Category: Monthly Programs

July 19 Program: Photographing Birds in Costa Rica with Ruth Hoyt

Please sit back and take a virtual trip with Ruth as she shows photos and talks about the birds and wildlife she has seen and photographed on trips to Costa Rica. She plans to include stories of how some images came to be and how some subjects escaped being captured.

Ruth’s passion is sharing her love of nature and photography with everyone she meets, especially youth. She has years of experience as a professional photo contest director, youth photo workshop leader, professional coach for contest photographers, and consultant for farm and ranch owners. She claims, “When you love your work, it isn’t work!”

Ruth Hoyt is not only a professional photographer and guide but a photography teacher for 30+ years and Texas Master Naturalist and Certified Interpretive Guide for 10+ years. An active Outdoor Writers’ Association of America member, she writes her “Set Up for Success” column for the Journal of Wildlife Photography.

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by Ruth Hoyt

Professional photographer, instructor, guide, and consultant Ruth Hoyt presents her original program, “Photographing Birds in Costa Rica,” for the Kingwood Photo Club on Tuesday, July 19, 2022.

Ruth Hoyt is not only a professional photographer and guide but a photography teacher for 30+ years and Texas Master Naturalist and Certified Interpretive Guide for 10+ years. An active Outdoor Writers’ Association of America member, she writes her “Set Up for Success” column for the Journal of Wildlife Photography.

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Professional photographer, instructor, guide, and consultant Ruth Hoyt presents her original program, “Photographing Birds in Costa Rica,” for the Kingwood Photo Club on Tuesday, July 19, 2022.

Ruth Hoyt is not only a professional photographer and guide but a photography teacher for 30+ years and Texas Master Naturalist and Certified Interpretive Guide for 10+ years. An active Outdoor Writers’ Association of America member, she writes her “Set Up for Success” column for the Journal of Wildlife Photography.

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Fracture is an Internet-based photo finishing service. Fracture’s main service is printing photos directly onto glass. The company is based in Gainesville, Florida.

Today, we take hundreds of photos that never see the light of day.  Everything about the way that we capture and share our digital photos has changed over the past two decades. With the explosion of smartphone usage, suddenly everyone has a high-quality digital camera on them virtually at all times. As a result, we’re taking more photos than ever—nearly 1.5 trillion every year and counting.  So maybe it is time to print a few!

A Fracture glass print is unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. Unlike traditional printing methods, printing digital images directly onto glass ensures that they go from the moment itself, to your camera roll, to your wall without losing a single detail. 

Sarah Seeser, Executive Business Partner at Fracture, will walk us through how Fracture’s sustainable and environmentally-friendly printing process has changed the way we think about displaying our stunning photos in our homes, businesses, and anywhere in between.

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Salticidae, the family of jumping spiders, is the most species-rich family of spiders. Their extreme diversity and beauty can serve as an effective gateway to arachnid-acceptance and teaching the important role spiders play in ecosystems all over the world. In this presentation, our speaker will go over their approach to finding and photographing them, how they see, how they hunt, and more! Not only will the presentation be about his work with salticids, it’ll be full of macro-photography advice applicable to anyone interested in close-up photography in the field!

Our speaker, Thomas Shahan, is an artist and photographer based out of Oklahoma, United States, who utilizes his background in printmaking to bring a creative approach to high-magnification macrophotography. He has worked as an imaging specialist for the Oregon Department of Agriculture, a video game artist, and a book illustrator.

With a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art from the University of Oklahoma, his photographs have appeared in National Geographic, national television programs, and museums throughout the world. Despite an interest in all fields of entomology, his passion lies with arachnids, specifically salticids.

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Mike Mezeul II is an extreme nature and landscape photographer based out of Dallas, Texas. His work focuses on documenting the power and beauty within the world’s most powerful natural events, focusing primarily on severe weather and volcanoes. When he is not on a project or assignment, he spends his time leading workshops around the world in which he shares his passion for photography through inspiring and educating individuals of all ages and skill levels. To view his portfolio and most recent work, please visit  www.mikemezphotography.com.

In this presentation, come join Mike as he shares the stories behind the
images from the past 20 years of documenting some of nature’s most powerful thunderstorms. He will discuss how he safely approaches storms, photographic techniques, and why he travels over 10,000 miles each year documenting storms.

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Brittany Colt grew up in the state of Washington where the rolling fields and deep pine forest were her playground. Being born blind in one eye motivated her to photograph the beautiful scenery that was set before her. Eyesight was something that she never took for granted. It helped Brittany value her ability to recognize and capture those fleeting moments of life.

Brittany first found her passion for photography at age ten while on a family vacation in the Olympic National Forest located in the state of Washington. Her passion for the art form grew exponentially, along with developing a strong desire of capturing more intimate subjects. The way Brittany “sees” is unique and has helped shape her photographic style.

Brittany’s creative journey began by photographing landscapes and continued further into the applications of portraiture and wedding photography. This led to her establishing a photography company in 2012, while also working in the Film Industry in Portland, Oregon. In 2016, Brittany started a formal degree program in Graphic Design. These combined experiences in Graphic Design and the Film Industry helped mold and influence her attention towards light, color and composition in her work.

In 2018 Brittany developed an additional interest in teaching photography and started working as a Staff Photographer for The Ansel Adams Gallery (TAAG) and is currently the Education Coordinator for TAAG. Brittany loves to challenge her students and expand their minds, not only technically, but creatively as well. Working in a national park and The Ansel Adams Gallery has combined her passion for being in the great outdoors, teaching photography, and photographing the wilderness of Yosemite.

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Have you wanted to photograph the night sky but don’t know where to start? Learn what it takes to capture luscious Milky Way landscapes (starscapes), constellations, glowing pink nebula, galaxies and more. This presentation will cover astrophotography using a range of gear – from a camera and tripod to star trackers to computerized telescopes with dedicated astro cameras. The night sky is an endlessly fascinating subject for photographers of all skill levels.

Our speaker, Rich Wilbourn, is a retired IT/Business Project Manager with a lifelong interest in both astronomy and photography. As a teenager, he started an astronomy club in his hometown of Jackson, Mississippi, built his own telescopes and even ground his own telescope mirrors. While pursuing a degree in astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin, he worked as a summer intern at McDonald Observatory in west Texas.  Rich’s interest in photography go back to the days of film and include developing and printing black and white images. In recent years much of his photography includes wildlife and nature subjects – particularly the abundant birdlife found along the Texas coast. You can follow Rich on Instagram at @rwilbourn.

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