PREPARING THE SPECIMENS. 



Poorly prepared sj)ecimens spoil many an insect photograph. The 

 value and beauty of the plates in Howard's Insect Book and Holland's 

 Butterfly and Moth Books were greatly enhanced by the care used in 

 selecting the best material and getting the wings, legs, and antennae 

 in as nearpy symmetrical or natural positions as possible. I often 

 spend more time in preparing a specimen than in photographing it, 

 and the resulting half- tone always pays for doing it. 



In photographing from life, of course, one can not always pose the 

 insect, but I find that insects can be coaxed often into desired atti- 

 tudes or positions by a little patient manipulation. To get sphinx, 

 Datana, and many other larvae in their characteristic positions it is 

 often necessarj 7 to only jar the supporting branch just before expos- 

 ing. I once coaxed three Myron sphinx larvae into a row on a branch 

 and then got them to all raise the front part of their bodies, thus 

 reminding one of a "cake walk." A little pinch often keeps larvae 

 quiet a few seconds, and it is necessary with Papilio caterpillars to 

 get them to project their osmateria. To get the best results, it is 

 absolutely necessary to have the insect perfectly quiet for a few 

 seconds. 



Some insects are so restless or active that one can not pose them 

 alive. In such cases I often kill them in the cyanide bottle, and after 

 they become limp, arrange them as naturally as possible. The army- 

 worms on the eaten corn plant in my much-used picture were brought 

 50 miles, killed, and stuck on the plant the next day with thick 

 Canada balsam. I have also obtained in this way quite lifelike pic- 

 tures from alcoholic specimens of larvae preserved for a year or more. 

 Patient and painstaking efforts of this kind are often repaid by very 

 good photographs of otherwise impossible subjects. Sometimes I pin 

 the insect in the desired position and paint out the pin on the negative 

 or print. 



BACKGROUNDS. 



Smooth white paper furnishes most of my backgrounds. Tinted 

 papers have helped me very little. Light-colored insects need a 

 black background, and the best thing I have found for this is a piece 

 of fine black velvet. 



FOCUSING AND EXPOSING. 



One can save much time by marking on the side bars of the camera 

 the distance it is necessary to draw out the bellows to get an image 

 natural size or twice or more enlarged. Our ground glass is marked 

 off with a pencil into areas of the size of the different-sized plates 

 used, so it is easy to center the image and determine what size of 

 plate will be required. In the center of the ground glass we also 

 cement with Canada balsam a large, square cover glass used on micro- 



