TWENTIETH ANNUAL REPORT 97 
DEPARTMENT OF PUBLICATION AND PHOTOGRAPHY. 
Elwin R. Sanborn, Editor and Photographer. 
Photography.—The more important of the subjects photo- 
graphed in 1915 were as follows: Sea-lions diving into their 
pool, kiang, dromedary, gudha, banded opossum, dinomys, Hum- 
boldt saki, yak, hartebeest, swimming frogs, rare tropical frogs 
and toads, tree snakes, palm viper, black-footed penguin, trum- 
peters, emu chick, crested eagle, goliath herons and merganser. 
An extensive series of negatives was made of the bears, of con- 
struction work at the Wild Fow] Pond, and the bird shelters and 
bird-feeding appliances exhibited on Baird Court. 
A paper on the eyes of fishes was illustrated by a number 
of photographs made under the direction of Dr. Bates. 
The most successful and interesting results of the year’s 
photographic labors were the negatives of fishes made in the 
tanks at the New York Aquarium; successful from the point of 
view of the solving of a very difficult problem. It practically 
is impossible to remove any mammal, bird or reptile from its 
home quarters and photograph it successfully; and this holds 
true of fishes. In fact, there are few creatures that are as sen- 
sitive to changes as the fishes. Usually it is fatal to the speci- 
mens when they are disturbed, and the resulting photographs 
under these circumstances are of little value. The pictures that 
the display tanks around the Aquarium presented, however, were 
so alluring that experiments with them, covering the past ten 
years, were tried from time to time until the problem of photo- 
graphing the specimens as they cruised about in the tanks was 
successfully solved. The work involved not only innumerable 
devices in synchronizing the camera shutter and the artificial 
lights employed, but also many nights of experiments that ex- 
tended far into the hours of the coming day. Often a week of 
these experiments produced not a single result other than a 
blank plate. 
It sometimes requires several nights’ work to make one good 
negative, on account of the tardiness of the fishes in rising in 
the water and presenting a picturesque grouping. Often, also, 
a flood of light suddenly enveloping a tank sends its occupants 
scurrying to the bottoms and along the sides where frequently 
they remain for a long period. 
