ie tere see Ue bro Ne Bel CoE N zi 
Appointed to the committee to plan the new organization were Ray Brown, 
900 Willard St., Galesburg; Paul Shepard, 245 N. Sparta, Wataga; Carl 
Ohman, Seymour Hall, Knox College, Galesburg; and Dennis Kalma, a 
Knox freshman from Lombard. 
Paul Shepard, Dept. of Biology, Knox College, Galesburg, Ill. 
ita fA Pt 
Self-Portraits in the Night 
By JACKSON L. BOUGHNER 
Two YEARS AGO, just before we left our cottage in Northern Wisconsin, I 
set out a block of salt to attract animals. The next summer the returning 
deer took their own pictures. Last summer I again set my camera along a 
path used by deer, and was delighted to find that the path was also used 
by a raccoon. 
The equipment needed is a simple flash camera 
with a lever shutter release. The lever is pulled 
down by a weight which rests on a hinge. The 
trigger stick stands on a corner brace screwed to 
the upper half of the hinge and holds the lower 
half of the hinge level. When the trigger is 
pulled, the lower half falls, releasing the weight. 
The trigger stick is attached to a long piece of 
strong black thread. The other end of the thread 
may be tied across a game path to a tree, so that 
a passing animal will release the shutter. The 
string may be attached to a bait. Or you may en- 
circle the area with thread, using cuphooks at- 
tached to trees. This was what I used to get deer 
pictures. No matter how hard the animal pulls 
the thread, he will not pull your camera over. 
A convenient type of camera to use is the Star- 
flash, which has a built-in flashgun. A small 
transparent plastic bag, with a hole cut in it for 
the lens, is used as a cover, and the camera can 
then be left out in all weather. A simple mount- 
ing is constructed by sawing a piece of wood the 
size of the camera bottom and tacking two inches 
of sheet aluminum around the wood to hold the 
camera steady. Nail the mounting to a sturdy 
wooden stand, preferably with bark on it to look 
natural. 
There should be enough slack in the line to the 
weight to activate the shutter release. Too long 
a line or too heavy a weight may damage the 
AD 
aan Won ie 
2 Sey 4 
PUTT Or 
ey. 
Illustrated above: 
schematic diagram 
of flash camera 
shutter release. 
lever. Test the assembly first without film in the camera. The principal 
problem is attracting the animals. You might try trapper’s lures, which 
are available for almost every type of fur-bearing mammal. Next summer 
I may try this for birds, with the string fastened to sunflower seeds or 
suet on a feeding tray. 
710 E. Kenilworth, Palatine, Illinois 
