Bird Photography by High-speed Electronic Flash

Abstract

A METHOD of taking bird photographs which promises to be of great value in the analysis and understanding of bird flight has been described by Eric Hoskuig (British Birds, 42, No. 8 ; August 1949). The high-speed electronic flash is many times brighter than bright sunlight and is usually arranged to last about 1/10,000 second. The set built to produce the flash was made by Dr. P. S. H. Henry, who also devised a photo-cell trip that would automatically operate the camera shutter, and with it the flash, at the instant the bird passed through a pre-arranged zone in front of the camera. With this ingenious apparatus the bird thus takes its own photograph at the moment that it is itself in focus. Mr. Hosking illustrates his article with a number of photographs which have been taken by high-speed electronic flash and suggests that here may well be a means of advancing the study of aeronautics. This new method of photography should certainly add to our knowledge of bird life, and particularly of the more active phases of bird behaviour like courtship and aggressive displays, as well as the identification of food carried in the bill and the recording of feeding behaviour at the nest.