HUNTING 
WITH A 
CAMERA 
By 
A. BROOKER KLUGH 
A Series 
of 
Practical 
Articles 
on 
Wild Life 
Photography 
T HE photography of birds in flight 
is a most exhilarating sport and 
one in which quickness of eye, 
:orrelation of eye and hand, and cool- 
less count for a great deal. For this 
Nork a reflex with a semi-telephoto lens 
is essential, and a shutter speed of 
L/l 000 second is required. This speed 
is not needed to stop the forward mo¬ 
tion of the bird—1/300 second will 
usually do this—but to stop the motion 
of the extreme tips of the wings. It is 
needless to enumerate the various ways 
in which this work may be attempted, 
but there are two methods which are 
most likely to yield successful pictures. 
1. To approach the bird very cautious¬ 
ly, with the camera at the ready, focus¬ 
ing as one advances, and when the bird 
flies to shoot as soon as it is nicely 
under way. 2. To choose some spot 
which the birds fre¬ 
quently pass and to take 
stand there. 
Some very effective 
pictures may be made of 
birds just as they take 
flight, or just as they 
alight, and these pic¬ 
tures, as well as those 
of birds in actual flight, 
will show that a bird s 
wings assume many 
positions which are not 
caught by the eye. 
Stalking birds with 
the reflex in many re¬ 
spects resembles similar 
work on mam m a 1 s 
(q. v.), but because birds 
have no sense of smell 
one does not need to take 
the direction of the wind 
into account. It must 
be remembered, however, that a bird s 
vision is far more acute than that of 
a mammal. 
Excellent pictures of water birds 
may be obtained in many localities by 
using the reflex from a blind placed in 
the feeding or resting resorts of the 
birds. The same precautions, as to 
concealment, and care in entering the 
blind, which are necessary in wild¬ 
fowl shooting, must be observed, and 
the technique must be even better than 
in shooting, because the birds must 
come, not within forty yards, but with¬ 
in a few feet, of the blind. 
A blind may also be of service m 
photographing birds at their nests 
with the reflex. 
In taking stand with the reflex and 
calling up the birds, the procedure is 
as follows: Some dead branch or some 
leafy branch which stands out well 
should be selected, stand taken about 
six feet from this, and the reflex fo¬ 
cused on the branch. The back of the 
hand should be brought to the lips and 
a squeaking sound made by drawing in 
the breath. This sound is very effec¬ 
tive in calling up most of the smallei 
birds, such as chicakadees, thrushes, 
vireos, warblers, sparrows and juncos. 
When any bird approaches, the hand 
should be gradually lowered to the re¬ 
lease lever and the squeaking continued 
with the lips alone until a bird of the 
desired species comes into the chosen 
location. The bird is kept in sharp 
focus and when it assumes the desired 
attitude the exposure is made. 
The success of this method depends 
very largely upon the skill with which 
the point at which the birds should 
perch is chosen, as this 
point must be a natural 
place for them to perch 
while seeking the origin 
of the sound. Much also 
depends upon the abso¬ 
lute immobility of the 
photographer. With 
some species this method 
is never successful, as 
some birds cannot be 
called in this way and 
others refuse to come 
out from among the con¬ 
cealing leaves. 
Photographing incu¬ 
bating birds is largely a 
matter of finding nests 
in accessible situations 
and knowing something 
of the psychology of the 
different species. Some 
birds come back to their 
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