Overview – Osprey and Burrowing Owls Workshop
This bird photography workshop will teach you how to be a better photographer, especially for birds. We will concentrate on just two species freeing you from constant worry about photographing every bird and allowing yourself multiple opportunities to create captivating images and learn new techniques. I think that you will find it liberating and educational. Don’t worry; there will be tons of photos taken, and you will still have to cull hundreds of rejected shots. If you pay attention and learn what I teach, you won’t have nearly as many deletes!
The species and the timing for the Ospreys and Owls workshop were not random. Osprey and Burrowing Owls should both be in various stages of creating their next brood of chicks. Both of these species require different skill sets, and I’ll teach you what you need to know. This season is a busy time for the birds, with nest building, mating, hatching, and feeding, requiring one or both adults to be more active than usual. Perfect conditions to learn and more importantly practice new things.
You’ll learn how to use bird behavior to improve the impact of your photographs.
You’ll learn to pre-visualize or perhaps re-visualize images to catch the perfect moment.
You’ll learn the best settings for action as well as portraits.
You’ll learn to choose your best shots like a professional.
You’ll learn post-processing techniques that will make your images pop.
You’ll learn about way more things than I can predict.
Highlights Owls and Osprey Workshop
Please be sure to read the travel information section too, it has a lot of important information.
May 21, 2022 – Day 1
Plan to arrive mid day in Vero Beach, Florida. We’ll meet in the horn lobby about 3 PM and then head out for our first photo session followed by an included group dinner.
May 22, 2022 – Day 2
We will have morning and afternoon photo sessions at local hotspots including a shorebird rookery, estuary, ocean beaches and more.
May 23 – 25, 2022 Day 4 & 5
Each morning will be spent on Blue Cypress Lake with the Osprey. We will leave before dawn so that we can be in position on the water as the sunrises. The sunrises can be very dramatic over the lake.
May 26, 2022 Day 6
On the 26th we will check out and bring all of our gear with us to our last Osprey shoot on the lake. From there we will make the 3.5 hour drive to Coral Gables the home of the burrowing Owls. We might have time to make a trip to see the adorable owls in the late afternoon light.
May 27, 2022 Day 7
We will have morning and afternoon sessions with the owls. As in Vero Beach, there are long periods of bad light and We can continue or communal gatherings or rest and do as you please.
May 28, 2022 Day 8
It’s departure day, but we are going to make one last effort with the owls. You can plan your return anytime after 1PM
What is Included?
- Boat tours and admission fees
- Some meals
- Professional Guide and Instructors
What is Not Included?
- Your flights and any other travel costs such as cars, hotels and travel insurance.
- I will share all of the bird photography knowledge I’ve learned over the last 20 years. I have also been using and teaching Lightroom editing for 14 years, and I will share my workflow with you.
- How to add impact to your images.
- Bird photography composition guidelines and techniques
- You will learn about planning shots, reading the light, and making the correct camera adjustments.Using previsualization and revisualization to improve your images
- Learn how to quickly and efficiently choose your best images.
- I will share my time-saving Lightroom workflow.
What Should I Bring?
- The Osprey portion of the trip is big glass country. One of the many 150-600mm lenses will be perfect. Bring more if you have it!A 400mm would by minimum focal length.
- Tripods will be useless and in the way on the boat. The motion of the boat as we slowly float and troll along the Cypress Tree will be too much to use a gimbal effectively.
- With the owls, I used a tripod about half of the time. If you love using your tripod, by all means bring it, but you can live without it.
It’s almost impossible to list everything that you’ll need, you will be sent some recommendations and then this will be covered again before your trip on a one on one phone discussion we will have with you.
At any point feel free to reach out and I will get you sorted out.
Airport Logistics
This workshop is a little unusual in that we are working on both coasts of Florida. The drive between destinations is about 3.5 hours.
Option 1 is to roundtrip out of Ft Myers, and you will make that long drive from Vero Beach. This should be the least expensive and simplest.
Option 2 is to arrive in Ft. Myers then depart from Orlando (MCO). Orlando is about 1.5 hours from Vero Beach. Ft Lauderdale (FLL) is a two-hour drive, in my experience with the traffic, getting there can be a nightmare.
