2023 Nature Photography Summit

Breakout Sessions

Choose from a variety of breakout sessions, each led by an accomplished photographer. Sessions are 90-minutes long and most are repeated so you won’t have to miss one if it conflicts with another you want to see. Sessions are listed alphabetically by presenter.

SUMMIT – REGISTER – TRAVEL AND LODGING – SCHEDULE – KEYNOTE SPEAKERS – BREAKOUT SESSIONS – SUPER SESSIONS – FIELD TRIPS – PORTFOLIO REVIEWS – EXPO AND TRADE SHOW – FAQ

Alyce Bender – Impressionistic Photography: An Introduction to In-Camera Techniques for Painterly Images

Friday, May 5, 2023  9:15 – 10:45 a.m.
Friday, May 5, 2023  4 – 5:30 p.m.

In this session, we will explore the world of Impressionistic Photography and how to create painterly type images in-camera. Topics covered will include pre-visualizing scenes, selecting camera settings, in-field techniques, and a few tips on post processing these special images. This will give participants the basic tools to start experimenting on their own in the field to create unique images even in popular shooting locations or with common backyard subjects. (Photo credit: Connor Hibbs)

Session Format:

• Lecture with Questions

Target Audience:

• Beginning skill level
• Intermediate skill level
• Advanced skill level
• General audience

Track

• Creative
• Technical

Gabriel Biderman – Night Photography – The Art of Low Level Light Painting

Wednesday, May 3, 2023  2 – 3:30 p.m.
Friday, May 5, 2023  9:15 – 10:45 a.m.

National Parks at Night Co-Founder Gabriel Biderman will share his passion for night photography and how you can level up your nocturnal images by using Low-Level Landscape Lighting (LLL).  Gabe will go over the tools and techniques required to gently bring color, contrast and detail to your foreground without interfering with wildlife or fellow stargazers.

Gabe will take you from start to finish best practices including:

• Color Temperature choices
• Single image LLL
• When to add stacking to reduce noise
• Post processing LLL images – both single and stacked.

After this class you’ll feel much more comfortable with Seizing the Night!

Session Format:

• Lecture with Questions

Target Audience:

• Beginning skill level
• Intermediate skill level
• Advanced skill level
• Working professional
• General audience

Track:

• Creative
• Technical

Paul Brooke – Grants and Residencies for Wildlife Photographers: Finding, Applying and Landing Them

Thursday, May 4, 2023  4 – 5:30 p.m.
Saturday, May 6, 2023  7:30 – 9 a.m.

Wildlife photographers are artists and Brooke has leveraged that idea to his benefit when applying for grants/residencies. During this session, participants will learn firsthand how to find and apply for grants and residencies. Brooke will teach you how to write a successful grant/residency application. After the session, each participant will receive an electronic list of grants and residencies, example submission materials, and information from the session. (Photo credit: Javiera Vargas)

Session Format:

• Lecture with Questions

Target Audience:

• Beginning skill level
• Intermediate skill level
• Advanced skill level
• Working professional
• General audience

Track:

• Creative

Bob Coates – Using Technology and Gear to Create Stronger Images

Thursday, May 4, 2023  5:30 – 7 p.m.
Friday, May 5, 2023  4 – 5:30 p.m.

We have more creative tools than ever built into cameras. Apps to give us info before we get to a location. Weather information helps know where better image possibilities await. Camera gear is lighter, faster and sharper. Technology is helping make more Creative Images than ever before. We can remotely control cameras via wifi. Pull still frames from video, pick focus after the fact with focus stacking. Intelligent Auto determines subject matter and gives pre-programmed settings so you can concentrate on composition. Post-processing techniques for images after capture with Adobe Photoshop, NIK Filters, Luminar and Aurora 2019 HDR software.

Session Format:

• Lecture with Questions

Target Audience

• Intermediate skill level
• Advanced skill level
• Working professional
• General audience

Track:

• Creative
• Technical

Izzy Edwards – The Elusive 19: America’s Owls

Thursday, May 4, 2023  5:30 – 7 p.m.
Saturday, May 6, 2023  4 – 5:30pm

Join wildlife photographer Izzy Edwards for an introduction to America’s 19 unique owl species. Follow her photographic journey from Canada to Mexico as she shares her stories and experiences of getting to know the intimate lives of these elusive raptors. Edwards will receive NANPA’s 2023 Outstanding Young Nature Photographer Award. (Photo credit: Bill Edwards)

Session Format:

• Lecture with Questions

Target Audience:

• Beginning skill level
• Intermediate skill level
• Advanced skill level
• General audience

Track:

• Creative
• Environment/Conservation

Bruce Farnsworth – Capture the Full Story: Make Your Nature Images Valuable to Science

Friday, May 5, 2023  7:30 – 9 a.m.
Friday, May 5, 2023  5:45 – 7:15 p.m.

