: i 
 
 U. S. COMMISSION OF FISH AND FISHERIES, 
 
 GEORGE M. BOWERS, Commissioner. 
 
 EXPERIMENTS IN PHOTOGRAPHY OF LITE FISHES. 
 
 \ 
 
 BY 
 
 K\ \V. SHUFELDT, 
 
 Captain , Medical Corps , United States Army. 
 
 TV. 
 
 Extracted from U, S. Fish Commission Bulletin for 1899. Pages 1 to 5. Plates 1 to 9. 
 
 WASHINGTON: 
 
 GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 
 
 1899 . 
 
; i 
 
 
 
 
U. S. COMMISSION OF FISH AND FISHERIES, 
 
 GEORGE M. BOWERS, Commissioner. 
 
 BY 
 
 R. W. SHUFELDT, 
 
 Captain, Medical Corps, United States Army. 
 
 Extracted from U. S. Fish Commission Bulletin for 1899. Pages 1 to 5. Plates 1 to 9. 
 
 WASHINGTON: 
 
 GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 
 
 1899 . 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 
 t 
 
 
 
 
 i ! 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 sr. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2015 
 
 https://archive.org/details/experimentsinphoOOshuf 
 
Bull. U. S. F. C. 1899. (To face page 1 .) 
 
 Plate 1. 
 
 THE MARINE GROTTO IN THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION BUILDING AT WASHINGTON, D. C. (Taken in July, 1897.) 
 
EXPERIMENTS IN PHOTOGRAPHY OF LIVE FISHES. 
 
 By R. W. SHUFELDT. 
 
 Captain , Medical Corps, United States Army. 
 
 Up to the present time very few photographs of living fishes have been repro- 
 duced and published, and, as compared with the photography of other living forms, 
 attempts or successes in this line are extremely rare. There are a number of methods 
 by means of which Ash may be photographed in their natural element, with natural 
 surroundings, as, for example, it is possible to accomplish it beneath the surface of 
 the water by the use of some such contrivance as the subaquatic camera used by 
 Dr. J. E. Romborsts, or that of M. Bouton, or the apparatus of Regnard. By the 
 employment of instantaneous photography some Ashes have been taken in the air, in 
 the act of “leaping,” as in the case of salmon, or in the act of flight, as in the case 
 of the flying-fish. Such pictures as these latter, however, illustrate peculiar habits 
 rather than topographical characters of the forms thus secured. To obtain these we 
 must resort to the photography of living Ashes in suitable aquaria and under proper 
 conditions. In such receptacles the types to be photographed may be taken either 
 through the glass sides of the aquarium (with or without background) or the exposure 
 may be made from above. This, of course, would depend upon the form of the fish and 
 its habits in nature, or, in other words, whether the subject was a bass or a flounder. 
 Again, certain Ash in nature have the habit of occasionally resorting to the dry land, 
 and when the opportunity offers species of this kind may be taken upon terra Arina in 
 various situations, as in the case of the peculiar gobioid Periophthalmus. 
 
 The experiments to be described in the present contribution, however, will be 
 restricted to a few the author has made at the aquaria of the U. S. Fish Commission 
 building in Washington in July, 1897, and upon various occasions since. The fish in 
 these cases were all medium-sized teleostean types, and the photographs were first 
 taken through the glass sides of the aquaria in which they are kept in the “ Marine 
 Grotto”; and afterwards in a special aquarium placed in the court yard of the build- 
 ing during the forenoon of a perfectly clear day in July (1898) — two very different 
 conditions. In the first instance the aquaria consist of it series of tanks arranged 
 around a roofless corridor, thus admitting sunlight, when protective awnings are not 
 in use, only from above. Within the grotto, this series of aquaria comes flush by 
 glass-fronts with the wall of the long room, .so named. Here they are of glass, 4 or 5 
 feet above the floor, and as one enters the grotto the impression is given of mural 
 pictures wherein the fish-subjects are alive and moving about. The walls of the grotto 
 
 1 
 
9 
 
 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
 
 and its entrance are of tin, so modeled, painted, and sanded as to give the appearance 
 of having been built in solid freestone. Practically all the light that gets into the 
 place is through the glass fronts of the series of aquaria- and the doorway passage 
 It is an admirable arrangement and admits of the study of the forms of many kinds 
 of tish and plants, and certain invertebrate as well. To a limited extent it likewise 
 permits the study of some of the habits of the forms exhibited. 
 
