Raptors in Flight, Spring 2026

Photography Workshop

Dive into this two-day spring workshop designed to enhance your birds in flight photography skills! This experience allows you to capture breathtaking images of raptors in flight. Highlights of the workshop include photographing these beautiful birds against vibrant green foliage as your backdrop. This is the absolute best time to capture great reflections as the Bald Eagle flies over the pond. In addition, you will have the chance to photograph these raptors, including baby raptors, perched for gorgeous portraits.

Trip Details

Practice photographing birds in flight against a beautiful fresh spring meadow and flowers as your backdrop. Over the course of this two-day intensive workshop, you will have the opportunity to photograph at least six raptors in flight and six raptors on beautiful perches.

Highlights of this spring workshop start with it being the absolute best time for getting great reflections of the Bald eagle as it flies over the pond without any water plants. Because this location is also an important raptor breeding facility, we often have the chance in springtime to photograph baby raptors like baby owls. In addition to the spring foliage, the spring flowers create wonderful backgrounds for these beautiful birds in their beautiful spring plumage.

This is quite simply an unbelievable opportunity! Imagine having a trained Great Horned Owl, Bald Eagle or other raptor flying back and forth between two perches right in front of your camera over a dozen times. You’ll have numerous opportunities to hone your flight photography skills, and with today’s autofocus technology, you’re virtually ensured to create stunning images that will inspire you and showcase your artistic journey!

Accessible gear: A giant telephoto lens is not required to get great images on this workshop. We often use an 80-400mm lens and very often at the short end (80mm) of the zoom.

Dedicated Photography Instructor

Our tour is designed for photographers of all skill levels. Since our schedule had become too busy, we asked our dear friend and excellent photographer, Mike Whear, to lead this workshop for us. Mike assisted Steve in running the Howell Raptor workshops in Michigan for over a decade. His knowledge of photography and bird setups will be invaluable for this experience. We are super excited that he was willing and able to jump in and help us continue these unique events.

Fitness Level: Easy. We will be working from one location, and you will be walking with your gear along grass pathways to get into position for photographing the birds as they fly between perches.

Tour Information

Starts

May 16 2026

Ends

May 17 2026

Leaders

Mike

Price

$325

Deposit

$125

Participants

10 participants

Availability

Registration Just Opened!

Booking Info

Deposit of $125 with registration

Final Payment of $200 due March 15, 2026

Tour Highlights
  • Intensive Workshop on Flight Photography – Flight photography is a skill and over the course of these two days you will have numerous opportunities to practice.
  • Fantastic Flight and Wonderful Portraits! We will have two three-hour photo sessions with at least three birds flying between perches and three perched birds on gorgeous setups each day.
  • Small group experience – We limit our group size to a maximum of ten clients, giving you plenty of room to photograph.

Arrival and Departure Information

Arrival day: Depending on where you are coming from, you may want to arrive on May 15. The workshop starts at 12:30 on May 16.

Are you flying in for this? Clients flying in for this workshop typically fly into either Toronto or Buffalo. It is less than a two-hour drive from either of these airports to Simcoe.

Lodging: We have a block of rooms on hold under Gettle Photography at Travelodge in Simcoe for this workshop. The Travelodge holds these rooms for our group until 3 weeks before the start of each workshop so please be sure to make your reservations early. Their telephone number is: 519-426-4751.

Departure day: Since our start time on Sunday morning varies based on weather conditions, we recommend that you plan your departure to be any time after noon.

Detailed ITINERARY

Travel Day

May 15, 2026

Travel Day

Arrive in Simcoe, Ontario and check into your hotel. Most people stay at the Travelodge, Simcoe.

Day 1

May 16, 2026

Afternoon Shoot

We will meet at 12:30 for our pre-shoot orientation to optimize cameras and make sure everyone is ready to shoot. Following this, we will spend the rest of the afternoon photographing both birds in flight and perched birds, giving you exceptional access to gorgeous raptors.

Day 2

May 17, 2026

Morning Shoot

We will meet this morning for our second session where we again will photograph both raptors in flight and perched birds. We plan to wrap up by noon.

WHAT'S INCLUDED

  • All site fees
  • Two sessions with birds in flight and perched bird setups
  • Photographic and creative instruction
  • Comprehensive Pre-trip Booklet that includes all the photo gear and other packing information for the trip as well as all other pertinent details to help you make the most of this adventure

WHAT'S NOT INCLUDED

  • Air travel or other transportation to and from Simcoe, Canada
  • Lodging
  • Meals
  • Rental car/transportation
  • Travel Insurance

Tour Extensions

There are no extensions available for this tour.