NatureScapes recently made its annual appearance at the Florida Birding & Fotofest in St. Augustine, Florida. The four day festival, held in late April each year, has grown quite popular with local and visiting photographers and proved to be an exciting event. The classroom sessions and field workshops provided an excellent opportunity to meet and learn from talented professional photographers as well as the chance to explore and photograph a variety of subjects and locations. Festival participants were also able to attend a variety of birding and nature tours, explore beautiful historic St. Augustine, and participate in a handful of kayaking and boating trips to further discover and enjoy coastal Florida’s natural beauty.
One of the things that makes the Florida Birding & Fotofest such a wonderful event is the quality of instruction provided by the guest speakers and workshop leaders. NatureScapes’s very own Greg Downing offered three different programs at the festival geared towards beginning photographers. His “Flight and Action Photography for the Beginner” class at the popular St. Augustine Alligator Farm provided photographers new to bird photography with some excellent instruction in the art of shooting birds in action. The class started indoors with a short slide show covering some of the basic concepts and shooting suggestions for capturing action. Greg then led students to the rookery, where he guided them throughout the morning, answering questions, making suggestions, and providing solid feedback to participants as they tried new techniques while photographing the many birds flying overhead. The weather and subjects were excellent, and there were many opportunities to photograph nesting Wood Storks, Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets, Tricolored Herons, Roseate Spoonbills, and White Ibis. Even the American Alligators cooperated, vocalizing, swimming about, and coming out of the water to sunbathe.
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This photo of a woodstork was taken by Greg Downing during his Flight and Action Photography workshop at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm. |
Greg teamed up with NatureScapes member and LensCoat creator Scott Elowitz to lead two Birds of Prey Field Workshops held at Washington Oaks State Park, nearby the University of Florida’s Whitney Center which served as headquarters for the festival. Captive birds from the Florida Audubon Center for Birds of Prey were used as subjects for the field session, and each rehabilitated bird posed nicely on wild, natural perches for the photographers as they snapped away. Using well habituated educational subjects provided the ideal situation for participants to experiment with different camera settings and compositions as they perfected their bird portraiture techniques with guidance from Greg and Scott. This year, the Center for Birds of Prey provided three excellent models: Paige, a 15 year old female Bald Eagle; Elvis, a 15 year old male American Falcon; and Bogie, an 18 year old male Great Horned Owl.
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"This owl was photographed at my Raptor Workshop. His name is Bogie - |
Greg also provided an excellent classroom session “Digital Nature Photography Simplified.” His thorough discussion of photography basics, illustrated by his beautiful images, made it an excellent introductory program for beginner photographers as well as great review for those with more experience.
Several other NatureScapes regulars also provided programs at the Florida Birding & Fotofest, including Chas Glatzer, Tim Grey, and Maxis Gamez. Chas also delivered the keynote, presenting “Loons of the North Woods.”
In the exhibition hall, Kari Post manned the NatureScapes.Net booth, which provided information to festival participants about the NatureScapes community and all of the resources offered by NatureScapes.Net and the NatureScapes Store. The booth also displayed some hard to find in store items, like the Gura Gear Kiboko bag, Think Tank Airport Security 2.0, Black Rapid straps, NatureScapes Skimmer II and NatureScapes Skimmer sack for photographers to view and purchase, and Greg and Kari demoed their personal setups as well. The booth provided a great chance to connect with NatureScapes members, including Travel & Culture forum moderator Paul Klenck, visiting all the way from Illinois.
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NatureScapes will return to the Florida Birding & Fotofest next year, scheduled from April 28-May 1. Attendees should keep an eye out for more educational programs by Greg and be sure to stop by the NatureScapes.Net booth to meet Kari. We hope to see you there!
Kari is a self-described adventurer, photographer, outdoor enthusiast, conservationist, and nature lover. She loves being outside in nature, exploring the world around her, and doing just about anything that keeps her on the move. Kari picked up photography as a young girl and developed a serious passion for the still picture in high school. In college, she combined her photography hobby and love of nature and began photographing wildlife and outdoor subjects, which now make up the bulk of her work. Kari views photography as a way to share the beauty she sees in the natural world with others. She hopes her images can be used help educate and inspire others to appreciate, preserve, and protect wild places and creatures, and aspires to one day work as a photojournalist for National Geographic documenting conservation issues. Visit Kari's website at: www.karipost.com and her blog at: www.karipost.com/blog.
