PHOTOGRAPHY 



18?. 



it. If the preservation of the mount is of 

 no consequence it is simple enough to soak 

 mount and all face downwards in a basin of 

 water until the mountant is thoroughly soft- 

 ened, and then peel the print off. But if the 

 prints are in an album, or if the mounts are 

 to be preserved, this method is impracticable. 

 The prints can be laid face upwards, and 

 wetted with a brush charged with water, but 

 if they are gelatine prints, and especially if 

 they have been alnmed, it is most difficult 

 to get them properly saturated in this way, 

 as the water will not spread evenly_ over 

 them. The soaking, however, can easily be 

 done in the following way, which I do not 

 remember to have seen described before. Cut 

 pieces of pure white blotting paper to size, 

 and have at hand a dish of water and a soft 

 brush. Lay a piece of dry blotting paper ex- 

 actly over the print, and while holding it in 

 position with one hand, dab water on with 

 the brush, beginning from the middle. As 

 soon as it is wet it will, of course, lie flat on 

 the print, and when thoroughly soaked it can 

 be left while the next print is being treated 

 in the same way. Leave it to soak for a 

 quaiter to half an hour (applying more water 

 from time to time if it shows signs of dry- 

 ing), and then lift the blotting paper care- 

 fully and see if the gelatine is evenly swollen. 

 If it is not, do not attempt to strip it, or 

 the unswollen patches will probably stick; 

 replace the blotting paper and dab more 

 water on these" patches. When the print is 

 thoroughly soaked, and not before, lift one 

 corner with the finger-nail and peel it off 

 cautiously. The prints can be laid qut to 

 dry or remounted at once, and if these direc- 

 tions are followed neither the print nor the 

 page of the album will be defaced in any 

 way. A further advantage^ of using the blot- 

 ting paper is that no water need get over the 

 edges on to the rest of the page. In my own 

 case my purpose was to remove some faded 

 prints from an album to be replaced 6y per- 

 manent ones, and it was important to avoid 

 defacing the album, which contained a large 

 number of other sound prints. The mountant 

 to be softened was Higgins's, and the method 

 would probably work equally well with prints 

 mounted with starch or other commercial 

 paste mountants. I cannot Lay whether it 

 would work with a gelatine mountant. 



BIRD PHOTOGRAPHY 



Some very excellent information on the 

 photographing of birds was given by the Rev. 

 H. N. Bonar in a lecture he recently deliv- 

 ered before an English camera club. As he 

 says, one may have the costliest camera, the 

 best of lenses and may be among numbers 

 of rare birds, in perfect light, and yet never 

 be able to get a single photograph, all 

 through ignorance of field craft, one branch 



of which relates to the habits of birds, whi 

 the oilier branch consists chiefly of knowing 

 how to keep yourself out of sight. Many 

 very timid birds arc by no means camera- 

 shy if proper precautions are taken; while 

 on the other hand many common birds can 

 hardly be induced to come near any suspi- 

 cious object. 



Two forces tame the wildest of birds and 

 make them frequent a given spot at a given 

 time — hunger and love — hence the two ii 

 sons for bird photography are winter and 

 spring. There one needs a knowledge of 

 birds' food and their feeding habits, as well 

 as an acquaintance with their nests and prob- 

 able nesting places. 



If you go to a spot where you believe nests 

 are, you should know beforehand whether 

 the nest will be found on the ground or in a 

 tree, what the bird's note is like, what num- 

 ber of eggs it -lays, and how many days these 

 take to hatch out. Also you should know 

 whether the bird is bold or shy at its nest, 

 whether it is of deliberate or restless habits, 

 and whether it is of a species which easily 

 forsakes its nest. When you have found the 

 nest, handle the eggs as little as possible, and 

 be sure you do it with clean hands, for I 

 have known a bird not very shy desert its 

 eggs because they were handled by a man 

 who had just peeled an orange. 



On a snowy day many birds may be pho- 

 tographecl by putting up a tempting perch, 

 focusing on that, covering the camera with 

 a white cloth, and laying food on the ground. 

 Corn, -bread, raisins, holly-berries and hard- 

 boiled tgg will attract many different species 

 of birds, even in a town garden, if there are 

 bushes near. 



Walk quietly through the woods, don't 

 tread on dry twigs if you can help it, and 

 never show on the sky line of a field or 

 moor or emerge from a wood without first 

 carefully looking in front of you. Do not 

 put up your camera at a nest, always go a 

 little distance away, and get everything ready 

 before you focus on the exact spot. 



In the list of apparatus, a field glass should 

 be put first, as this helps to identify birds 

 and find their nests without frightening them. 

 A small folding-up camera 4x5 in size, to 

 which a telephoto lens can be fitted, is recom- 

 mended. It is best used as a stand camera, 

 but can be held in the hands when using the 

 top speeds of the shutter. Such a camera 

 can be carried easily to the top of a tree or 

 lowered down a cliff, while extra plate-hold- 

 ers can be carried in the pocket. As for 

 plates, the very fastest that can be bought 

 should be used. As to lens, the best is the 

 cheapest, though a lens that will not do the 

 work for which it was built is dear at any 

 price. Except for special work, the focal 

 place shutter is hardly to be recommended. 



(To be continued) 



