Deadline March 5th! Spring on the Georgia Coast with Peter Essick instructing | Sunrise/Sunset Okefenokee Swamp + Full Moon Lunar Eclipse | Big Talbot Island Boneyard Beach | Crooked River State Park Sunrise | St. Marys, GA | March 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 2025

Due to personnel shortages with the National Park Service we are replacing the Cumberland Island part of our March workshop.

We’re excited to announce this new itinerary which features private boat rides, private vans, a total lunar eclipse over a private 10-acre lake, boneyard beaches of Big Talbot Island, maritime forests, Kingsley Plantation, historic St. Marys, and the lovely Crooked River State Park.

Please join us for a new SxSE workshop!

This Workshop lets you explore two of Earth’s most diverse eco-systems: Okefenokee Swamp, the largest blackwater wetland ecosystem in North America, and the coastal maritime forests and beaches of Big Talbot Island, FL, and Crooked River State Park, GA  – areas as pristine now as they were thousands of years ago. We will also spend time shooting in the historic coastal village of St. Marys. 

The Total Lunar Eclipse will occur at 3 am on March 14th, when the full red moon will glow against dark skies over a private 10-acre lake near St. Marys.

Please join us for photographing, boating, night-shooting, birding, critiquing, and walking through history.

March 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 2025

Peter Essick

Peter Essick is a photographer, teacher, and editor with 30 years of experience working with National Geographic Magazine. He specializes in nature and environmental themes. Named one of the forty most influential nature photographers in the world by Outdoor Photography Magazine UK, Essick has been influenced by many noted American landscape photographers from Carleton Watkins to Robert Adams. His goal is to make photographs that move beyond documentation to reveal in careful compositions the human impact of development as well as the enduring power of the land.

Essick is the author of four books of his photographs, The Ansel Adams Wilderness, Our Beautiful, