Like the painters Catlin and Bodmer before him, the photographers set out to document the Old West. The indigenous peoples put a great deal of pride on having their portrait taken. Once they had gotten over their hesitancy and fear of the whitemans invention, they readily accepted being immortalized through pictures. However it was not easy for photographers to do their job. First they had to gain the indians trust and insure them that their efforts were benign- only then could they begin to photograph them. Many frontier photographers set up shop at military posts where there was plenty of business when the Natives weren't around.