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Hold That Pose Please S TA N L E Y T R AU T H MY INTEREST IN color-slide photography grew out of a necessity to capture on film all stages of morphology, life history, and ecology of amphibians and reptiles. In 1980, early in my career as an academician, herpetologist, and field biologist, I agreed to participate with two colleagues in the writing of a book on Arkansas herpetology. This promise actually opened the door to a remarkably fascinating and personally rewarding adventure into organismal photography, which has now lasted for more than twenty-five years and continues to consume a large amount of my time. Rather than borrow color slides for this enormous task from several of my camera-proficient colleagues (or purchase one-time slide usage of slides from professional color-slide vendors), I decided to generate a set of color slides for all species by myself. The end product of this endeavor, the Arkansas herpetology book that was published by the University of Arkansas Press in 2004, has over 530 of my color photographs. Becoming a dedicated outdoor photographer of amphibians and reptiles was never my true ambition or intention because I had already focused my academic career on becoming a proficient microscopic photographer. I have often used photomicrographs (both light as well as electron micrographs ) in publications during my professional career as a vertebrate reproductive histologist. I actually started dabbling into outdoor photography during a field study of collared lizards for my master’s thesis during the early 1970s. At that time, a family friend purchased for me a Minolta SRT-101, a manual, single-lens, reflex (SLR) camera with a through-the-lens metering (TTL) system (a Minolta advancement), while he was visiting Germany in 1970. 71 As I recall, the price was a bargain at about two hundred dollars for the camera body and two lenses. I knew nothing about SLR cameras as a beginning graduate student at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in 1971. A fellow graduate student there had kindly loaned me his then-antiquated SLR camera system that possessed a telephoto lens. I intended to use his photo equipment to take some long-distance photos of these lizards as they were perched upon rocks in cedar glades. In those days, most cameras were not fully automatic in terms of light metering, shutter speeds, etc. In fact, I can still recall my great frustration in trying to capture quality images of these lizards while attempting to simultaneously adjust numerous settings for an assortment of habitat conditions. For example, adjustments were necessary for changing sunlight conditions, film speed, and distance from the subject. Other variables to be determined included the proper F-stop, shutter speed, and flash setting. In the old “manual” SLR cameras, all of these settings were critical factors in the overall process of obtaining high-quality photographic images. I also remember failing miserably with his camera, and I was really looking forward to receiving my new Minolta. This newer SLR was supposed to be foolproof and, unfortunately for me (although I didn’t know it at the time), possessed no flash capabilities. I hoped, however , that the new camera would allow me to gain some reasonable confidence in “shooting” live animals. I used this trusty manual Minolta camera for many years (had it repaired twice) for mostly habitat photos, but I eventually began to realize that my animal photographs were, at best, still of very marginal quality. I needed to advance my camera technology as well as my proficiency if I were to use my own color slides for a book. It was not until I arrived at Arkansas State University in 1984 that I began to seriously investigate better camera systems and consider what the phrase “high-quality color slides” really meant. I liked my camera’s manual control (operating modes) when taking photographs (and I remain inclined that way today). My manual Minolta camera system was much less expensive than the fully automatic SLRs that had begun flooding the market. In 1987, I finally decided to purchase a modestly priced system: a Minolta X-370s camera body, an attachable flash unit, and a high-quality macro lens. The macro lens by itself cost over $250! The most important improvement in my photography, however, was definitely having a SLR camera with a “hot shoe” for flash photography. And so began my pursuit of high-quality images. With this advanced system, I finally felt comfortable photographing animals...

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