Northern Michigan University Professor James McCommons will discuss his book, Camera Hunter: George Shiras III and the Birth of Wildlife Photography, during a free webinar presented by The Nature Conservancy in Michigan. The virtual event is scheduled at noon on Friday, Feb. 19.
In 1906, George Shiras III (1859-1942) published a series of remarkable nighttime wildlife photographs in National Geographic magazine. Taken with crude equipment, the black-and-white photographs featured leaping whitetail deer, a beaver gnawing on a tree, and a snowy owl perched along the shore of a lake in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
The pictures were stunning in detail and composition, and celebrated American wildlife at a time when many species were going extinct because of habitat loss and unrestrained hunting. McCommons will explore the history of Shiras' work and how his photos changed the world.
Register for this event on Zoom at bit.ly/shiraswebinar.