192 SAFARI 



strategy. We planned to make a long safari of 

 nearly four hundred miles up to the arid districts 

 in the north of British East Africa where there were 

 far fewer waterholes. There we figured the game 

 would be forced by thirst to come into the range of 

 the cameras. 



This long safari cost us much time and a great 

 deal of money. When we arrived at last we found a 

 new set of hampering facts. The nomadic natives 

 with their herds were using what waterholes there 

 were for their stock by day, and the game came down 

 to drink at night. We safaried from one waterhole 

 to another until at last we came to one that was 

 unmolested by the natives. Again we spent weeks 

 in blinds. We had to rebuild the blinds time and 

 again, learning a bit at a time about how and where it 

 should be done. It was more than four months 

 after we landed in Africa before we had a single scene 

 worth putting on the screen. 



Problems of wild animal photography are many 

 and complex. The camera makes certain demands. 

 There must be fair light. Shadows must fall right 

 else the picture will be flat and uninteresting. One 

 must set up with such angles of view as to avoid 

 bald skies and awkward compositions. The footing 

 must be stable lest vibrations mar the picture. And 

 that is only the beginning. The blind must be built 

 to windward of the waterhole so that the human, or 



