In the mid-1930s Oliver Pike used a few different "miniature cameras". Because of their small size they were much more versatile than the old plate cameras, although the image quality was not so impressive. The Royal Photographic Society had a "miniature camera" category in its exhibitions and this is where you would have found these photos.
Click on the borders of the thumbnail pictures below to zoom in on the exhibition prints.
All three of these photos were taken using a VP Exakta single-lens reflex camera, usually used with a telephoto lens and a tripod, but it could also be used hand-held.
The photos of the otter and the young rabbits were taken in Oliver Pike's garden nature sanctuary at Leighton Buzzard. The otter became very tame and was called Bobbie. Pike obtained this photo by offering the otter a piece of fish with his right hand while the camera was in his left hand, but he says that the otter "put his nose forward to sniff the instrument" at the moment of exposure, so he must have been very close.
The pintail was taken in St James's Park, London.
