Camera secrets of Hollywood : simplified photography for the home picture maker (1931)

Chapter X ADVE N T U R E S I N P II () T () G R A P II V EFORE THE COMING of the automobile nearly every community of the United States was amply supplied with its own brand of wild game. In season the lakes and marshes were crowded with ducks and geese, the prairie states were covered with quail, pheasants, and prairie chickens. The mountain countries held great herds of deer, moose and elk. The timbered states were well populated Avith bear and cougar. In those days nearly every man was a hunter. Every sportsman was proficient with either shotgun or rifle and with only the slightest pretext a man would find an excuse to leave his business and spend days tramping about the countryside, presumably hunting for Avild game. But the automobile and good roads changed all this. Quickly the game disappeared, the most accessible fishing streams soon contained only water; but still the hunter and the fisherman continued in their search for pleasure. The game has gone, but the spirit of the out-of-doors calls stronger than ever, and many a man who once tramped over mountain and valley hunting the wild things in their haunts has since discovered that his real reason for becoming a hunter was really his wish to get into the open, and be alone. Through this changing of conditions our hunter has now become, in many cases, a camera enthusiast. His Inst for killing has subsided. He finds a greater thrill than ever in capturing some wild creature in a picture, and then leaving it to continue the life it Avas intended for. He still has tin1 enthusiasm of the hunt, the enjoyment of the day out-of-doors and, if i i