CHAPTER XXIII 



PHOTOGRAPHING WILD LIFE 



My first lens was a pinhole, my first camera a 

 converted cigar box. Soon I graduated to a 

 lens taken from a toy magic lantern and a home- 

 made camera and slides. Then came a cast-off 

 wet plate outfit. My principal victims were my 

 family. Julian was a baby then, but he earned a 

 princely income by posing for me at a cent a sit. 

 He had his own ideas of art even then and after I 

 had placed him he usually insisted on introduc- 

 ing his toys to give a human interest to the pic- 

 ture. 



It was late in the seventies when the introduc- 

 tion of the dry plate made it practicable to go 

 afield for subjects and it was then that the 

 thought of photographing wild life came to me. 

 I began this work at my cabin home in Peeka- 

 mose, but the shutter for fast work had not then 



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