PHOTOGRAPHIC OUTFIT 
13 
place the ‘door’ toward the wind to insure better ventilation. When 
the situation is exposed, an additional stay or two may be required. 
If the camera box is not strong enough to sit on, a collapsible, artist’s 
camp-stool should be added to the outfit. One cannot spend half a 
day in such close quarters and observe and record to advantage unless 
one is comfortably seated.” 
Photographic Outfit . — The camera has unquestionably won its 
place as the most important item in the field student’s outfit; not merely 
because it enables one to record facts in a graphic, communicable form, 
but also because it supplies an incentive for definitely directed study, 
by satisfying the hunting instinct and gratifying the desire for some 
tangible return for effort expended. Photographs can be made not 
alone of birds, their nests and eggs, but of haunts and of vegetation, 
showing its condition at certain dates as it develops in the spring or 
dies in the autumn. 
The naturalist photographer should seek the advice and instruc- 
tion of some one with experience; or, when this is not possible, the 
books on the subject should be consulted. Much may be done in the 
study of nest-life with a camera and lens costing between thirty and 
forty dollars. Select a strong, not too light, 4x5 camera, having a 
hello ws-length of not less than 16 inches and fitted with a trade shutter; 
and a lens of about 7-inch focus, convertible in type, in order that 
either the front or rear half of the lens can be used alone, giving an 
image about double the size of that produced by both combined. 
Such a camera should be used from a tripod, and under favorable 
conditions of light and time it will do excellent work. It cannot be 
employed to photograph flying birds or to do many other things which 
require the most rapid lenses and special apparatus; but, from a blind, 
with the nest, food, or decoys to act as a lure, bringing birds within 
range, one may secure an endless number of valuable and interesting 
photographic records of bird-life. 
By using one of the modern, very rapid multi-speed, lens-shutters 
and guessing at the focus, such a camera may be used in photographing 
birds in flight; but the best results are attained in this somewhat diffi- 
cult field with a reflecting camera of the ‘Graflex’ type, equipped with 
a focal-plane shutter. Satisfactory flight photographs, at close range, 
require an exposure of not more than -giro part of a second. This 
necessitates the use of a high-class, rapid lens and the outfit becomes 
too costly to be within the reach of many. However, except under 
the conditions which sometimes prevail in large bird rookeries, one 
can do far more and better work from a blind with inexpensive 
apparatus, than with a high-priced hand-camera in the open, while 
the notes on birds’ habits obtained from the blind are incomparably 
more valuable. 
Telephoto lenses require too great care in focusing, and too much 
time when exposing, to be of much service in bird photography. Nor 
indeed is it desirable to have a lens which too greatly increases the 
