Just bought 2 cans of Desert Varnish - when I shake it, there is no ball inside that is usually in aerosol cans. Is this normal? The reason I am asking is that the spray only adhered to certain parts of the photo, leaving small patches uncovered, like the middle of guy's forehead in the group photo I did spray 2X at right angles as per instructions. I'm thinking this has been sitting on the shelf at the photo store for years and maybe has degraded in its properties?

Unlike paint aerosol cans, there is no ball in the Desert Varnish as the contents are pure liquid and not a paint where the ball is used to mix the paint pigments up with the liquid vehicle. So no ball is needed!

Aside from that we always recommend people spray with the can and print upright- if the print is flat and can is tipped there may not be even delivery of the varnish. It sounds like perhaps that happened.