Ronn Patterson Owner and Captain of Delphinus
Ronn is a naturalist by profession, a marine biologist by training, a student of whales by practice, a professional photographer by habit, a teacher by inclination, and a writer by requirement. For over twenty-five years he has led natural history trips to such places as Africa, the Amazon, the Andes, Baja California and Mexico, the Galapagos, and Alaska.
Ronn founded the Natural Environmental Studies Program for the University of California Extension at Berkeley. During the fourteen years he directed that program, he also directed biology instruction and founded and directed the UC Extension Photography Program. In his last three years with the University, he was the Chairperson of the Science and Mathematics Extension.
Ronn’s study of whales led him to co-found the Whale Center, an international non-profit whale conservation group. He has also been a whale consultant and biologist for the U. S. Government as well as a delegate to and member of the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission.
In 1981 Ronn formed Dolphin Charters to offer travelers a rare combination: the enjoyment and celebration of the earth's wonders and a sound natural history education. From October through late April, Dolphin Charters offers cruises in the San Francisco Bay, Sacramento River Delta, and the Pacific Ocean as well as Mexico and the Galapagos. During the summer, Dolphin Charters offers one-of-a-kind journeys in British Columbia and Southeast Alaska.
Dolphin Charters has brought Ronn's life full circle—back to his college training in marine biology—and incorporated his interests in teaching, lecturing, writing, photography, research, and natural history.
Betty Sederquist
Betty is a popular photo instructor and professional working photographer. She has had a career in Alaska as an editor and acting photo editor for Alaska magazine. She has years of professional experience in both teaching and photography. Betty has joined us in Alaska for the past 9 years and we look forward to her photo workshops in 2012. For more information on Betty, see her web site at www.sederquist.com.
Brenda Tharp
Brenda Tharp has conducted both private and public workshops and seminars since 1985, and has spoken to hundreds of people across the country through one-day seminars, and slide presentations. She teaches through the acclaimed schools of Santa Fe, Maine, and Toscana (Italy) Photographic Workshops, and Rocky Mountain School of Photography, as well as conducting private tours and workshops. her classes emphasize the art of photography. Her book Creative Nature and Outdoor Photography was published in March 2003 by Amphoto. She has been a CANON photographer since 1993. Learn more about Brenda at www.brendatharp.com.
Don Paulson
In 1997 Don Paulson turned his longstanding passion for photography into a full-time profession. He specializes in nature, travel and stock photography. His images are marketed worldwide by leading stock agencies, and are regularly reproduced in a wide variety of publications. Don's compelling, often colorful fine-art prints are displayed in many corporate collections and public spaces.
Don takes special pleasure in teaching photography. He conducts photo tours and workshops and provides one-on-one tutoring sessions. Don also teaches photography courses at a local college, and is often asked to speak at camera clubs and photography conferences. Learn more about Don at www.donpaulson.com.
Richard Foregger
Richard's interest in boating began on Lake Texoma, North of Dallas, Texas while producing marketing films for a local sailboat manufacturer. He earned his Master license in Seattle, WA where he crewed, captained, and taught on every type of power driven vessel from the steam powered Virginia V, a 1920's vintage 120 foot mosquito fleet ferry, to 56 foot Sea Rays for a local marine dealership. He has delivered boats up and down the West coast and even spent two months aboard a 32 foot salmon trawler in Bristol Bay, AK. He is presently the proud owned of a 1960's vintage 39 foot trawler.
A film/video producer by trade Richard is currently working on the development of “CAPTAIN'S LOG, the Boating TV Show”, and also produces video training and marketing programs. He has a Journalism Degree from the University of Houston and a Master's Degree in Business Administration from Boston University.
Jed Manwaring
“We live in a world filled with wonder and beauty. Through my photography I hope to share this with the rest of the world and to show people what a beautiful and fragile place this Earth really is. Through my conservation photography I can help to preserve and protect what we have.”
Jed Manwaring is an award-winning photographer who specializes in travel and outdoor photography. His photographs have appeared in a variety of magazines including Alaska Airlines, American Forests, International Wildlife Conservation, Navigator, Outdoor Photographer, Outside, PC Photo, Sierra, Sunset, Via and Wilderness Society magazines. His images have also been used in books, calendars and cards, most recently in Golden Gate National Parks: A Photographic Journey and Guardians of the Gate.