Bruce Farnsworth’s editorial and documentary work benefits from his relationship with scientists who provide access to research locations and assist in species identification in exchange for photographs. Learn how to increase the scientific value of your photographs and enjoy important collaborations of your own! (Photo credit: Pablo Shiguango)

This session is vital for photographers working in regions of high biodiversity. Topics may include:

• Understand your critter’s “niche.”
• Photograph species AND habitat.
• Know the “diagnostic features.”
• Leverage off-camera strobe for info-gathering.
• Don’t forget the “environmental data.”
• Learn about iNaturalist

Enjoy a brief “Animal Behavior 101” for improved captioning. Always promote bio-cultural relationships.

Session Format:

• Lecture with Questions

Target Audience:

• Beginning skill level
• Intermediate skill level
• Advanced skill level
• Working professional

Track:

• Environment/Conservation

Jerry Ginsberg – National Parks

Wednesday, May 3, 2023  4:00 – 5:30 p.m.

Ginsberg has photographed all 63 U.S. National Parks with medium format cameras. In this session, he highlights the pressure on these irreplaceable natural treasures, pollution concerns, and how photographic images can be used to influence public opinion and gain support for protection. Ginsberg will also share what he’s learned about the National Park Service Artist in Residence Program.

Session Format:

• Lecture with Questions

Target Audience:

• Intermediate skill level
• Advanced skill level
• Working professional
• General audience

Track:

• Environment/Conservation
• Creative

Russell Graves – Using Photography to Champion Local Conservation Causes

Saturday, May 6, 2023  9:15 – 10:45 a.m.
Saturday, May 6, 2023  2:30 – 4:00 p.m.

While conservation projects in the ocean and Africa are sexy and exotic, many photographers don’t have the time or means to travel to such exotic places. This session will focus on how all conservation starts locally and discuss strategies on what you can do to make the world a better place by focusing your efforts locally on your own property and working with local organizations and conservation professionals. (Photo credit: Travis Massengill)

Session Format:

• Lecture with Questions

Target Audience:

• Intermediate skill level
• Advanced skill level
• Working professional
• General audience

Track:

• Environment/Conservation

A Conversation with Tom Kennedy, Former Director of Photography for National Geographic

Friday, May 5, 2023 1:00 – 2:15 p.m.

Don’t miss this very special opportunity to hear from the former Director of Photography at National Geographic Magazine, Tom Kennedy. Kennedy will sit down for a wide-ranging 90-minute discussion with ASMP Head of National Content and Education & former professional nature photographer Thomas Maddrey. They’ll discuss nature photography, stories from the field, what it takes to make it into the pages of Nat Geo, and some behind-the-scenes insight into what it’s like running the most prestigious photo department in the world. (Photo credit: Matt Worden)

 

Session Format:

• Moderated discussion

Target Audience:

• General audience

Track:

• Creative
• Business
• Environment/Conservation
• Technical

Roman Kurywczak – Photographing Birds from Portraits to Flight

Thursday, May 4, 2023  9:15 – 10:45 a.m.
Saturday, May 6, 2023 2:30 – 4:00 p.m.

A how-to presentation of capturing stunning, tack sharp, portraits and flight images of birds in flight. (Photo credit: Ben Venezio)

Session Format:

• Lecture with Questions

Target Audience:

• General audience

Track:

• Technical

Jeff Maltzman – Approaching the Intimate Landscape

Thursday, May 4, 2023  7:30 – 9 a.m.
Friday, May 5, 2023  7:30 – 9 a.m.

