
Making Pictorial Records of Wild Life 
You Can Shoot Game for Only Two or Three Months 
in the Year but You Can Use a Camera All the 
Time—and You Don’t Need an Expensive Equipment 
ing a game trail that gets into 
one’s blood. There is a thrill 
that goes through one when coming 
onto game, suddenly, in its native 
haunts that one never forgets. 
These pictures are recorded in one’s 
memory forever, and can be called to 
mind at will, but that is not enough; 
we want some record to take back. 
We want a trophy to keep as a 
record of our journey into the game 
country. 
When we sight game we do not 
want it to get away. But one can 
shoot game with a camera as well as 
with a rifle. To be sure it is a far 
more difficult thing to do, but there 
is no closed season for the hunter 
who uses a camera and what is 
more to the point there are no “bag” 
limits. 
ik HERE is a lure about follow- 
Perhaps the most successful meth- 
od of photographing certain game 
is by flashlight and no finer collec- 
tion of pictures could be found of the 
white tail deer family than those 
taken by George Shiras, 3rd. Some 
of these pictures were taken over 
thirty years ago when photography 
was comparatively in its infancy for 
such use, and it took some real in- 
ventive genius on the part of Mr. 
Shiras to perfect an outfit with 
which he could obtain results. How 
well he succeeded can be judged by 
the collection of flashlight pictures 
that appeared in National Geo- 
graphic in August, 1921. 
In recent years a number of good 
moving pictures have been taken of 
wild game. Most of these have come 
from ,Africa where game is more 
plentiful and there is a greater 
variety of it than in any other hunt- 
ing country in the world. But some 
very fine pictures have been taken in 
America. Among these are Harold 
McCracken’s pictures of the Alaska 
brown bear. 
These pictures show what a fine rec- 
ord of wild life can be obtained with 
the camera provided that one is adapted 
to the work and has the time and equip-’ 
ment necessary to carry the thing 
through; on the other hand one should 
ByaGE Run eo OM IeLADE R 
Photos by the author 

The author in the white suit he uses to 
A white hood 
photograph animals in winter. 
completes invisibility 
not be discouraged just because one 
does not happen to. own cameras 
equipped with telephoto lenses and 
a lot of other expensive parapher- 
nalia. Good snapshots of game can 
often be taken with an ordinary camera 
and when these negatives are enlarged 
they make very good pictures. 
This article was not written for the 
camera expert and the man who goes 
out especially for pictures, taking the 
very best of equipment which will give 
him the very best of results, regard- 
less of the weight and inconvenience 
‘of carrying this equipment. I am 
only an amateur at the game and 
have been fortunate enough to obtain 
a few good snapshots because I had 
a camera with me when an oppor- 
tunity offered and I think that in 
many cases where one is leading an 
otherwise busy life that takes him 
through the game country it is bet- 
ter to have a camera that is compact 
enough to be carried everywhere, 
otherwise it is just like carrying a 
gun part of the time. You may only 
have an occasion to use it once in 
a great while but when you want it, 
you want it badly. 
F you are going to get a camera 
to be used at chance shots at game, 
it is well to get one that you will be 
sure to carry all of the time. The 
larger machines, reflex cameras, etc., 
while they undoubtedly have a great 
many points in their favor are too 
cumbersome to carry around. I have 
known a great many people who 
fitted themselves up with a fine large 
outfit that certainly would have been 
a great thing and would have given 
fine results if it were at hand at 
the right moment, but the trouble 
was that whenever the camera was 
needed, it was in camp. 
A camera that takes a picture 
3% by 4% is not too large to be 
carried on the belt or in a saddle 
pocket. It is fitted with a lens of 
from 6 to 7 inches in focal length. 
It is about the right thing for tak- 
ing pictures of game. This is a little 
larger than the lens ordinarily used 
on the 3% by 4%, but is not a 
telephoto lens by any means. The bel- 
lows extension necessary to f«cus it is 
not too long for the regular cameras, 
yet the image obtained is slightly larger 
and the perspective is better than with 
a lens of shorter focal length. 
The speed of the lens is another 
thing to be decided. I seldom take a 
picture with a larger opening in the 
aperture than f-8, so it is of no use 
to me to carry around a camera that 
will give me a speed of f-4-5 if I never 
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