Oliver G. Pike
British naturalist, photographer and author (1877–1963)
Oliver Gregory Pike, FZS, FRPS. (usually credited as Oliver G. Pike; 1 October 1877 – 17 October 1963) was a British naturalist, wildlife photographer, author and early nature documentary pioneer, specialising in the study of bird life. "His claim to significance," according to Bryony Dixon of BFI Screenonline, "lies in the groundbreaking techniques he developed to capture animals in their natural habitats and in the fact that he passed this knowledge on."
Biography
Pike studied at Enfield Grammar School until 1893, where he became friends with local commercial photographer and ornithologist Reginald Badham Lodge, who specialised in bird photography. Pike accompanied Lodge while he worked, taking his first photograph of a wild flower at the age of 13, in the autumn of 1890. In 1895 the two invented a bird-activated trip-wire releases, which effectively allowed birds to take their own pictures. Pike developed a profound knowledge of photographic techniques and went on to publish a series of 25 handbooks on ornithological photography and cinematography, starting with In Birdland with Field Glass and Camera (1900). He also developed his own stills camera, marketed as The Birdland Camera by Sanders & Crowhurst of Shaftesbury Avenue, London, and later a cine-camera for wildlife photography that was camouflaged so as not to frighten off the subjects.
Pike's first film, In Birdland, which premiered at the Palace Theatre, London in August 1907, was the first British wildlife film to be screened to a fee paying audience. Together with cinematographer Harold Armytage Sanders, Pike took great physical risks hanging from ropes over coastal cliffs to capture unprecedented footage of Britain's seabirds, including kittiwakes, gannets, cormorants and puffins. The film proved hugely popular in its 6-week run with over 100 additional prints were made for screenings across the UK. All copies are now however believed lost or destroyed. He made two more films along a similar theme, St Kilda, Its People and Birds (1908) and Cliff Climbing – The Egg Harvest of Flamborough Head (1908), before becoming director of photography for Pathé Frères from 1910 to 1920, where he made Glimpses of Bird Life (1910), noted for its use of positioning which was "years ahead of their time" and "helped to establish British wildlife photographers as leaders in this field."
During the First World War, he served in the Royal Flying Corps, and its successor, the Royal Air Force, as a photographic officer.
The public source identifies “Oliver G. Pike” as british naturalist, photographer and author (1877–1963). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Oliver, Pike and British.
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This entry incorporates text from “Oliver G. Pike” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.