PHOTOGRAPHING ANIMALS 81 



But when you want really good pictures, pictures 

 that show the animal in striking and characteristic 

 attitudes, away from the objectionable bars, then I 

 say the work is difficult. At first thought one would 

 say, "That 's easy enough; I could make twenty or 

 thirty photographs a day without the slightest 

 trouble"; but the first day spent in the Zoo would 

 disillusion you, and you would be more humble, and 

 think yourself in luck if you made six or eight good 

 pictures. With a tripod-camera the work is abso- 

 lutely disheartening, one good picture being fre- 

 quently the result of a day's hard work ; but with a 

 hand-camera with which you can focus accurately, 

 better work can be done, and with infinitely less 

 trouble. 



The animals may be divided into two aggravating 

 classes: those that are too tame, and those that are 

 too wild. If anything, the latter are the easier to 

 manage. You can get pictures of these even if they 

 are rather far away. But the animal which insists on 

 putting his nose through the bars and licking the 

 lens tries one's patience to the limit. There is a 

 large gray wolf in the Bronx Zoo (New York) that 

 I have tried a number of times to photograph, but 

 so far without success. In fact, I never made but 

 one exposure, as I could not get far enough away. 

 He always wants to lick my hand or the camera. 

 With some of the animals it is curiosity which 



