Join board member Karen D'Arcy and her husband Bruce Dumdei on a photography hike in Messenger Woods Nature Preserve. Beautiful drifts of white trilliums and floodplains full of Virginia bluebells can be enjoyed in late April to early May. Karen and Bruce will lead you to the special spots where the white trilliums have returned following years of careful management. Then we will follow the trails to the floodplain of Spring Creek where lush Virginia Bluebells scent the air and bumble bees gather pollen and nectar. Bring your tripod and digital camera for best results. The hike is suitable for an individual, a couple or a small group of 3 or 4 all interested in taking photographs. Group size will depend on Covid 19 recommendations. Following the hike Bruce will correspond with the winner to select and digitally "correct" their favorite photograph, producing a 16 by 20 inch color print on an Epson Stylus Pro 3880 printer.

Package includes:
Three hour photography hike for 1 to 4 people, all should be prepared to take photographs, digital and film cameras preferred, a tripod will help you produce the best images. Point and shoot cameras and cell phones are excellent secondary cameras. Taking lots of photographs using several cameras is great fun. Coffee, water and snacks will be shared. Preserve opens at 8 am, hike will finish @ 11 am. We will probably hike less than 2 miles, most of our time together will be spent finding lovely vistas and beautiful drifts of flowers, setting up cameras and tripods and taking photographs.

One mounted photographic print by auction winner.

Cautions and conditions: Wildflower photography is most successful early in the morning when the light is indirect and the wind is calm. The flowers will be at their peak for a very short time window of 2 or 3 days. The auction winner should be prepared to schedule their experience in late April or early May depending on the weather. The best situation will be a calm, overcast morning. The winner should also be prepared to get dirty, wet and muddy. If there are recent rains before the hike we may need to wade across the Spring Creek bridge to enter the Nature Preserve. Several times Bruce and I have taken off our boots and socks and rolled up our pants and waded across the bridge in ankle deep flood waters.