 To one having but little knowledge of the use of the camera, it would appear to 
 be but a simple matter to photograph under such apparently favorable conditions, 
 but such is by no means the case. In the first place, in most instances the incessant, 
 rapid, and often erratic movements of the lish themselves have to be taken into 
 account; the aquaria being large, we have in the second place the difficulty of prompt 
 focussing to contend with, due to the latitude enjoyed by the smaller and more active 
 forms. Thirdly, there is the question of reflection, and this, taken in connection with 
 the light, is a serious problem. Reflections are especially troublesome, as the glass 
 fronts of the aquaria receive them from all directions, so that, alter focussing, a careful 
 study of the image upon the ground-glass will show these reflections not only from 
 some of the other aquaria, but possibly the photographer and his camera besides. 
 All this must be carefully guarded against. 
 
 In the early part of July, 1897, I made a number of attempts to photograph the 
 fish contained in these aquaria through tlie glass-fronts, and in several instances I 
 was successful. Where failure resulted it was due to some of the causes enumerated 
 above, or, as in the case of a catfish, due to the high light upon the fish itself. High 
 lights on the bodies of fish, if present at the time the exposure is made, will in the 
 prints made from such a negative produce areas of white wherein all detail is absent. 
 This is to be especially avoided, and often can only be overcome by shielding the 
 aquarium from the sun above. An umbrella will in nearly all cases serve this purpose. 
 
 The camera employed upon this occasion was an old-model Blair tourograph, with 
 a Vbigtlander lens (No. 1) (27,907), an instantaneous shutter of the Low pattern, Seed’s 
 gilt-edge plates (5 by 8). I used stops as any special case demanded. A tripod is 
 absolutely essential to success in this kind of work. The instrument was set up in 
 front of one of the more favorable aquaria and focussed upon the part desired and an 
 inch or two beyond the surface of the glass. An armed plate-holder was inserted in 
 place and the “snap” set. Patient waiting for an exposure when the fish swims to 
 the place where you want it is necessary. Care must be taken in drawing or pushing- 
 back the slide to the plate-hohler, and some of my failures were due to complications 
 of this nature. 
 
 The first exposure was made upon a large pike ( Lucius lucius ), some 18 or 20 inches 
 long and in good color and condition. It had a duration of about 2 seconds, at which 
 time the plane of the left side of the fish’s body was nearly parallel to the plane of the 
 glass, and about 3 inches from its inner surface. A quarter of an inch diaphragm 
 was used, and the subject remained practically motionless during the time of exposure. 
 Overhead the light was somewhat diffused, and an additional disadvantage presented 
 itself in the fact that the color of the pike closely simulated the shade of the metal-back 
 of the aquarium, thus rendering strong outlines of the resulting negative a matter 
 of doubt. However, the picture (plate 7, lower figure) was fairly good, and on com- 
 paring it with the figure of this species iu “The Fisheries and Fishery Industries of 
 the United States” (plate 183, upper figure) it is to be observed that iu the living 
 fish the pectoral fins are extended almost directly downward; and further, that the 
 
EXPERIMENTS IN PHOTOGRAPHY OF LIVE FISHES. 
 
 3 
 
 extremities of the forks of the tail are distinctly rounded and not acute, as in the 
 aforesaid drawing. In fact, the caudal tin, or tail, iu the latter is incorrect in outline, 
 and there are still other differences to be observed upon comparing the figure of the 
 present paper with the figure given us by Goode, pointing to inaccuracies in the 
 latter. Here is where the great value of the camera comes in. In time, with suitable 
 subjects taken under the most favorable conditions, pictures of fish (as in the case of 
 other animal forms), produced by half toning processes from faultless photographs, 
 will surely supersede in biological literature the often inaccurate figures that now 
 illustrate it. This is what we strive to accomplish in our efforts to obtain the best 
 possible photographic negatives of fish — live fish in their natural element, with normal 
 surroundings. 
 
