Northern Michigan Loons and Warblers Workshop

Available Dates: June 20-24, 2009

Fee: $1900 includes lodging, all lunches, dinners, and four days TOTAL shooting in the field with mid-afternoon slideshows and photoshop demonstrations. Because I'm only booking four photographers, we'll have twice the amount of shooting time as other workshops which book 8 photographers and make the participants shoot in shifts.

Deposit: $800

Limit: 4 photographers

From: Hawks, Michigan

We start out the workshop boating out onto a clean, clear nothern lake Saturday afternoon. Loons will yodel nearly in your ear as they swim right under our boat and feed their young within a few feed or us. After three solid sessions with these spirits of the north, we head into the forest and seek out the tiny winged jewels we call warblers. Blackburnian, Chestnut-sided, Black-and-white all are singing on territory and I'll show you how to make the impossible shot into a reality. To finish the workshop, we'll alternate between warblers and loons everyday to get a well rounded portfolio of Michigans magical birds. Emphasis on loons vs warblers may be weather dependant.

What you need:

Equipment: I recommend bringing a digital SLR with matching lens. When you calculate your digital crop factor (usually 1.5x the normal focal length or so for digital cameras today) and slap on your tele extenders (1.4x or 2x) you should have the equivalent of at least 600mm for photographing the songbirds. Please be familiar with using the equipment you bring. While I have experience with basic Nikon, Canon, and Olympus systems and can help guide you along, you could miss a rare photo opp when adjusting settings or even looking through the viewfinder with new equipment. The loons will be swimming in close enough to touch so bring a veriety of lenses - even your wide angle.

Physical Activity Requirements: Low activity. We’ll be shooting near the car or from a boat most of the time. We may walk across a couple small fields. You certainly don’t need to be athletic to do this workshop. If you can walk a normal city block or go grocery shopping you should be just fine. One of the biggest hassles of the workshop is simply taking out the equipment from the van and putting it back in every couple hours for the warbler portion of the workshop. Also, the best position for photographing the loons is laying on your belly or crouching down. Our boat has carpet but you may wish to bring something extra like a backpacking mobile mattress to add some cushoning.

Likely Species on the Northern Michigan Loons and Warblers Workshop - species in bold will likely be the most cooperative, and a sampling of other species of the other species usually oblige as well:

• Common Loon
• Bald Eagle
• Osprey
• Rose-breasted Grosbeak
• Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
• Scarlet Tanager
• Alder Flycatcher
• Red-eyed Vireo
• Warbling Vireo
• Black-and-white Warbler
• Chestnut-sided Warbler
• Magnolia Warbler
• Black-throated Blue Warbler
• Nashville Warbler
• Mourning Warbler
• Canada Warbler
• Blackburnian Warbler
• Northern Waterthrush
• Golden-winged Warbler
• American Redstart
• Indigo Bunting
• Swamp Sparrow
• Song Sparrow

Contact Matthew Studebaker for your reservation today!

Once a participant commits to doing the tour, a down payment is required right away to reserve the date. Pay with personal check or add 5% and pay via PayPal to matthewstudebaker@yahoo.com. Unfortunately, refunds are impossible.

Make Checks out to:
Matthew Studebaker

7325 Austin Powder Drive
Solon, Ohio 44139
matthewstudebaker@gmail.com