Page 12 - Black Range Naturalist - Oct 2021

William and Irene Finley working with one of their cameras in Arizona, earlier in the trip.
And... At about the same time, Harley Shaw, Associate Editor of this magazine, hosted one of the last of the silent B&W movie photo tours at Sharlot Hall Museum in Prescott about five years before he moved to Hillsboro. The photographer and presenter was none other than Quentin Keynes, nephew of John Maynard Keynes and great grandson of Charles Darwin! One of the flyers which Keynes used to advertise his film/lecture tour is shown here.
in a fork of the tree called for a changing bag and proceeded to straighten out the jam. I do not see how he ever had the sense of balance to stay there with both hands in the changing bag. Then he climbed back and finished his picture taking.” (pp. 29-31) (Ed. They were, of course, working with unexposed film which could not be exposed to the light. A changing bag allowed work to be done on reels or film in a completely dark environment - all of the work had to be done by feel.)
The Finley effort described in this article is typical of the work which went into wildlife photography and filmmaking during this period. Although the film was made two hundred miles to the west of the Black Range, it is descriptive of the type of work that would have been done in the Black Range.
The story of climbing a tree to get good shots of the Mountain Lion is certainly romantic and has a bit of drama to it. The impression left with those watching the film is much more romantic and dramatic than the actual event. It is the
for months. A BBC-type effort is fundamentally different from the work done by Finley. Independent film makers can not, typically, spend several months trying to get the perfect shot. Most people would consider the effort described in the notes linked to in this article excessive. There is, however, often a passion which drives individuals who are doing this type of work, and it has a lot to do with being able to do things which have never been done before.
How We Connect by Bob Barnes

nature of the art. Chasing Mountain Lions around the mountains with dogs so that you can tree them and get a good picture may not seem very kosher to you.
As late as the 1960’s, staged scenes were used in television nature shows (Wild Kingdom with Marlin Perkins being just one of many examples).
It is still common to use creative editing in producing natural history presentations. Knowing that the antelope the lion is stalking was filmed several months before, perhaps in a different country, certainly dampens the drama.
On the other hand, better financed efforts often use on-site crews which may be in an area
could be seen on any television at the time, it was fascinating. Having a lecturer, who was almost very good, and a jittery black-and-white image, made it feel like I was sharing a bit of history.
In the early 1990s, I attended one of the last of the presentation/lectures of the type which Finley made on his tours. A sold-out theater of more than 500. Most of those in attendance were older and may have attended some of these types of presentations in the waning golden days of that lecture form. The presentation was on Madagascar and, even though sharper color images with sophisticated editing and sound tracks
There were several famous adventurers on the travel adventure presentation tour; many were more focused on the adventure part than natural history.
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