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Nature
Photography
By the start of the
century, nature photography had arrived. In
1901, Harold Raeburn gave a lecture:
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Birds
Nest Photography
He
said:
“It is barely
ten years ago or so since the camera began to be employed at all usually, in the
portrayal of wild animals and birds in their native haunts."
He spoke of the
great difficulties encountered, and how he did not favour using telephoto lenses
which increased the chance of vibration - one of the most frequent causes of
failure:
"owing to the conditions under
which many nest photos must be taken … the camera planted on the topmost
boughs of some lofty tree, the quaggy bottom of some reedy lake, or precariously
clinging to a very inadequate ledge on a dizzy cliff.
Four years later, Rev H N Bonar gave his
lecture:
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Some
Methods of Photographing Wild Birds
The EPS Transactions report that
Rev Bonar was awarded a very hearty vote to thanks, and commented that:
"perhaps the most gratifying part of the whole paper is … that the
ornithologist may now be a lover of birds and not a slayer of them."
Rev. Bonar listed the following
problems that could arise, after finding a suitable site for bird photography:
1.
The
apparatus may fail to release the shutter
2.
The light
may suddenly change, and give you a wrong exposure
3.
The plate
may be spoiled in developing
4.
The plate
may be fogged if the day is very sunny
5.
The plate
may be cracked in the holder
6.
You may
focus wrongly, or the bird may perch out of focus
7.
The
camera may get slewed round a little
8.
The
camera may rock with the wind, especially if fixed in a tree
9.
The bird
may perch, but fly away too soon
10.
The bird may perch just
outside the area covered by the lens
11.
The bird may spoil the
plate with movement
12.
The bird may turn its
back to the camera
13.
The bird may be
indistinguishable from the background
14.
The bird may never come
at all.
Other lectures on birds and
animals were:
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Photography as a help to the Study of Ornithology
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Wild Animals as depicted by our Forefathers
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