He has worked in a variety of challenging situations, including running the Colorado River in a dory, sea kayaking in Costa Rica, llama trekking, and exploring in Italy, Mexico, Alaska, and throughout the west.
Jed also leads photo tours and workshops internationally and teaches through Point Reyes Field Seminars and College of Marin.
To see more of Jed's images (including his unique "Lightlines") go to: www.jedmanwaring.com
Glacier Bay I with Brenda Tharp and Jed Manwaring 2011
Buff and Gerry Corsi
BUFF: She grew up in the Midwest and came to California right out of college on a summer vacation and never went back. She worked for the California Academy of Sciences in various capacities for a number of years, eventually running their adult education program and their members' travel program. When she met Jerry she moved to Santa Rosa and they started up their own company, Focus on Nature, Inc., that offered nature photography trips and workshops. They did that for a decade and then Buff retired into wildlife videography, which has been her life ever since.
JERRY: Jerry was born in San Francisco and grew up to be an oral surgeon in Santa Rosa. He and Buff met in a nature photography class offered at the California Academy of Sciences. Once married, they ran Focus on Nature, Inc. together, and when Jerry retired from dentistry, he took up wildlife still photography and has been widely published in books, calendars, and magazines. As a photography duo, they can have it both ways – if the subject is moving, Buff is pleased, if it is posing quietly, Jerry is happy. Together, they enjoy traveling to wildlife hotspots with their video and still cameras.
To access the Corsis' work, do a Google search for "Gerald and Buff Corsi or Gerald & Buff Corsi".
Joseph Ferraro
Joseph Ferraro started fishing at age four and hasn't quit. From sunfish to sailfish, Alaska to New Zealand, fishing has been a life-long pursuit. He's fished commercially for salmon and halibut on the west coast, and in Alaska, has caught all five species of pacific salmon.
You don't have to be an expert fisherman to have a good time, and Joseph can help you improve your skills and learn techniques that have worked for him over the years. His expertise combined with the boat's ability to move to "fishy" areas should ensure a good time and fish will be had by all.
David Wimpfheimer
“Alaska's towering glacial mountains and dramatic coastal forests, inhabited by puffins, humpback whales, bears and so much wildlife has become a spiritual place for me. I'm especially looking forward to sharing Glacier Bay with this Point Reyes Field Seminar group.”
David Wimpfheimer is a professional naturalist, biologist, writer, and photographer who has a passion for birds and the natural history of California. For twenty-five years David’s seasoned focus and wide expertise have enriched nature excursions at Point Reyes and throughout California. As a guide, he has led numerous tours to Alaska, Baja, Scotland and other regions for groups including the Smithsonian Institution, Elderhostel and Wild Wings. David first felt the challenge to capture and share the wonders of the natural world through photography while exploring Alaska and other Western states in 1969. In the early 1990s he returned to Alaska to study seabirds at the Pribiloff islands and shorebirds at Prudhoe Bay. Since then he has led numerous natural history trips to both coastal and interior regions of the state.
Wildlife Special III Point Reyes Field Seminars with David Wimpfheimer 2011
Wildlife Special IV Point Reyes Field Seminars with David wimplfheimer and Jim Braswell 2011
Mark Kelley
For more than 32 years, Mark has been a full-time professional photographer in Alaska specializing in Southeast Alaska. For 15 of those years, he worked as a daily photojournalist for the newspapers in the state and has been a full-time freelancer since 1993. His photos have appeared on the covers of more than 200 publications including Sunset, Alaska Magazine, Alaska Airlines Magazine, Outside, Time for Kids and GEO. His work has illustrated 10 photo books on Alaska subjects and his two annual calendars (both on Alaska) are in their 23rd and 17th years of continual publication. His website features a new photo every Wednesday and has since 2000. There are over 500 images already on the site to check out.
Previously, Mark has lead week-long photo seminars in Southeast Alaska for Cruise West and Glacier Bay Cruises. He has spend 35 years traveling extensively through Alaska and considers Alaska his photographic backyard.
