George Shiras III was born in 1859 in Allegheny, PA. An avid hunter in his youth, became a lawyer then a politician.
Then got into photography, especially wildlife. Ho hum, another rich dude with an expensive hobby.
But talking to the Ojibwa tribe he learned about jacklighting. They would put a pan of fire in the bow of a canoe and
wait for animals to come to the waters edge to investigate, then shoot them.
Shiras put that together with his camera, and in the 1890s became the father of wildlife photography.
Then he set up a system of wires and pieces of equipment on land to catch wildlife in the forest... the first trailcam.
He was hooked, traded his rifle for traveling all over the country photographing wild life and scenery like Yellowstone.
These were the days of bulky equipment and glass plate photography, no instamatic or smart phone shit.
Quote:
A member of the Public Lands Committee, his work eventually led to the establishment of Olympic National Monument and
Petrified Forest National Monument and the extension of Yellowstone National Park. In 1904 he introduced the legislation
that would eventually become the Migratory Bird Bill of 1913.
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Shiras became an avid defender of wildlife and people he knew in Washington marveled at his pictures.
Gil Grosvenor invited him to the National Geographic offices to see his pictures and publish almost all of them.
Quote:
True to his word, Grosvenor printed 74 of Shiras's pictures in the July 1906 edition of the magazine, a single-article issue
titled "Hunting Wild Game With Flashlight and Camera." Many years later, Grosvenor recalled it as "one of the pioneering
achievements of the National Geographic. ... It was an extraordinarily educative series: Nobody had ever seen pictures
like that of wild animals. ... I can't exaggerate the enthusiasm with which they were received by our members."
The issue was so popular that it was reprinted two years later, one of only two National Geographic issues to have been
reprinted to this day.
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So Shiras turned out OK, for a lawyer and politician
, and we owe him big time for his photography.
Here's
two links where you can see more of his work and details of his story.