Adventures of Daring Photographers.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIV, Issue 10, 9 March 1910, Page 42

Adventures of Daring Photographers.

jJ'Tie Camera's Part in Making Current Literature.

By

ARTHUR W. PAGE.

S ETWEEN the North and the South Poles there are few countries which the camera has not invaded. To save publishers the Jnnoyance of keeping track of the multitude of individual photographers, there are firms in New York whieh keep ®n file thousands.and thousands of of the scenery and peoples •f the world._ Here is an instance' showing the convenience of such collections. A New Sork editor wanted to illustrate an Jrticle on the Congo, so he telephoned to a commercial photographer. Within >n hour and a-half he had a collection cf eighty-six prints to choose from. By telephoning to any one of two or three ♦fliers, he could have had as many toore. The cost of these pictures in the biterior of Africa was 12 ■ apiece. I asked a commercial photographer one Bay. on his rounds to the different publishing offices, what he had in his bag.'? ‘The fourth son of the Kaiser, and hi- fiancee, he said, "whose engagement has just been announced: two revolutionists in Russia about to be hanged for train wrecking; crowds outside lhe '.ate Shah's ptlace during his illness; • dozen photographs of the English «avy on parade": the latter, he explained, were apropos of the announcement In the morning paper that the English *avy was to have a grand review. Besides these, he had pictures of the late Shah taking a water cure in France, of the Queen of Roumania. of the steamehip Ponce, of a steel magnate and his fiancee, and of half-a-dozen politicians. Then he had some sets of pictures that he had made to order to illustrate such Stones as "The Making of Easter Eggs.’’ “The Making of Valentines,” “American Train M reeks,” "Winter Sports in ’America.” a series on “Child Labour,” •nd a numlier of others. The rapid gathering of news pictures for the daily and weekly papers is the larger part of the commercial photographer’s work. Everything depends, at times, on the quickness with which he acts. \\ hen a train from Southampton to London was wrecked. the agent of an 'American dealer hired an automobile, took two operator*, and drove the car » fast as it would go to the scene of the disaster. The photographs were taken and the automobile raced back to London. Before night, the pictures were in the hands of the purser of a steamer •ailing for the United States, and a eable told the firm in New York that the photographs were on that particular •tramahip. The New York dealer acted

with equal promptness, lie sent a min down to quarantine for them, but failed to get them until the ship was docked. By the same method, a 48-hour “scoon” was made of photographe of the attempted assassination of the King of Spain on the way to his marriage. The professional photographer in New York City has some difficult assign-

ments. The "Times” ordered a picture of Times-square, showing the throng on election night. An operator spent two days on the roofs of the neighbouring buildings in order to determine the best point from whieh to take the photo graph. The camera's work was such a complete success that the "Times” made a two-page reproduction of it, three and a-half feet high by two feet wide, the following Sunday. To get a certain view of East River, a photographer walked, with an outde of cameras ana

plate boxes, up a cable of the Brooklyn Bridge to the top of one of the towers. Another, to get a "head-on’’ picture of a horserace, stayed on the track until the horses almost ran over him. A third crawled into a drain to take a flashlight of a break in the pipe, to be used as evidence against a

construction company. Yet another was asked by a man who said he intended to assassinate Lord Cromer, to go to Egypt and photograph him in the act: but this the photographer declined to do.

There is a class of picture-making that Lears the same relation to true nhoto-

liar.” "Faked” pictures are the easiest things in the world to make and are more deceptive than a "coloured” story, for the public does riot realize that a> camera can be made to lie so success-

fully. Seme of these "fakes” are diffifult to detect, even by experts. Ona photograph of "a cloud effect” was so magnificent that its very excellence aroused suspicion. When a straightedge was brought into use. one of the

suu’s rays was found to be crooked! "Substitution” is as common in lowgrade journalism as it is among dishonest druggists. Hundreds of “war” pictures and "wild animal” pictures belong under this head, along with a photo-

graph of the Baltimore fire which was used by a "yellow” newspaper to represent the San Francisco fire. The copyright notice showed the year in which the negative had been made. The reporter who travels with the camera whether he work for the newspapers or for the commercial photographers. meets with many adventures. One of these. Mr. H. G. Ponting, spews two days getting intimate portraits of alligators on the shores of a lake in India. The following is a part of a letter from hitn to the by whom he was employed:

graphy that "yellow” newspapers sustain to first-class journalism. "The camera is the most accurate of all reporters’ one of the dealers said to me one day, "and it is, at the same time, the biggest

