A CAMERAMAN'S TROUBLES 199 



difficult and costly trip without a single decent 

 picture. A few months later we rettimed to exactly 

 the same region and made a wonderful series of rhino 

 pictures in only three days, photographing them 

 often as close to the camera as fifty feet. There 

 really is such a thing as luck — in Africa. 



Long safaris take up a great deal of time in going 

 through gameless regions. Often we have made 

 safaris from Lake Paradise requiring five weeks time 

 to do one week's work. Once we made a long camel 

 . safari into the Ndoto mountains when we did not 

 picture one animal. They had all migrated to the 

 Horr valley where we did not dare follow because 

 wild Habash raiders were in there to poach ivory. 

 The Habash do not like to be disturbed at their 

 poaching and there are some chances we will not 

 take — even for a picture. 



Perhaps the chief photographic problem in Africa 

 is involved in the keeping of sensitized materials 

 and chemicals. Photo emulsions are made of a 

 highly sensitive gelatine impregnated with delicately 

 balanced silver salt solutions. Conditions of himiid- 

 ity and temperature affect the film which must be 

 continually safeguarded. This means the use of 

 carefully sealed tins, special drying compounds and 

 a continuous supply of fresh stock. I kept a steady 

 flow of shipments coming from the Eastman Kodak 

 plant in Rochester, arriving every few months. 