His photo/coffee table book, Glacier Bay National Park: Alaska, has sold over 50,000 copies and is considered the definitive book on the Glacier Bay.
His other books still in circulation included: Alaska: A Photographic Excursion, Alaska's Tracy Arm and Sawyer Glaciers, Black Bears of Alaska's Mendenhall Glacier, and Alaska's Watchable Whales: Humpback and Killer Whales.
He lives in Juneau, Alaska with his wife, Jan, their two grown sons, Gabe and Owen, and their Irish Terrier, Rosie.
To see more of Mark's images go to: www.markkelley.com
Jim Braswell
Jim has been photographing for 40 years and now photographs on a regular basis for his nature photography business, Show-Me Nature Photography. Jim specializes in capturing animal behaviors and actions, a task made easier by his formal education as a biologist.
Living in Missouri, the “Show-Me State”, Jim spends much of his time kayaking the little-visited creeks and wildlife areas where he photographs birds, ducks, water mammals, and wildflowers. And in the fall and early spring, Jim teaches multiple photography classes at the county Career Center.
Whenever possible, he loves to travel to Alaska to photographs the coastal brown bears, whales, eagles, and the outrageous scenery. Some of Jim's images have been published in Alaska travel brochures, in the Orange County Register (California) newspaper, the “Bild am Sonntag (Germany's largest circulation newspaper), and several Missouri calendars.
Jim also publishes a series of “Reflections of Nature” note cards and an annual photo calendar.
Jim regularly posts his images and experiences on his nature blog and has a strong following on Twitter. You can learn more about Jim and view his images at www.showmenaturephotography.com
Wildlife Special IV Point Reyes Field Seminars with Jim Braswell and David Wimpfheimer 2011
Andy Long
Andy Long is a freelance photographer/writer whose work has appeared in more than 50 publications including Barnes and Noble calendars, Colorado Outdoors, Birder’s World, Alaska magazine, AAA magazines, Outdoor and Nature Photography and many others as well as on National Geographic television. Andy is an assistant editor and columnist for Nature Photographer magazine and a feature writer for www.apogeephoto.com. He is a past winner of the RoseWater Network Photographer of the year and has been featured in many exhibits including the Art Wolfe Invitational Exhibit.
Andy has been leading photography workshops for 17 years and his aim is to help you capture great images in a relaxed atmosphere and learn something that will help you take better photos the next time you go into the field. He tries to emphasize a unique eye in capturing images of our world and to pass this on to those who go on his trips. Having a passion for the beautiful world around us, he tries to show this beauty in his photography, and with helping others. For more information about Andy visit his site at www.firstlighttours.com.
Spirit Bear with Andy Long 2011
Roger Devore
Roger has been seriously involved in photographic pursuits for the past 30 years. His education includes a Bachelors of Arts in photography from Southern Illinois University, a BS in computer science from the University of Illinois, and a MBA from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. He has worked around the St. Louis area doing a variety of freelance photography work from commercial to sports to model portfolios, but his passion is his fine art photography of wildlife and nature that he sells at fine art festivals nationwide and over the Internet (see www.devorephoto.com). He started his photography career with film. More recently he has converted his operations to digital camera capture and digital printing on Epson printers. Again, he believes to get the best results, the photographer need to totally involved from capture to producing fine art prints. Roger is also a co-founder of The Nature Workshops offering photographic instruction in some of the most beautiful natural scenic areas of North America and the world. Their policy of small group size and maximum time in the field have created a loyal base of clients that often repeat their workshop experiences. His publishing credits include Outdoor Photographer Magazine, Nature Photographer Magazine, Birder’s World Magazine, the cover of International Photography Magazine, Best of Photography Annual, and several other magazines and newspapers nationally. Roger is also listed in "Who’s Who in American Photography" and his experience includes significant photojournalism work.
Ignacio (Nacho) Vilchis
Dr. Ignacio (Nacho) Vilchis is a scientist with the SeaDoc Society, investigating long-term trends of marine birds in the Salish Sea. He has previously spent thousands of hours surveying underwater in kelp forests in California and Chile, and months at sea studying tropical and temperate seabirds in open oceans off the Hawaiian archipelago, Clipperton atoll, Malpelo Island and the Galapagos Islands.