“This !*ke swarms with fierce alligators, and in order to make pictures of them, it was necessary to descend the steps and walk out on the hard baked mud to the water’s edge. I got five men with long pointed bamboo poles and a few rupees* worth of meat, and proceeded to work. ‘The men with the poles and I then walked out on the dry mud. As soon as we got near the water, four or five huge alligators immediately ran out of the muddy water toward I confess that

here my ecu:age quailed a bit and I thought that a tew discant sr.ots were ad I should succeed in getting. Irut by throwing meat to them, they were kept at a sale distance and the. long poles were a great protection if they tried io come too near. Two days 1 visited the place, and, after many hours of manoeuvring, 1 managed to get such pictures of these brutes as I am confident are better than anything previously done. I arranged on? picture to show myt if making photographs of them, and I doubt if you ever saw a stereograph of a man in a _more dangerous position. You will see I am nor ten feet from the open jaws of an immense brute. So enthusiastic was I. that in ’iccessive views I approached nearer ar. 1 nearer until, discarding the advice of the men with the poles who were behind me. I approiched within seven feet of the fiercest and finest of the lot. This rash act nearly cost me my life. Just a«s I let the shutters go on the second picture of him. the brute rushed at me with an awful snort. I turned and ran as the men shouted, and net a moment too f«»on; before the men with the poles could stop him. I felt the touch of h» snout on my boot and his jaws snapped together with a noise like two boards clapping together.” Many others have enriched our current literature of photography at the risk of their lives. Mr. LinJpaintner. t ie only photographer in Fort Arthur during the siege, had his studio wrecked hy a Japanese shell. Mr. E. s. Curtis, of Seattle, spent eight years an 1 almint lost his life in taking photographs of Indians in the Southwest. To get uncon* ? ious groups and to overcome the prejudice of the Indians against having their pictures taken, he used a dccepiivcangle caanera. which takes pictures at the side while it to point in front. Mr. Huntington ha- photographs of the canyon of the Euphrates, although there is not a native along if* banks who has ever been down tfie gorge. Mr. Frank A. Perret took photographs from the on Mt. Vesuvius while the vok-ano was in violent eruption. IJ>asa is no longer a ••forbidden” city, for a man may sit quietly in Washington or London and look over picture after picture of ius mysteries. Tn the summer of IfMM». Mr. Franklin Adams and his wife. Harriet Chalmers Adams, reached New York from t three years* trip through South Aniewith cameras. They brought 3000

pictures. To get them, they had circled the whole continent, crossed the Andes four times, ascended the Amazon. Orinoco, Magdalena, and Paraguay Rivers, travelled 40.000 miles in every possible kind of way from a first-class passenger coach to walking and from a cattle boat to a canoe. At one place, a mule loaded with photographic material, fell over a a cliff. At another time, a trunk with hard-earned treasures was lost overboard from a lighter. Mrs. Adams made pictures where no white woman had ever

been before—l7,ooo feet above the sea, she took photographs of the Indian village of Poto, Peru. “ To reach Poto,” she said, “ we experienced severe hardships. This village is situated in ’the attic of the world ’ —on that great plateau which may well be compared with Tibet. The homes in the village were built on a frozen plain; the backyards were filled with gfaiers.’ " To reach this place, we journeyed in the saddle from the railway station of T'irapata. not far from Lake Titicaca. From dawn until dusk we rode across the bleak highlands against a bitterly cold wind, endeavouring to reach an Indian village for she’ter before darkness fell. These semi-civilised Quichuas are not hospitable, and their huts are unele-an; but nights spent in the open at these altitudes mean intense suffering, perhaps death. One night we lost our way, as the snow fell heavily and covered the trail. At about ten o'clock. after seventeen hours in the si'd’e. nt ■ hands be-

came too stiff to hold the reins, and I fell exhausted to the ground. But we found that fate had guided us to a llama train—a few Indians and their pack of laden llamas. The natives pinched one another to keep awake and nestled among animals for warmth, so we did the same, the animals for warmth, so we did the same. 11 was a terrible night. My hair below my felt hat was covered with :<e in the morning, but I was nevertheless grateful to the llamas. At Poto we also suffered intensely from the cold, although w« were

not troubled with ‘ soroche,' the mountain sickness, whieh so often affects travellers at high altitudes. It was evident that 1 was the first white woman to reach this village, as the Indians, usually so stoical, were quite curious abour my appearance. ' Every year our accurate knowledge < 1 the world is being increased by earnerr travellers like Mr. and Mrs. Adams, blithe public seldom realise what ski’l and patience it has taken to place that knowledge in its hands. '• It onee fell to my lot,” said a professional who had made a speciality of nature photography.' “ to have to illustrate a wild-animal story ’entirely by photography, the stipulation being that all the pictures should be made of the wild animal in his native surroundings, and that I roust turn in the prints within one month. The wild animal to be photographed was only a harmless porcupine. Yet it is not easy to make one pose, for of all th? ''cussed." pig-bended little 'rascals. they ’are about

