PHOTOGRAPHING WILD LIFE 441 



range and a mule deer came out fairly well, but a 

 mountain sheep was so distant that he showed as 

 a speck on the plate and two huge grizzlies that 

 I tried to take as they reached the top of a cliff 

 didn't show up on the plate when developed. 



In 1887 I began photographing wild life in 

 earnest. In the winter and spring I exposed 

 several hundred 5x8 plates in the Florida wilds 

 and on the west coast. I pictured birds of many 

 kinds, on their nests and in flocks, soaring in the 

 air like osprey and man-o'-war hawks, diving for 

 their prey like pelicans, or stalking it in the shal- 

 lows like the great white heron. The roll of the 

 porpoise, or dolphin, and the head of loggerhead 

 and green turtle as they came to the surface to 

 breathe were caught by the camera. The cotton 

 mouth coiled among the mangroves as well as the 

 slow-growing oysters on their branches became 

 food for the camera. The leap of the tarpon, the 

 struggles of the stricken sawfish, and the wing 

 tips of the sportive devil fish as they played above 

 the surface were reproduced on the sensitive 

 plate. 



