Blacktail deer snapped with a background of snow.
Another thing to remember is that, unless in broad sunlight, green will take dark and sometimes black; and brown or tan, being of the same color value in the photograph, will mingle with and often be lost in the background. If you are photographing a tawny animal, and most wild animals are tawny, try to get it when in the sunlight with a dark or flat background, or else against a background lighter in color than the animal. For instance, a red squirrel or chipmunk will be lost amid, or against, the foliage of a tree, but on a fence rail or fallen log it will stand out distinctly.
If you have a chance at a beaver it will be near the water, of course. Then the choice view will be where the water can form at least 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.
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.