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Audubon Offers Bird Photography Workshop

MARIPOSA – Visible, highly active and often colorful and songful, birds bring much joy and inspiration to people’s lives. Birding, or birdwatching, is now perhaps the most popular pastime in the United States, simple and inexpensive, and learning to identify birds or just enjoying their behaviors and interactions is fun and enriching.

Learning how important they are to the ecosystem that supports all life deepens our connection to them and our appreciation of their role on the earth.

(Bird photographer Ashok Khosla has photographed more than 850 birds around the world, including many species native to California such as this male black-headed grosbeak, a common, melodious spring/summer resident)

Photographing birds can add another dimension of pleasure to the activity, and sharing your images with family and friends spreads the enjoyment–and perhaps will stimulate them to pay more attention to the bird life and activity around their homes.

Want to learn how to shoot them–with your camera!–or, if you already photograph birds, want to improve your techniques and results? Curious about places to go for bird photography? Trying to decide what gear to buy? Perplexed and puzzled by picture processing?

The Yosemite Area Audubon Society (YAAS) will offer the opportunity for local residents to get answers to these questions at a bird photography workshop Wednesday, May 8, continuing on Saturday, May 11.

If you want to capture those fleeting moments when birds pause within your camera’s viewfinder, join noted bird photographer Ashok Khosla, president of the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society, and his team of experienced bird photographers to get the personalized training that will improve the pictures of your birding experiences.

Khosla, whose work has been extensively published, leads nature photography tours and teaches nature photography at the University of Alaska. This workshop, “Bird Photography in the Field,” will improve the drama of your photos and enable you to bring home more keepers.

The class has three parts–an evening class to discuss bird photography techniques, a morning session in the field and an afternoon session learning how to post-process digital images.

All levels of photographic skills are welcome to join, as are digiscopers. An introductory session, “Learning How to Shoot in the Field,” will open the workshop Wednesday, May 8, from 7 to 10 p.m. “Shooting in the Field” will follow on Saturday, May 11, from 7 a.m. to 12 noon, and after a no-host lunch, a session on “Learning How to Process Your Digital Pictures using Adobe Lightroom” will be scheduled from 1 to 5 p.m.

The introductory session on the evening of Wednesday, May 8, will be held at the Mariposa Methodist Church parish hall. The activities on the ensuing Saturday will take place on a private property in Jerseydale. Directions to the specific location will be provided at the introductory meeting. Participants should plan to bring their lunches, snacks and beverages on Saturday.

Class size is limited to 15 participants. The cost is $65 for YAAS members and $80 for non-members, which will include membership in the YAAS.

For more information or to register for the workshop, call (209) 742-5579 or visit www.yosemiteaudubon.org. For questions about the class, contact Ashok at ashok@seeingbirds.com.

Khosla will also present “Landscapes, Memories, and Love – Arctic Adventures” at the May 9 YAAS program in Oakhurst. The free presentation is scheduled at 7 p.m at the Oakhurst Methodist Church on Road 426 in Oakhurst.

One comment

  1. Maureen Cleary Vitale

    Along Highway 12 in Calaveras County, about 2 miles south of the intersection of Highway 12 and 88 (just past Clements) there is a new nest on a transmission pole for a bald eagle. The bald eagle nest further down the road, which has a round dish is also being used by another bald eagle. I was wondering if PG & E would provide another dish for this new family.

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