 On the same day I attempted to photograph the two species of sun-fish then in 
 the aquaria. One of these was the common pumpkin-seed (Eupomotis gibbosus) and 
 the other the long eared sun-fish (Lepomis auritus , plate 3, upper figure). In the 
 aquarium at the south end of the grotto there were upward of two dozen specimens of 
 the former, while a handsome male of the latter species, with three or four females, 
 were living in another tank at the side of the room, where the light was much more 
 favorable. By instantaneous exposure I secured two fine negatives of the common 
 sun fish. One of these had twenty fish in it, all of which were swimming at the time, 
 but the resulting picture shows not the slightest degree of motion in anyone of them. 
 There were nearly as many specimens on the second negative, here shown in plate 3, 
 lower figure, and published for the first time in the Photographic Times , of New York. 
 These results exemplify what may be expected from a highly colored fish, though 
 rather a dark one, attempted under by no means favorable conditions, and where 
 reliance was mainly placed upon tact, patience, and the best material that the market 
 afforded. It will be observed that those specimens which were deep down in the water 
 took the darkest, while those nearer the surface showed better definition. Nearly all of 
 them, however, give the external characters of the species pretty well, and surely are 
 far more interesting than many illustrations frequently seen in zoological works. 
 
 In the case of Lepomis auritus the subject selected was the single male fish, and 
 for fully two hours, upon an intensely sultry afternoon, I was obliged to wait before 
 this beautiful specimen came into the proper place to be photographed. The result, 
 however, fully compensated for the delay, and the photograph is an absolutely 
 accurate representation of the male long-eared sun fish of our American ichthyfauna. 
 
 About a week after making these experiments very good results were also obtained 
 with the striped sea-robin (Prionotus evolans) and with the naked star-gazer ( Astro - 
 scopus guttatus). The former was taken while resting upon the bottom of the aquarium, 
 while the latter was secured iu two positions, the one Avhere it had settled down upon 
 a piece of flat stone, and the other an instantaneous exposure, showing the fish in the 
 act of hiding itself in the sand, a very interesting habit that it constantly exhibits. 
 The reproduction of my photograph of the star-gazer is shown iu plate 7, upper figure, 
 and it is a very accurate representation of this species as it appears in life. 
 
 This work was not resumed until July of the following year, when the present 
 Commissioner, Hon. George M. Bowers, extended me additional facilities. Mr. Edw. 
 S. Schmid had also had a special aquarium manufactured for my use, and I had the 
 kind assistance in the experiments of Mr. Leightou G. Harron, the superintendent of 
 the Aquaria at Central Statiou in Washington. I made a number of exposures upon 
 needle- gars, black bass, and crappie. With both the former species T failed for not 
 

 
Bull. U. S. F. C 1899 (To face page 6.) 
 
 Plate 2. 
 
 COMMON SUN-FISH ( Eupomotis gibboSUS). Upper figure, natural size ; lower figure, slightly reduced. 
 
LONG-EARED SUN-FISH (Lepomis anritus). Reduced about one-third. 
 
 GROUP OF COMMON SUN-FISH (Eupomotis yibbosus). 
 

Bull. U. S. P. C. 1899 (To face page 6.) 
 
 Plate 4. 
 
 THE WHITE PERCH (Morone americana). Two-thirds natural size. Represents the fish searching for food along the bottom of the aquarium, similar to the habit 
 
 it has in nature. 
 
 THE LARGE-MOUTHED BLACK BASS (Micropterus salmoides). Slightly reduced. 
 
THE SPOTTED SEA TROUT OR SQUETEAGUE {Cynoscion maculatum). One-half natural size. 
 
 
THE SEA BASS (Centropi'istes striatus). Different specimens. 
 
 Bull. U. S. F. C 1899 (To face page 6.) 
 
 Plate 6. 
 

THE PIKE ( Lucius lucius). Left lateral view. 
 
 | 
 
 Bull. U. S P. C. 1899. (To face page 6.) 
 
 Plate 7. 
 
THE BROOK TROUT (Salvelinus fontinalis). Natural size. Taken July, 1897. 
 
YOUNG RAINBOW TROUT ( Snlmo irideus). Four hundred and fifty specimens in the aquarium when instantaneous exposure was made. 
 
 Bull. U. S. F. C. 1859 (To face page 6.) 
 
 Plate 9, 
 
U-6 
 
 ^55