Category: George Shiras III, George Shiras, George Shiras 3rd

Young Swan by George Shiras

George Shiras 3rd :: Young swan suffering from lead poisoning. Published in Hunting wild life with camera and flashlight : a record of sixty-five years’ visits to the woods and waters of North America. Volume II, 1935. | src Memorial University of Newfoundland
George Shiras 3rd :: Young swan suffering from lead poisoning. Published in Hunting wild life with camera and flashlight : a record of sixty-five years’ visits to the woods and waters of North America. Volume II, 1935. | src Memorial University of Newfoundland
George Shiras 3rd :: Young swan suffering from lead poisoning. Published in Hunting wild life with camera and flashlight : a record of sixty-five years’ visits to the woods and waters of North America. Volume II, 1935. | src Memorial University of Newfoundland
George Shiras 3rd :: Young swan suffering from lead poisoning. Published in Hunting wild life with camera and flashlight : a record of sixty-five years’ visits to the woods and waters of North America. Volume II, 1935. | src Memorial University of Newfoundland
Caption: Its appetite betrayed it. / This young swan, suffering from lead poisoning and unable to fly, was caught near shore. The ailment comes from shot pellets picked up on the bottom and retained in the gizzard until destroyed by attrition.
George Shiras 3rd :: Young swan suffering from lead poisoning. Published in Hunting wild life with camera and flashlight : a record of sixty-five years’ visits to the woods and waters of North America. Volume II, 1935. Full page 114. | src Memorial University of Newfoundland
Published in Hunting wild life with camera and flashlight : a record of sixty-five years’ visits to the woods and waters of North America. Volume II, 1935. Full page 114. | src Memorial University of Newfoundland

Screech owl by George Shiras

George Shiras 3rd :: Little screech owl. Published in Hunting wild life with camera and flashlight : a record of sixty-five years’ visits to the woods and waters of North America. Volume II, National Geographic Society, 1935. | src Memorial University of Newfoundland
George Shiras 3rd :: Little screech owl. Published in Hunting wild life with camera and flashlight : a record of sixty-five years’ visits to the woods and waters of North America. Volume II, National Geographic Society, 1935. | src Memorial University of Newfoundland
George Shiras 3rd :: Little screech owl. Published in Hunting wild life with camera and flashlight : a record of sixty-five years’ visits to the woods and waters of North America. Volume II, National Geographic Society, 1935. | src Memorial University of Newfoundland
George Shiras 3rd :: Little screech owl. Published in Hunting wild life with camera and flashlight : a record of sixty-five years’ visits to the woods and waters of North America. Volume I, National Geographic Society, 1935. | src Memorial University of Newfoundland
George Shiras 3rd :: Little screech owl. “Driven from shelter, he glares at the world.”

“Routed from its retreat among leaves and Spanish moss, this little screech owl sits blinking in the sun. Many persons formerly believed his species harmless to other birds, but investigation proved that it is destructive to several small kinds.”

George Shiras 3rd :: Little screech owl. Published in Hunting wild life with camera and flashlight : a record of sixty-five years’ visits to the woods and waters of North America. Volume II, National Geographic Society, 1935. | src Memorial University of Newfoundland
George Shiras 3rd :: Little screech owl. Published in Hunting wild life with camera and flashlight : a record of sixty-five years’ visits to the woods and waters of North America. Volume II, National Geographic Society, 1935. | src Memorial University of Newfoundland

Doe and fawns by Shiras

George Shiras, 3rd :: “A Doe and Twin Fawns” aka “Innocents Abroad” (taken 1896), printed 1916. Vintage photogravure published by the National Geographic Society, Washington, D.C. | src PhotoSeed
George Shiras, 3rd :: “A Doe and Twin Fawns” aka “Innocents Abroad” (taken 1896), printed 1916. Vintage photogravure published by the National Geographic Society, Washington, D.C. | src PhotoSeed
George Shiras, 3rd :: “A Doe and Twin Fawns” aka “Innocents Abroad” (taken 1896), printed 1916. Vintage photogravure published by the National Geographic Society, Washington, D.C. | src PhotoSeed

This groundbreaking photograph depicting three deer was taken at night in 1896 on one of the many lakes making up Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. It was eventually issued in 1916 as a large-format hand-pulled photogravure by the National Geographic Society, Washington, D.C. (it had previously appeared several times in the journal as a halftone-one a full-page gatefold). [quoted from PhotoSeed]

George Shiras, 3rd :: “A Doe and Twin Fawns” aka “Innocents Abroad” (taken 1896), printed 1916. Vintage photogravure published by the National Geographic Society, Washington, D.C. | src PhotoSeed
A Doe and Twin Fawns -also known as Innocents Abroad, would earn Shiras international acclaim and many important awards.

A pioneer of using flashlight photography to record wildlife in their natural environments at night, Shiras used the method of “Jacklighting”, a form of hunting using a fixed continuous light source mounted in the bow of a canoe to draw the attention of wildlife: in this case three deer, utilizing magnesium flash-powder to freeze the scene in-camera. His series of twelve midnight views, including A Doe and Twin Fawns -also known as Innocents Abroad, would earn Shiras international acclaim and many important awards.

A one-term Congressman for the state of Michigan, (his father George Shiras Sr. was a former Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court) he was also an important naturalist who helped placed migratory birds and fish under Federal control. (The eventual 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act had groundings in legislation Shiras introduced to Congress in 1903 as the first comprehensive migratory bird law not voted on.) For additional background, see article by Matthew Brower in the journal History of Photography, Summer, 2008: George Shiras and the Circulation of Wildlife Photography. [quoted from PhotoSeed]

George Shiras (III) :: A doe and her twin fawns feeding on a lake in northern Michigan, published 1935
George Shiras (III) :: A doe and her twin fawns feeding on a lake in northern Michigan, published 1935

A doe and her twin fawns feeding on a lake in northern Michigan. From: Hunting wild life with camera and flashlight : a record of sixty-five years’ visits to the woods and waters of North America. Volume I, National Geographic Society, 1935. | src Memorial University of Newfoundland