ast part of
the background. If the shore is at the back it may be difficult when the
print is made to find the beaver at all. In the interesting photograph
shown here the beaver is against the light trunk of the tree which shows
where he has gnawed it almost through. In all this the position of the
sun must be taken into account, but the rule of always having the sun at
your back, like most other rules, has its exceptions. I have found that
so long as the sun lights up the object, even when from one side, I can
secure a good picture; but I never allow it to strike the lens of the
camera, and I make sure that the subject is not silhouetted against its
background by having all the light at its back.

[Illustration: Blacktail deer snapped with a background of snow.]

=Photographing Wild Animals=

It is not easy to photograph wild animals after you have found them, but
you can do it if you are quick to see and to act and are also patient
enough to wait for a good opportunity. You will often find deer feeding
in sunlit places and can, if you stalk them carefully, approach near
enough to get a good shot. If they happen to be in partial or light
shadow, open the diaphragm of your camera at its widest stop and try for
an instantaneous exposure. Very good photographs are sometimes taken by
that method, and it is worth the experiment where time exposures are out
of the question, as in taking moving animals. A snap-shot will be of no
avail if the shadow is heavy, however, and a short time exposure may
sometimes be used. Set your time lever at No. 1, which means one second,
and the lever controlling the diaphragm at No. 16, and by pressing the
bulb once you will have a time exposure of one second. An important
thing for you to realize in taking animal photographs is the fact that
though the creature may seem quite near as you see it with your natural
eye, in the picture it will occupy only the relative space that it does
on the finder. If it covers a quarter of the space on the finder it will
cover a quarter, no more and no less, of the finished photograph.

The wonderful pictures we see of wild animals are usually the work of
professionals who have especially adapted cameras; but to take the
photograph oneself makes even a poor one of more value.

[Illustration: The skunk.

Don't get too near when you try to photograph him.]

=Shutter Speed=

To photograph objects in rapid motion such as flying birds, the speed of
you