PHOTOGRAPHING NESTS AND EGGS 35 



PART II 



PHOTOGRAPHING NESTS CONTAINING YOUNG BIRDS 



Outfit required. — The same as for Part I, with the exception of the lens, 

 which should be very rapid and have great depth of focus. 



More interesting but far less satisfactory is this 

 branch of bird photography. Occasionally we hap- 

 pen to obtain really good results, but take it all in 

 all the pictures of the young birds in their nests, 

 especially the smaller ones, are very disappointing. 

 The reasons are obvious, but difficult to overcome. 

 To begin with, very young birds are in constant 

 motion, and this motion is fairly rapid; when at rest 

 it is due only to the respiration, but when their heads 

 are raised they tremble violently, owing no doubt 

 to the weakness of their muscles. Therefore all 

 photographs should be made with a very short ex- 

 posure, if sharpness of outline is desired. Of course 

 this means that the lens must be used wide open or 

 nearly so, with the resulting lack of depth of focus. 

 When the young birds are asleep or are resting they 

 huddle together so closely that one cannot be distin- 

 guished from the other, and the photograph simply 

 shows a mass that might be almost anything. This 

 applies more particularly to small birds up to the size 

 of the robin. With the larger birds this difficulty is 

 far less noticeable. 



