BIRD PHOTOGRAPHY 11 



fairly heavy, though not of necessity large. A 

 sufficient size for most work is five by seven inches, 

 while some even prefer one as small as four by five. 

 This latter is of convenient size for those who wish 

 to have lantern slides made from their negatives, 

 and is certainly far better adapted to all whose 

 enthusiasm is limited, and who do not wish to 

 overburden themselves. 



For my own part I use the five by seven almost 

 exclusively, and frequently I wish it were larger, 

 particularly when the subject to be photographed 

 is the parent bird feeding her young after they 

 have left the nest. Place four or five fledglings on 

 a branch, leaving sufficient space on either side to 

 allow the old bird to stand, and reduce all this 

 interesting material down to a five-inch space, arid 

 you will realise the advantage of even the extra 

 two inches allowed by the five by seven. How 

 many times has it happened to me to have the 

 father or mother bird perch just outside the limits 

 of my five by seven plate, and assume some attitude 

 that I was most anxious to catch ; and again how 

 often has the plate through its limited size cut off 

 part of the adult bird. In such cases I long for my 

 larger camera which, on account of its weight, has 

 been left behind. 



Of course, bird photographs have to be taken 

 under widely different conditions. Some birds are 

 far less shy of man, and incidentally of the camera, 

 than others. 



It always seems surprising that a bird of such a 

 nervous disposition as the wood thrush undoubtedly 

 is, should be comparatively easy to photograph. 



