Jay Graber saw our recent post and picture of “Does Flying Around” and sent this. Fascinating!
Mike: That picture is from the book Hunting Wildlife with Camera and Flashlight by George Shiras, a pioneer in nighttime wildlife photography. Peter White, his son-in-law, had a summer home on Whitefish Lake in the UP where some of the photos were taken. Early 1900s. My great-grandparents were the caretakers of that camp. My grandmother’s (Ingrid Rundquist) cat was caught in a few of the pictures too and are in the book. Pretty cool, huh?
Funny, after all of these years that I’ve had these books (volumes I and II) with the rich family history, I never tied the century gap together with today’s high-tech cameras. Until now. To think that roughly 100 years ago George Shiras was shooting high-res photos to outdo today’s high-tech digital is amazing!
I hope you’ll post this update for Mark (who sent us the Does Flying Around picture back in April) to show him what low-tech device took that photo and ask him if he still wants to buy one, ha ha.—Jay
BTW, there are a few used and collectible copies of those books available on Amazon.