the most irritating—esp Lilly sin < must respect their ;i:isiiroer.iLle cood points and keep hi- hands off. . "After getting mj outfit in order I hastened to th- Adirondacks. 1 found a locality where porki-s' were abundant. One of the subjects which had to be illustrated was an aLando.i.’d eatnp in winter, with the -porky' eating pork rind. This ..<•■ -- not sound li.il, but it was well into- May. and nearly al! the -now had melted. However, after a careful search, I found one patch of abo-.it half an aero of snow in a sheltered nook; here I arranged a camp scene. That night tho guide ami 1 caught a porcupine arid put him in a barrel until morning. "In the ir.-antline ; was taken sick,' and it was all that I could lo to w alfc to the snow patch: ■ nt the picture had to be made that day or not at all. as the snow was rapidly melting. Blaring my;

self up. I arranged the earner.’., the guide released the 'porky’ and tried to steer him to the selected spot. Natunilljj enough, that was the one place to which the 'porky’ positively refused to go. Things were not going well with me. and 1 stood in a dazed condition holding to a free and realising that it was onlv a matter of minutes before I could faint The snow took strange rtiap -—big black and »ed spots danced ov.-r :t. ...cj in the

far distance i could indistinctly hear the man swearing at the porcupine. Gradually the spots grew larger and eloser together; between them I got occasional glimpses of the ‘porky 5 as he moved slowly toward the selected spot on which the camera was focused. Would he get there before I lost consciousness? It was certainly a queer race. but fortune was kind. My last conscious act was that of pressing the bulb as I dropped on the snow. But when the plate was developed, it Showed that the camera had caught the ’porky’ on the snow-bank beside the deserted camp!” WILD ANIMAL PHOTOGRAPHY. In July, 1906, Mr W. H. Wright found ft trail into a swamp where bear went to feed, in the nrain range of the Roekies at the south-east corner of Yellowstone 'Park. Here he tied a thread across the trail, so fastened to the camera that if it were disturbed it would set off the flashlight powder and open the shutter of the camera. He then retired some .distance and waited. "Soon an old she-bear with three little ‘eulis came down the trail,” said Mr ,Wright, "but they were just as cautious as others had been. Every few teet the old mother bear would stop and sniff the air, and the babies had to do just as she did. If she stood up on her hind feet, they also stood up. When the mother bear stopped to sniff the air, they would run up to her, and, placing their tiny feet against her sides, would peer wisely and anxiously ahead until the old lady started on again. When they came to the thread they stopped short: while the old bear was taking a good sniff at the cord, her babies stood up with their forefeet resting against her body, and waited the result of the sniff. I imagine-it may

have been a little different from what they had expected, for, after satisfying herself that the obstacle was placed tbe:e for no good, mama gave a lively snert that could have been heard for a hundred yards, and, without waiting for her babies

The cow-moose allowed the moving-picture machine, mounted on the bow of a canoe, to approach within 15 feet before ■he ran. When she did move, she made such speed that she got out of the field of the camera. This accounts for the short break in the series, as it required some seconds to swing the canoe and bring her once more within its •cope. Then she came straight toward the canoe, which was pushed against the bank. She was within ten or twelve feet of the camera before she became frightened again and ran in the opposite direction.

to get down, she turned tail and upset the whole lot, disappearing up the trail like a whirlwind, with the little cubs trying their best to overtake her. “After the old bear and cubs had gone, I waited for an hour or more,

eut got no more camera shots at grizzlies. Several came, but it was so dark that I could not see all their actions plainly, and none of them saw fit to run into the thread. Just before I left the place, I heard a bear tearing down the trail as if pursued by demons; ha was in sueh a hurry that he did not stop to noee the string. There was a. bright flash and for the instant that the timber was lit up I saw an old black bear running as for dear life. He was, I thought, at his best gait before he struck the string, but in this I was mistaken ; he had only been fooling along before. He now let himself out and, in less time than it takes to tell it, he had vanished from sight and hearing. When this plate was developed, it looked as if a cannonball of hair had been shot across it.