Nacho has spent most of his life in or around the Pacific Ocean. He graduated from the University of San Diego, earned a Masters from the Universidada Catolica de Chile, and recently received his Ph.D. from the prestigious Scripps Institute of Oceanography in La Jolla, California. Nacho loves to be on boats and talk to people about his research and vast knowledge of wildlife and "what it all means".
Cathy & Gordon Illg
Cathy & Gordon Illg have been full time nature photographers since 2000. It was Gordon's degree in Wildlife Biology that began a shift in their photographic emphasis from scenery to wildlife. The wild things and places right in their own backyard, the creatures and scenery from Colorado, started their career. This taught them the valuable lesson that photographers don't need to visit exotic locations to capture great images.
Now the Illg travel the world trying to capture and display a little of the magic that makes the untrammeled regions and their inhabitants so special.
Their work is widely published and includes numerous covers of magazines like Backpacker, Defenders, National Geographic Young Explorer, Ranger Rick and National Wildlife. Several of their images decorate the tails of Frontier Airlines' jets. After seeing an image blown up to more than 20 feet high on the tail of an airline jet, well even the largest prints are just small.
Twice their images have been displayed in the Museum of Natural History in London when they placed Second and Highly Commended in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest. They have also had an image chosen to be displayed in the Environmental Photography Invitational at the Art Wolfe Photographic Center.
Darran Leal
Darran Leal is one of the worlds most diverse and traveled photographers. Based on the beautiful Sunshine Coast in Queensland Australia, each year he undertakes several major expeditions to regions in the USA, Africa, South America and beyond with new destinations being added all the time.
Darran’s work has been published around the world and is used extensively in books, magazines and commercial products. He has been commissioned by Qantas, Warner Brothers, the Queensland Government, Australia Post, Steve Parish Publishing and many other companies to supply unique images. He has also produced many of his own products, including six of his own books.
Born and raised in Brisbane, Darran’s career started in 1980 as the photographer on Norfolk Island, South Pacific. He traveled Australia extensively in the early 1980’s and worked at locations like Uluru, Kangaroo Island, Perth and in the far north. Darran moved back to his home state Queensland, in Australia in 1995 and has since traveled to many other destinations including Antarctica, Africa and the USA.
Barbara Jordan
Barbara Jordan is a freelance photographer, writer and field ecologist. Her credits include National Geographic, National Geographic Books, Swiss Air, Turner South, Shutterbug Magazine, Inland Empire Magazine, Jetsetting, First Air of Canada, On the Mountain, Tamdeia AG, MTV; newspapers, local magazines and numerous websites. She is respresented by Getty Images. Environmental organizations, including the Endangered Species Coalition, Environmental Protection Agency and Save the Estuaries have used Barbara's photos for campaigns. Barbara's fine art prints are in private collections around the world. Barbara has a special desire to educate children about the environment by developing their interest in animals and habitat protection. She hopes that her photography will have an effect on others by causing them to be touched by the beauty of nature.
Ellen Anon
Ellen Anon is a freelance photographer and writer who specializes in expressive photography. Her images, based on nature, are sometimes realistic and sometimes abstract but always designed to elicit emotional reactions from the viewer. Ellen's goal with her photographs is to go beyond the ordinary in ways that hopefully stimulate others to pause and appreciate some of the beauty and wonder of our earth that balances some of the stress of everyday life. Ellen's images are included in collections in several countries and her photos have been showcased in galleries, used in numerous publications (including Sierra Club's "Mother Earth" and Inner Reflections calendars), as well as stock. Ellen has authored several books, including Photoshop CS5 for Nature Photographers: A Workshop in a Book, (Sybex, 2010) and Aperture 3: Portable Genius (Wiley, 2010). Ellen is on Apple's Aperture Advisory Panel and part of Nik Software's Team Nik and the SanDisk Extreme Team.
Trip Leaders
Our leaders are trained naturalists with abundant experience providing a fun, informative adventure. Our photo tour leaders are accomplished photographers who enjoy sharing their skill in recording nature on film.