 one can make a shutter whose highest tension 

 allows it to work no faster than r ^- of a second 

 answer the purpose of one that is manufactured 

 especially to make exposures ranging from ^ to 

 ToVo of a second. 



In work on the living wild things speed is pre- 

 eminently necessary. We cannot tell our subjects 

 to " sit still and look pleasant," but we must be 

 ready to catch their images whenever and wher- 

 ever we may ; and in order to do this an exposure 

 of j^Vo f a second is no unusual thing. This 

 may seem to be an absurdly small length of time, 

 and, indeed, it is almost smaller than we can 

 appreciate. It is faster than the human eye can 

 work, and yet it is none too fast to stop the action 

 in the wings of a flying bird and it is entirely 

 inadequate when applied to the rapidly fluttering 

 wings of a butterfly. Photographs are taken in 

 less time than this, remarkable as it may seem to 

 some, but not, however, with the orthodox camera 

 and lens ; and it is unnecessary for me to enter 

 into a description of anything but those appli- 



