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Most professional photographers are almost automatically photo-hobbyists. I remember stopping a news-photographer friend on the street to congratulate him on a fantastic flood shot which brought him national recognition and a cash bonus from his paper.

Like the Ancient Mariner he fixed me with his gleaming eye and led me to his darkroom a half-block away. He showed me a series of flower pictures. Pointing to one he said with a happy smirk, "U. S. Camera paid ten bucks for this one. Ain't that somepin'?"

Some men gloat over their giant closeups of insects, some pant over exteriors of Georgian houses, candid shots during theatrical performances, surgical operations, and one of them has even confined himself to what I call "the home life of the praying mantis." My pet mania for over twenty years has been wild animal photography. My business is portrait and advertising photography, but it is much more fun among the animals. And it has frequently paid off in hard cash.

I FIRST became interested in animals when I saw a tiger sit unwinking through a noisy incident where an escaping purse-snatcher was caught and manacled after a struggle directly in front of the tiger's cage. The thief made rather a drab picture sitting on the ground at his captor's feet. His capture was worth a stick or two of type in the local newspapers but none of them used a picture. Mocha the tiger looked so lordly and beautiful and so thoroughly above it all that I made his picture then and there. He sat like a statue while I set up tripod and camera and screwed together my flash apparatus. We had no synchronization mechanism in those days, but Moe ignored the delay. He wasn't going anywhere.

I made the photograph through the bars of his cage, not more than six feet from the tip of his nose. He concentrated on staring me out of countenance. The picture was hung in an annual exhibition at the local museum. The opening night the museum took orders for four prints of Mocha's picture. It has since been published in over forty newspapers from coast to coast, one photo annual, and has sold for hanging in a dozen homes. The minimum price for a print has been $5. I found that I liked the grace and dignity of most wild animals, and the fact that there was gold in them thar hills was no deterrent. Nothing has happened since to alter my opinion.

The questions that naturally arise are:

1. Can an ordinary amateur do this kind of work?

Anyone who can use a camera moderately well can take wild animal pictures. A Brownie or similar kind of camera is usually too limited for the purpose, but it is possible even with one of those. All that is required is that the lens opening be capable of being reduced at will to secure the required depth of focus, and that the shutter be reasonably accurate and offer the photographer a selection of speeds to enable him to record the animal's movements. These movements are seldom very rapid under zoo conditions, so ¹/100 second will generally suffice. Great lens speed is no longer vital, as modern films like Tri-X are so phenomenally fast that ordinary daylight will do the job in a moderately bright interior. Photographs by daylight outdoors are never a problem. Where the light is bad, flashlight is always the answer.

But always obtain the zoo's permission before using flashlight. Many animals do not react well to this lighting medium. Not so long ago a major zoo lost not only a fine young tigress but her unborn cub, because a casual visitor drove her into a frenzy with repeated use of flashlight even after he had observed that she was tremendously disturbed by the initial flash. The keeper was momentarily out of the room getting food for his charges and by the time he returned the damage was done and the stupid photographer had gone. The tigress refused all food from then on and died within a week.

2. Where do I get subjects for wild animal pictures?

The zoos and the circus. Very few of us have an opportunity to go on safari, but a trip to the circus can often be worked up into a surprisingly effective substitute. Circuses are sensitive to public opinion, so where they can conveniently do so, they will cooperate with the photo-hobbyist. The best point of contact is the advance man or the press-relations man. Your local newspaper will know when he will be in town, which is anywhere from several days to several weeks in advance of the circus. Ask the newspaper to let you know when he arrives. Then go to him and state your case. Carry along prints of your better pictures as a convincer. If you are an even moderately good talker, he will be helpful.

The animals are generally stationed on a vacant lot where they are fed and watered by daylight. The elephants, and sometimes the hippos and the giraffes are frequently watered without benefit of cage. If the press agent is staying in town with the show, he will probably take you around himself, if not, he will generally pass the word along, and you will find yourself expected when you arrive. If the press relations man does not come to your town, ask for the man in charge of the circus' zoo.

At circus matinees, fast film and a fast lens will usually produce action pictures. Before shooting flashes, ask permission. Otherwise yours may be the responsibility for something very serious. The animals are almost always on exhibition in their cages before and after matinees, and before evening performances. Other chances at them, at any time during the stay of the circus, should be arranged in the manner explained in the foregoing paragraphs.

