Nature photography course coming to library with Scarborough Land Trust

Wildlife photo. Dan Kehlenbach

The Scarborough Land Trust, in partnership with the Scarborough Public Library, is running a six-part Introduction to Nature Photography Class. The course will be taught by nature photographer Dan Kehlenbach.

“Yeah, basically it’s an introduction level course to nature photography,” Kehlenbach said. “Geared to anybody, whether somebody is using a smartphone, or a point and shoot camera, mirrorless camera, SLR, whatever camera they may have. It’s going to be an overall introduction to all aspects of nature photography. It’s going to be six lessons, all each about an hour long.”

No experience is necessary for the free class, and any type of camera may be used, including smartphones. Registration for all six classes is required.

“Dan has been a volunteer for the land trust for two years, something like that, as a photographer,” said Andrew Mackie, executive director of the Scarborough Land Trust. “He has been a great asset for us. You know, if we are looking at a property and need some pictures, running fundraising efforts, or if we are doing a report and we need some photos of something. … You know, I email Dan, and say this is what we need, and he goes out and does it. He’s an amazing photographer.”

“And obviously a great thing that people like to do out in nature especially is take pictures,” Mackie said. “So having a workshop on landscape and wildlife photography seemed like a natural. And partnering with Scarborough Library seemed like a great fit and we’ve partnered with them on a lot of projects in the past. And Dan was offered his time to do a pretty extensive workshop, you know it’s six sessions, with some additional optional outings at land trust properties.”

Lesson one is an introduction to nature photography, cameras, and gear, on Tuesday, April 25, 6:30-7:30 p.m. at the Scarborough Public Library.

“Lesson one we’re just going to talk a little about nature photography, the ethics of nature photography,” said Kehlenbach. “Which I believe is really important because as photographers we can be stewards of the natural world, so we are going to touch on that quite a bit in the first lesson.”

The first lesson will also go over how to use the gear and cameras, including cameras participants may have brought with them.

Lesson two will be on landscapes and scenics, “ranging from what people think of as the grand landscape all the way down to more intimate kind of scenes in nature that are virtually everywhere,” Kehlenbach said. “What I try to get across is that you do not need to travel to exotic locations to make beautiful photographs, they can literally be done in your back yard”.

This session will be held on Saturday, April 29, 1-2:30 p.m. There will be an optional morning meetup session that day at a Scarborough Land Trust location.

Lesson three will be on wildlife photos, Tuesday, May 2, 6:30-8:30 p.m.

Lesson four will be on closeups and macro shots on subjects such as flowers, patterns in nature, moss, etc. Kehlenbach will teach different techniques to capture such close-up subjects. This session will be held Saturday, May 6, 1-2:30 p.m. There will be another optional Saturday morning session at a land trust area.

Lesson five is on “after the capture,”or how to take a photo from the camera to editing for optimization. This session is on Tuesday, May 9, 6:30-8 p.m.

Lesson six is on projects for nature photography and what to do with your photos. “I’m guilty of this myself,” Kehlenbach said. “I have thousands of photos on my computer, but what do I do with them? We can share them in various ways. We can put together projects. We can help out organizations in the community. We can make cards for people, make gifts for people. All kinds of things to do. What I’d like to try to emphasize is, get those photos off of your device or off of your computer and into the hands of others, in whatever capacity that may be.”

This session is on Saturday, May 13, 1-2:30 p.m.

There will be a final session for a photo gallery and kickoff on Tuesday, May 16, 6:30-8 p.m. Participants can take one or two of their favorite photos they took from the course and present them in any way they choose.

People can register for the course at https://www.scarboroughlibrary.org/events/1703850025