Rothfels notes that during a hunting trip for the animals, 'Akeley took a photograph of one of the dead asses being carried by a camel. The photograph is not reproduced in his memoir but is part of the lantern slide collection of the Field Museum in Chicago... The photograph of the ass on the camel, a black-and-white image that was later coloured by hand, is clearly not about documenting a dead body or a scene. Possibly used in his lectures, it is a highly composed image that resonates with the regrets Akeley describes in his text.

The image is arrnged as a triangularly shaped tryptych presented against a backdrop of mountains rising on each side and framing the central drama. On the left are two men, heads bowed before the dead ass. On the right are two other men looking directly at the dead animal. The body positions of both pairs echo each other. On the left, the men's legs are together, their bodies are turned slightly away from the camera, and their left arms are bent at the elbow. One of the men on the left holds a pair of binoculars, the other carries a case likely designed for a camera - the camera, of course, which is being used for the photograph. On the right, both figures attend to the camel - one holds the animals head, the other rests his hand on the camel's withers. The focus of the image is the dead ass strapped to the back of the camel, covered with blankets and grasses to help protect its skin from the taut ropes. This is not a simple snapshot, but an image composed to tell a story about the death of the ass in a desert setting. If Akeley simply wanted to take a picture of the the dead ass on the camel, he would not have positioned the bodies so carefully, he would not have the men carrying the guns, he would not have the optical equipment so prominently in shot, he would not have paid such close attention to the overall structure of the image.

In a sense, the image is the opposite of the classic trophy shot... here the hunter is absent and the guns and setting tell a simpl[e] and tragically banal story of death. Whereas gun bearers and trackers typically stand outside of the frame of the trophy shot... here the hunter is absent and the gun bearers and trackers stand solemnly next to the dead animal, appearing both to mourn and care for the creature.' (66)