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Nature Photography Workshops
Come join me this February in the Western Everglades for two days of photographing one of my favorite places on earth!
February 28th and 29th we will be traveling to many of the same places that I photographed some of my best images. The group size is limited to 3 people so it will be very one on one personal attention. This trip is suited for anyone from a beginner to serious amateur and does not require any outdoors skills or experience at all, just a love of nature.
The first day starts out at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, one of the best places in the country to photograph wildlife. The 2 1/4 mile boardwalk winds through the largest untouched old growth cypress strand in the country where birds and other wildlife pay almost no attention to you as you wander the boardwalk.
Then it’s on to Everglades City to spend the evening at the Rod and Gun Club. The hotel built in 1922 is hands down the hotel with the most character and history in Southwest Florida. (Five U.S. Presidents as well as Mic Jagger, John Wayne and Ernest Hemingway are just some of the dignitaries who have visited the Rod and Gun Club) We’ll have dinner at the hotel’s dinning room and then spend some time looking at and discussing the photos from the day.
The second day we will head out to the 10,000 Islands National Wildlife Refuge to shoot at sunrise. The 1 mile trail extends into the Coastal Marshland of the 10,000 islands and offers an incredible opportunity to photograph wild birds on a peaceful uncrowded and easily accessible trail. From there we travel to the Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk for another walk into a Cypress Strand. The end of the mile long boardwalk usually is home to a large resident alligator and there is also a pair of bald eagles which nest each year near the boardwalk.
The next stop is Ochopee for lunch at Jonie’s Blue Crab Cafe and of course you can’t drive through Ochopee without stopping for a quick photo in front of the smallest post office in America. Then we will stop into see Clyde Butcher’s Big Cypress Gallery and be humbled by his amazing large format black and white photography of the Everglades. The small pond next to the parking lot of the gallery is also one of the best places along the Tamiami Trail for some photography.
Then we’re off the Fakahatchee Stand (nicknamed the ‘Amazon of North America’) for our final adventure where we finally get our feet wet. (in February the water level is usually no more than knee deep) We’ll explore one of the overgrown logging roads from the 1940′s and walk a short distance into the heart of the central slough, a slow moving flow of water through the cypress foreste of the Fakahatchee strand. This is a wonderful opportunity for some amazing tropical landscape photos. Then back to the Rod and Gun Club where we’ll have dinner and take a look at the day’s photos again and have a few beers in the Rod and Gun Club’s lounge to celebrate the end to our Everglades Adventure. Send me an email if you are interested in joining us!