“The.next afternoon at about two o’clock I was again at my place of operations. This time I had stretched a tiny.

wire across the trail, thinking that ft might not be so easily winded as tha thread. The wire was so fine that I could not see it ten feet away unless I looked elosely for it. I was very careful also not to step irf the trail above where the wire was placed. This time I selected a. spot where the trail wound around among some fallen timber and where! there would not be much danger of the bears getting the scent of the wire until they were right upon it. “The evening parsed, as had the evening before, except that at about six o'clock a heavy thunder storm cams up. Just before it began to rain I had gone out a little way from the trail and peeled the bark from a couple of small trees to eover over my camera find the can of batteries, to keep them! from getting wet. The flash-pan was fitted with a loose eover easily thrown off when the powder ignited. Then I put on my rain-eoat and crawled under a thick-limbed umbrella-like tree and waited for the storm to pass. Right in the middle of it, I saw a small black bear coming through the timber. A*

every flash oi lightning he would make a dash for the nearest tree as if to climb it, but by the time he reached the tree the flash was over, and lie would come on again. Just as be got to within fifty yards of my tree, there eame the bolt of

the day. Chain-lightning seemed to run up and down every tree, followed by a crash of thunder that shook the very earth. This was too much for him. He took to the nearest tree within reach and did not stop until he was near the top. There he crouched on a limb, rolled, himself into a small ball with his nose resting between his feet, and thus he remained until the storm was over.

‘■'Shortly after the rain ceased, I saw an old grizzly coming down the trail. He was very large and fat, and would weigh from 600 to 700 pounds. He came ion, practising the usual tactics —stopping and sniffing, standing up and looking about. I was well pleased now that it had rained, for I thought that all scent must be obliterated and that this bear would run against the wire. But I was again doomed to disappointment. When only six feet from the wire, the brute stopped, slowly nosed his way up to it, and stood for a few seconds with his

nose but a little way from it. He then became so interested that he worked a little nearer, and while he was trying to make out what it was all about, there was a sudden flash that immediately brought him up on his hind feet.

Much startled, he looked first in one direction, then in another. He then decided to start an investigation; he dropped down on all-fours and began to follow the wire to the switch, but he finally changed his mind, and went oil in the opposite direction, following the cord to the little stake at the foot of which the spool was buried. This he unearthed, and, after thoroughly examining it, returned to the trail and followed my tracks down to where I had taken the bark off the trees. Here he nosed about for some time, and finally took a turn out to the right and disappeared in the timber. The negative proved to be a good one, but not quite what 1 had hoped to obtain, as the bear had slopped short at the flash, and 1 had hoped to get him in motion.”

During the previous winter, Mr. Wright made some pictures of Rocky Mountain sheep on the Gardiner River, in Montana. The deep snows on the higher mountains

and the intense eold—it was between 12deg and 20deg below zero—drove t'ho animals down to the lower hills. “I found,” he said, “a place where the sheep came to spend a part of the day, and I sec up my tripod near the point

of a little ridge on the opposite side of the gulch, two or three hundred yards away from them. After the camera was in place and focused, I went back of the little ridge and out of sight; to keep from freezing, I walked back and forth, peering around the point every few minutes to see if the sheep had come down. Some days I would not see a sheep, and at other times 1 wouM get several exposures before they would take alarm and fly back to the bill tops.*

Other photographers have taken telephoto lenses into the woods to catch wild animals at long ranges and two or three have made signal successes of the use of the flashlight in wild animal photography. But Mr. Arthur Robinson is the first man to get successful moose pictures with a nwving-pieture machine. He and Mr. A. Radclyffe Dugmore, who had a reflex camera, went into New Brunswick after moose. It took them

several days after they got to camp t< get their instruments in order. Oa leaving camp they gave the outfit to tw« guides to carry over a portage. When the photographers caught up again, the guides were standing in the water, holding the canoes and wet from head to foot. Unmistakably, they had been upset, and the cameras were in the river. With some difficulty they were fished out and the guides were sent back fol more films for the moving picture machine, which had to be taken apart, dried, and adjusted again. Soon after they had started the second time, they found a young bull moose feeding in a pond, one side of which had a soft, muddy ■bottom. This was exactly what' they wanted. Mr. Dugmore, in one canoe, kept the moose from getting ashore, while Mr. Robinson set up the movingpieture machine on the muddy bank, so that when the moose did get out' of the water the mud would keep him from getting away very fast, thus giving the machine a longer time to get picture* of him. But the wetting which the machine had suffered had made it difficult to set' up quickly, and while Mr. Robinson was working with it the moose almost got by the other canoe and away into the woods. When the machine was finally ready, the guides and Mr. Dugmore, with both canoes, drove the moose ashore in front of it while it made piotures of him with the rapidity of • galling gun.