Bolivar Flats on the Bolivar Peninsula offers unique bird photography opportunities with its shallow water and exposed sand bars. What to Expect: Tim will take a small group of photographers out to Bolivar Flats to demonstrate the techniques he routinely uses to capture images of shorebirds down low at their own eye level. Participants will use a ground pod while lying down on the sand bars to get low level shorebird photos. Prepare to get down and dirty and take some great eye-level bird photos.

Two of the most iconic birds in North America visit Armand Bayou every winter and spring. The American Bald Eagle and Osprey spend November through April hunting and fishing the productive waters of the bayou. Once threatened by the use of pesticides, the recovery of these species is a great testament to the value of clean water and habitat preservation. It’s hard to believe this incredible viewing and photographic opportunity is located in Houston’s own backyard.

In this trip, participants visit an excellent pollinator garden to learn hands-on techniques to produce creative photos of the garden and its residents. What to Expect: To simplify the process of photographing pollinators and flowers, Ruth demonstrates, instructs and guides participants while covering camera and lens settings; Shutter speed, ISO, Aperture (f/stop), and more.

After this field trip, you will wonder why you waited so long to start photographing birds on the wing! The rookery at Smith Oaks offers endless opportunities for birds-in-flight photography from a multi-level platform reserved for us.

The St. Joseph's Church gives us a lovely location to learn and practice architectural, low-light, and abstract photography. The class will begin inside the church for a chance to photograph in low-light. Then we’ll move outside as we photograph the church from sunset to twilight. We’ll work with the church’s lighting plus special lights inside.

Photographing shorebirds is fun and challenging as they are almost always in motion. Your leader Tim Timmis has mastered this! We will seek out the birds on East Beach or wherever they may be hiding, to capture the action. We may also head to the boat dock area behind the Strand to get close-up shots of Pelicans and other birds as they wait for the shrimp boats to come into port.

This trip has been so popular in the past that we are bringing it back! Join Chris Rankin at the Jocelyn Nungaray National Wildlife Refuge (formerly Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge) near Anahuac, Texas, to explore Wildlife Photography from A Car.

The Texas City Dike is the longest man-made fishing pier in the world.  It stretches 5.3 miles into Galveston Bay.  This means that birds like sandpipers and turnstones can be found on both sides of the dike feeding in shallow water.  In addition, gulls and terns are regularly flying along the dike as they hunt for food. We will slowly drive along the dike and stop for interesting photo opportunities. 

Galveston Island State Park is the site of this delightful, natural experience. Enjoy paddling in a provided kayak while slowly exploring the marshes of Galveston Island State Park, one of the area’s premier ecological jewels. This 2,000-acre public park offers a multitude of habitats that support a wide variety of birds like herons, egrets, Roseate Spoonbill, shorebirds and possible overhead raptors like osprey looking for prey.

This ever-popular photography field trip has become a FeatherFest tradition! Join Sky King Falconry and Ruth Hoyt to photograph captive raptors and other trained birds in natural settings and on perches on a private West End property. This is a great opportunity to see and photograph these birds up close.

Explore this small 6-acre sanctuary on Galveston’s west end. Coastal prairie and bayside shores offer a wide variety of opportunities to photograph birds. A small water drip with seating area is sure to attract some nice neotropic migrants. Come prepared to photograph birds at the drip, along the boardwalk, overhead, or along the shore.

Bolivar Flats on the Bolivar Peninsula offers unique bird photography opportunities with its shallow water and exposed sand bars. What to Expect:  Tim will take a small group of photographers out to Bolivar Flats to demonstrate the techniques he routinely uses to capture images of shorebirds down low at their own eye level. Participants will use a ground pod while lying down on the sand bars to get low level shorebird photos. Prepare to get down and dirty and take…

In this trip, participants visit an excellent pollinator garden to learn hands-on techniques to produce creative photos of the garden and its residents.

Learn how to capture the decisive moment at a local spot that has many birds, with an emphasis on birds in flight, sparring and other behavior. Sean will discuss how knowledge, observation, equipment and technique combine to help nature photographers capture decisive moments. He will discuss how photographers can get the most out of their gear and their technique in a wide variety of common shooting situations.

San Luis Pass encompasses a series of beaches located on the west end of Galveston Island. The mud flats and dunes hold a wide variety of photo opportunities for area birds. During this field trip, you will visit specific locations based on light, wind, tides and availability of birds.