Most of the good larger zoos are now barless. Detroit, St. Louis, and Brookfield Park in Chicago are outstanding examples, and there are many more, with the number increasing every day. The big foreign zoos are almost all barless. The large birds like ostrich, flamingo, secretary bird and so on are generally confined behind trenches or fences where you can insert your lens between the bars. The aquatic birds are generally in a natural setting like a lagoon, and you have not only the birds but an appropriate background.

3. What is my market for photographs like this?

First of all, the photography magazines. At the end of this article I append a list of the leading ones and their addresses. They generally report in from two to four weeks, and none of them pay less than $5 for any eight-by-ten glossy print, more for color transparencies.

Newspapers are always open to striking shots. Send your print, clearly marked with your name on the back or at the bottom, to the picture editor. Include a brief letter explaining that the enclosed picture is for sale and stating the conditions under which it was made if they were interesting, and what kind of camera you used, what film, and what speed and lens stop.

If the town in which you have taken the zoo pictures is large enough to afford a zoo, it probably has a chamber of commerce and often a convention and visitors' bureau. Such organizations are by their nature eager customers for zoo pictures. The zoos themselves may expect a free picture or two, but if your work is good enough, they will also buy pictures.

Manufacturers of calendars and post cards are ready customers for animal pictures. Brown and Bigelow, St. Paul 4, Minnesota, is probably the best known calendar manufacturer in the country. The man to address there is the art director, Paul Fry. All the calendar companies buy both black and white and color shots at good prices.

The post card manufacturer best known to me is the Curt Teich Co., at 1733 West Irving Park Road, Chicago, Illinois. Your local library will yield the names of others. Don't be afraid you will be making a nuisance of yourself by sending in your prints. The editors have met your kind before. Always mark your prints clearly with your name, and send a letter along with them. Your manner should be courteous and informative, but basically there is no substitute for good old cast iron gall. Believe in your work. Your pictures may turn out to be just what they have been looking for.

ONE OF my favorite subjects was a female jaguar who had been a house pet down in Venezuela in her youth where an American firm had an oil-drilling camp. When the camp was broken up by her owner, she was given to the zoo in Cleveland, Ohio, where I live. She was very easy to handle and we all used her as a model although I admit having some uneasy moments when she stood with her paws on my shoulders and licked my face with her sandpaper tongue. She welcomed amateurs and professionals alike, and she charged no model fee.

One day a careless keeper left the back door of her cage ajar, along with that of the leopardess in the adjoining cage. The leopardess promptly killed her, probably because she smelled of human beings. Let me say here that this could never have happened during the regime of our present director, Fletcher Reynolds. He is an intelligent and highly skilled animal man, and an absolute martinet about safety precautions.

Probably my oddest adventure in wild animal photography had to do with photographing a stuffed animal. A friend of mine in the advertising business heard inadvertently that wild animals photography was my hobby. He called me at once. "Go out and get me a photograph of a snarling fox or wolf," he said. "There's fifty bucks in it for you if it's a good one. I have a client—one of the big rubber companies—who wants to run an ad showing graphically what improper driving does to your tires. Nothing will do for him but a picture of a fox or a wolf showing sharp teeth."

I told him the picture was practically in his lap and departed for the zoo. There for two days I failed miserably. The foxes and wolves retreated into their boxes when I approached, or cowered trembling on the ground when I rattled a tripod against the bars of the cage to attract their attention. I had two weeks to get my picture, but I was ready to give up when I received an assignment to make a portrait of a wealthy Clevelander on his eighty-fifth birthday.

At his home I was shown into a huge living room whose walls were hung with trophies of the hunt. There were lions, tigers, wild beast, and best of all a snarling fox. While making my portraits, I asked the old gentleman about the heads.

Yes, he had shot them all himself; the water buffalo had been the most dangerous. Would he loan me the fox head to be photographed? Oh yes, charmed, and could he have a print? Naturally, and how did he get the fox snarling? Oh he wasn't snarling when he was shot. He was just running, but the taxidermist thought that snarling would be a good way to mount him. Let's see, that was twenty-three years ago come next Hallowe'en.

My friend who wanted the picture was charmed with it even after I pointed out that it was a shot of a mounted head to which the moths had been no strangers. "What's that got to do with it?" he snapped. "It's a snarling fox isn't it? And we can airbrush out the paws and the moth holes can't we?"