Option 3 is to roundtrip from Orlando and drive the same 3.5 hours to Cape Coral. Now that I am reading my own thoughts, this is likely the cheapest and most accessible.
Car Rental Logistics
You will need a car for this workshop. If you are interested in carpooling, please let me know, and I will try to sort that out with other attendees. If there are no virus issues, we will be able to carpool from the hotel for each photography session.
Hotel Logistics
May 21-25, 2022 (Checkout the 25th)
Best Western Plus Sebastian Hotel & Suites
1655 US-1, Sebastian, FL 32958
May 25-28, 2022 (Checkout the 28th)
Hampton Inn & Suites – Cape Coral/Fort Myers Area, FL
619 SE 47th Terrace, Cape Coral, FL 33904
Click the Green Button at the Bottom the page and that will take you to my payment processor and you can choose your favorite method of payment. In the White Box you can enter the number of places that you would like to book.
About 30 days before departure, you will get a welcome kit with the nuts and bolts of what to expect. Of course, feel free to email me or call me and we can talk about it as much as you like!
There is a 2.5% convenience fee to pay your balance by credit cards. There are no fees with any of the listed payment methods for your deposit. Be sure to read the Terms and Conditions and or the FAQ to fully understand about deposits, cancellations and other important, but boring stuff.
I’ve been very passively advising my clients to purchase travel insurance for a while, but lately it seems like there have been multiple people having travel issues. Some have lost their deposits and sometimes even the cost of the entire trip!
Based on my client’s experience, I cannot stress more strongly how crucial it is to purchase travel insurance. Like I said before, and here it comes again, there is never a way to predict what is going to happen when you are booking trips months and years into the future.
You can read more about my thoughts about the importance of travel insurance in this blog post.
Or you can go get a free quote and book your vital travel insurance.
About Captain Ron
Ron grew up in Wisconsin and spent countless days outdoors, where my dad taught him the appreciation of nature that he holds so dear today. Ron has undergraduate and graduate degrees in Wildlife Ecology and Biology and has worked as a professional wildlife biologist for 3 states over the past 30 years. I currently reside in Florida, where wildlife photo opportunities abound. My particular interest is birds. I love studying their behaviors and creating images with them as the subject.
Ron is a licensed and insured boat captain with over 15 years of experience.
The Osprey Boat
The boat we use is owned by our Captain and guide. The boat is a 19 foot customized 2011 Fiesta pontoon with 70 hp four-stroke Yamaha outboard. This boat is quick, quiet, and there is no annoying engine exhaust like on older boats with older two-stroke engines.
Osprey Photography Boat
Osprey Photography Pontoon Boat
Custom Features
- A tri-toon set up featuring three fiberglass pontoons instead of just two, making the boat more stable and quiet than vessels with only two aluminum pontoons.
- Enhanced pedestal seating to maximized the room on deck and make shooting effortless.
- GPS controlled trolling motor allowing precise boat positioning no matter the water depth and wind conditions.
- Dual Power-Pole shallow water anchors allowing the boat to be kept at the precise angle needed for you to get the best shots possible.
- Side-wall mounted monopod/gimbal head camera supports allow up to 4 photographers to use gimbal heads. Thus, no tripod legs cluttering up the boat deck.
- Custom camouflage for those situations where stealth and being hidden from the birds makes all the difference in getting the birds close. Some species like swallow-tailed kites get a lot closer to a camouflaged boat.
Registration Information
Tuition
The tuition for the Osprey and Burrowing Owls Workshop is $1995
Deposit
The deposit for this workshop is $500 USD. The deposit can be paid by PayPal, , Venmo, Velle, Credit Card, Wire Transfer or Check. Actually, if you have another way you would like to pay, I am open to new ideas when it comes to collecting money!
The balance of the workshop tuition will be due March 7, 2022 (75 days prior).
Ready to Go?
Here is the plan, you are going to create great images, you are going to leave a better photographer than when you arrived and we’ll have some laughs along the way! Hit the register button now!
By submitting you agree to Wildlife Workshops Terms and Conditions.