Landscape photographers often focus on grand, expansive scenes with amazing light and brilliant skies, and the resulting images can be quite spectacular. However, sometimes a more interesting story can be told by attending to the details in a smaller part of the scene. This session will review the concept of the intimate landscape, including the approach and creative process, use of design elements, and the idea of storytelling with imagery. (Photo credit: Bruce Leeser)

Session Format:

• Lecture with Questions

Target Audience:

• Beginning skill level
• Intermediate skill level

Track:

• Creative

Colleen Miniuk – Visualization: Picture the Possibilities … Before Snapping the Shutter

Thursday, May 4, 2023  4 – 5:30 p.m.
Saturday, May 6, 2023 9:15 – 10:45 a.m.

When a scene excites us, photographers often feel compelled to grab our camera out of our backpacks and shoot, shoot, shoot! Join Colleen Miniuk for an enlightening presentation on how visualizing your photograph before you begin photographing—whether at home or in the field—can help you record more effective and more meaningful images. She’ll share what visualization is (and isn’t), how it differs from pre- and post-visualization, how visualization ties into the creative process, and how to approach landscapes with mindfulness, gather inventories, and translate your ideas into pixels without a camera in your hands. (Photo credit: Ivan Martinez Photography)

Session Format:

• Lecture with Questions
• Hands-on Workshop

Target Audience:

• General audience

Track:

• Creative

Charles Needle – Mindful Photography: Seeing in a Different Light

Thursday, May 4, 2023  7:30 – 9 a.m.
Saturday, May 6, 2023 4 – 5:30pm

Learn how to approach any subject with fresh eyes and learn to see on a much deeper level.  Drawing upon inspiring quotations and images from other photographers who have most profoundly influenced his work, as well as his own personal “Zen moments” in the field, award-winning fine art photographer and charter NANPA member, Charles Needle, will share ways in which you can engage your mind, eye and heart so they are all in perfect synchronization, making you a better photographer and more in tune with your subject. (Photo credit: Lou Mannarino)

Session Format:

• Lecture with Questions

Target Audience:

• Beginning skill level
• Intermediate skill level
• Advanced skill level
• Working professional
• General audience

Track:

• Creative
• Technical

Ron Rosenstock – Seeing and Processing Black and White

Thursday, May 4, 2023  9:15 – 10:45 a.m.
Friday, May 5, 2023  5:30 – 7:00 p.m.

Starting with showing examples of fine art photography from Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Minor White, and others, participants will learn the difference between a documentary and interpretive photography. I will explain in detail the three ingredients: attention, intension and awareness required to see beyond mere appearances. I will also demonstrate my post processing using of Silver Efex Pro. (Photo credit: Photo credit: Christine Peterson)

Session Format:

• Lecture with Questions

Target Audience:

• Intermediate skill level

Track:

• Creative
• Technical

Stephen Vaughan – Hummingbird Photography How-to

Wednesday, May 3, 2023  4 – 5:30 p.m.

In this breakout class, I would discuss how, when and why to use various photography methods and techniques to photograph hummingbird, such as:

• Multiple off-camera flashes to illuminate and freeze the birds’ wings
• Fill flash techniques to balance the ambient and flash exposure
• Ambient exposure techniques
• How to capture dramatic hummingbird flight photographs
• How to set up and utilize a backyard hummingbird studio
• How to train hummingbirds to go where you need them to go
• Equipment suggestions for hummingbird photography

I use PowerPoint with many hummingbird images to demonstrate the different techniques.

Session Format:

• Lecture with Questions

Target Audience:

• Beginning skill level
• Intermediate skill level
• Advanced skill level
• Working professional
• General audience

Track:

• Creative
• Technical

Brett Wills –Wonderful Waterfall Photography

Saturday, May 6, 2023  7:30 – 9 a.m.

Do you want to photograph waterfalls, but you’re not sure how to set everything up? Come learn the ins and outs of photographing waterfalls and moving water. Photographer and Sigma tech rep, Brett Wells will talk about the necessary equipment, accessories and settings to help you master this fun and rewarding subject. Brett Wells has worked in the field of photography for over 25 years. He has a masters degree in photography from the University of Westminster, London, UK. He taught at the Art Institute of Atlanta for 7 years and currently teaches classes and workshops around the United States. His work has been published and exhibited in this country and abroad. Brett is the Education Coordinator and a Technical Representative for Sigma Corporation of America, supporting Sigma, photographers and photographic education around the country.

Session Format:

• Lecture with Questions

Target Audience

• Intermediate skill level
• Advanced skill level
• Working professional
• General audience

Track:

• Creative
• Technical