Aquatic Lite 
123 
sidered that it might be years before that 
particular species could again be taken. 
Many amusing as well as annoying in- 
cidents have occurred while I have been 
fish-picturing. The photographer at the 
seashore will usually be surrounded by a 
curious and inquisitive crowd, and will 
be asked all manner of foolish questions. 
One day I kept a list of the questions. 
Here are a few samples: 
“Are you taking pictures for the Gov- 
ernment ?” 
“Are you connected with the New 
York Aquarium?” 
“Are you going to put them on post- 
cards and sell them?” 
“Are you taking moving pictures?” 
“Are you going to put the pictures in 
school books?” 
One day as I was surrounded by a cur- 
ious crowd, a man quietly asked me “are 
The Spade-fish 
Chaetodipterus faber 
you doing research work or is this your 
hobby?” I replied, “hobby.” 
On one occasion I went with a boat 
crew to their pound very early in the 
morning in a very rough sea, securing 
some particularly fine specimens. When 
we returned the light was too poor for 
pictures, so I tied my live box to a piling 
some little distance from shore. Later, 
when the light was good, a rough sea 
was running and none of the regular 
boatmen would venture out for the box. 
Finally, for a consideration, I persuaded 
a strange-colored fisherman to row out 
and bring it in. After a hard pull he 
reached the box, pulled it from the water 
and placed it in his boat, rowing tri- 
umphantly to shore. It does not require 
much imagination to picture my feelings 
or the condition of the fishes for photo- 
graphic purposes when they reached me. 
An amusing incident occurred while 
eff the Virginia coast last year. I was 
a regular passenger with a seining crew 
each day, taking with me the camera, 
tank and other paraphernalia. One day 
we caught a fish which belongs to that 
interesting family, called by the fisher- 
men “‘swell toads.” ‘These fishes inflate 
themselves with air as soon as removed 
from the water and become almost like 
balloons. ‘This particular one was about 
a foot long and very active. While I was 
transferring it from the live box to the 
tank, it began to inflate itself, and just 
as I was about to slip it into the tank 
it became caught between the side of 
the tank and the partition and, continu- 
ing to inflate, it finally broke the par- 
tition glass and cut a two-inch gash in 
its side. 
Whenever I am located at any distance 
from a supply base I add half a dozen 
extra partition glasses to my equipment. 
One season I was quartered fifteen miles 
from the city, where I could buy glass. 
Fvery day that I took pictures I had 
the misfortune to break my _ partition 
glass and had to ride fifteen miles to 
replace it. 
While fish photography is not by any 
means the easiest of the difficult art, | 
cheerfully recommend it to those who 
enjoy making pictures that are different. 
ee 
Don’t wait for the other fellow; be a 
self starter. 
