In case you were wondering if you can make a living as a naturalist, the answer is: Yes. Sometimes, you can. Genevieve Ma’yet came to Eugene after answering an ad for a naturalist position posted by Oak Hill School, where she now works as a K-8 educator teaching subjects as wide ranging as magnetism and gardening. 

It’s a position she is well qualified for with a BA in biology, an MA in science education and eight years of experience teaching environmental science and chemistry.  

Her other occupations as photographer and author reflect newer endeavors. In December 2025, she gave a reading of her first and newly published children’s book, The Girl Who Found Her North Star, at The Hybrid Gallery. The story is about Aurora and her dog, Sirius, and their adventures trying to find Polaris. 

The books she brought to the opening all sold the night of her reading. 

It was exciting, she says. To add to that excitement, Hybrid Gallery is hosting Ma’yet’s first one-person art show, Penumbra, which is on display throughout January. The exhibit meanders through several rooms and consists of 50 of her photographs, mostly of deep space objects, but also of nature and wildlife on Earth. 

She is looking forward to sharing her astrophotography technique on Jan. 17 during an artist talk at The Hybrid Gallery.  

“I’ve been fascinated by space forever,” Ma’yet says. 

Forever is a long time, but then she’s used to thinking about vast distances that are challenging to imagine. A favorite subject of hers is the Andromeda Galaxy. While photographing it, she likes to think about the time it takes light to travel from there to here, which is about two and a half million light-years.

If someone there were taking a picture of us, she muses, then they would be getting an image of what Earth looked like millions of years ago. 

Some of her photographs of space are used in The Girl Who Found Her North Star, along with illustrations by Bella Vitale, a former student of hers who is now an educator, too.   

Ma’yet’s preoccupation with photography began during COVID. While teaching online, she recorded sunrises, which she then played for her homebound students during breaks. Soon after, she received advice from a friend on which camera to buy to best take pictures of wildlife. 

For about the past year, she’s been taking pictures of galaxies, stars and other objects in space. To do that, she heads to places that typically have less cloud cover than Eugene. A favorite spot of hers is the Painted Hills within the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, where she’ll set up camp for a few nights, following a distant part of the night sky with a guide telescope to photograph it using a larger telescope attached to her camera.  

Ma’yet is currently working on the second book in the “Aurora’s Cosmic Adventures” series. 

Genevieve Ma’yet’s Artist Talk on Penumbra is 1 pm Saturday, Jan. 17, at The Hybrid Gallery, 941 West 3rd Avenue.