The rubber company used the photograph and paid me a $10 bonus for prompt service. The following year my fox head picture was published in one of the advertising annuals with solemn comments on its lifelike quality. It was named one of the best animal photographs of the year.

DON'T LET the fact that professional photographers are your competition keep you out of this field. Amateurs are persistent competition in this and other types of photo work. A number of years ago Cleveland had a bad gas explosion and fire in which over 200 people lost their lives, and an entire city district was turned into what looked like a war-bombed area. As local correspondent for Life and Time I worked most of the night to get out eighteen rather terrifying photographs of the event. They used two of my pictures, but an amateur hobbyist with a nose for such things slipped in without credentials and by emphasizing the element of pathos in his shots sold five, all of which were published.

The amateur has some tremendous advantages which all but outweigh his lack of experience. He has not built up the unconscious tendency to hurry his work which besets the professional after years of rushing to meet deadlines. And he is not harried by past encounters with customers with foibles who will not order a picture unless its style falls in line with their fads.

In making pictures of wild animals a 35-mm. camera can be used, but it involves enlarging everything, and that can be a nuisance. A 2¼-by-3¼ film is an almost ideal size, and you can turn out pictures for a few cents a print. You can always enlarge your best ones. I have made clear, sharp sixteen-by-twenty prints from a Rolleiflex negative which measures 2¼-by-2¼. There are many cameras in the same size quite moderately priced which are not quite so convenient to use as a Rolleiflex, but will turn out pictures every bit as good. In the 2¼-by-3¼ size there are at least thirty different makes of camera, all of them good, all of them reasonably priced. And they use fifty-cent roll film which will give you eight exposures on the 2¼-by-3¼ camera and twelve on the 2¼-by-2¼. The first mentioned size is easier to compose.

As for developing and printing, if you do not have your own facilities, there is always a good photo-finisher in your town who will do excellent work at prices within your reach. As you prosper, learn to do your own finishing. The photo process is a unit and does better when in the same hands throughout.

THE PRICELESS ingredient in wild animal photography is patience. Most of the animals seem to know little of what the photographer wants, and care less. Your cue is to wait them out. If you are not willing to spend long periods virtually motionless waiting for the wanted pose or a better one, put your camera away before you go to the zoo. You will find that human beings are your worst handicap. After you have waited lengthily for a deer to raise his head in just the right way, some imbecile will shout to attract his attention, or throw a peanut at him, and deer and picture are gone. So try to get to the zoo on dull days and at unpopular times.

Some few, of the animals are endowed with natural histrionic talent. The sea lion is a show-off with a flair for comedy. Moreover, he is almost always kept in a place where it is easy to photograph him.

A bear is another animal with which you can establish rapport. He is a born clown, but beware of him. He is treacherous beyond belief. On the other side of a trench he will sit up and wave his paws and grimace for peanuts. In addition he will catch them more deftly than many an outfielder handles fly balls.

But never trust yourself within reaching distance of him, even if the construction of your zoo permits such a suicidal liberty. Leopards and jaguars are spoken of as treacherous. This is a misnomer. They are ferocious and bloodthirsty and everybody knows this. A bear will be your comical friend for years. Then one morning, for no apparent reason, he will kill you like a man swatting a fly.

Years ago I talked a keeper into taking me with him into the cage of a large brown bear. The beast had been his charge for several years and they got on famously. I took a number of dramatic shots at close range. Then without warning the bear let go with a savage left hook. It missed my head by inches. The keeper managed to distract him with a loaf of bread and I scrambled out of the cage.

I waved a cheery goodbye from my car, and then found I hadn't the muscular strength to depress the starter. It was a full half-hour before it came back.

At eleven o'clock the following morning, that same bear killed his old friend the keeper. Be careful. Wild animals are often trained but never tamed. Especially bears.

Some photography magazines which buy from non-professionals are:

ART PHOTOGRAPHY, 8150 North Central Boulevard, Skokie, Ill.

GOOD PHOTOGRAPHY, 67 West 44th Street, New York 36, N. Y.

PICTURES, 343 State Street, Rochester 4, N. Y.

PHOTOGRAPHY, 366 Madison Avenue, New York, N. Y.

U. S. CAMERA MAGAZINE, 420 Lexington Avenue, New York 17, N. Y.