PHOTOGRAPHING BIG GAME. 



A. G. Wallihan. 



In northwestern Colorado big game is 

 probably more abundant than in 

 any other section of the United 

 States. About five years ago my wife 

 suggested the idea of my taking up 

 photography and preserving by that 

 means pictures of these grand animals, 

 as it can only be a few years before bar- 

 barous man will do away with the game. 

 Having been in their midst for seven 

 years 1 was well informed as to their 

 runways and their habits. 1 con- 

 sidered myself a good hunter and a 

 good shot, having usually been success- 

 ful in supplying the larder with meat. 

 All old hunters will admit that great 

 skill and care are necessary to get within 

 thirty feet of an antelope or deer and to 

 get within ten yards of elk, on open 

 country, yet I knew this must be done 

 in order to get good photographs. 



From a poor outfit, to begin with, I 

 learned by sad experience what lenses, 

 camera, plates, etc., I needed. 1 soon 

 found Carbutt's celluloid films — cut 

 sizes, not the rolls — were far lighter 

 than and would produce as good results 

 as any glass plate. As much of my 

 work would require a great deal of 

 riding, necessitating the carrying of my 

 camera on a shoulder strap, weight was 

 an important item. Short focus lenses 

 being useless, a camera of long bellows 

 was next. Then as long a focussed lens 

 as could be used was selected, which is so 

 constructed as to give — used double — 

 8^2 inch focus, the back lens alone i^V 2 

 inch and the front lens alone 18 inch, 

 which latter magnifies about 2 to 4 with 

 the 8% inch. Being made to use 

 alone they give good images. A good 

 shutter completes the outfit. 



My first efforts were with a 9 inch 

 focus lens and I smile now at the mere 

 specks on the plates secured with it. 

 They only spurred me on to secure 

 better apparatus and better negatives. 



About three years ago I rode my 

 pony over to the deer trail, when the 

 deer were on their migration to winter 



range, and, after a short wait, secured 

 my first good deer negative, at about 40 

 yards. I was crouching behind a small 

 rabbit bush and the bunch of six or 

 eight passed within twenty steps of me. 

 When they had passed by to about 

 forty steps, I called to them and they 

 stopped long enough to enable me to 

 make the exposure. 



My next negative was. made only a 

 few hundred yards from the scene of the 



IN THE SAGE BRUSH. 



first. As I approached the trail I saw 

 a large bunch come down and go into 

 the gulch to drink at a spring. I hur- 

 ried up to the bank but just as I reached 

 the top part of the bunch came out on 

 the other side and I could not get a view 

 of those drinking, so I was compelled 

 to make the exposure on those in sight. 

 At another time I sat up the camera 

 on a trail, in the cedars, and lay dowm 



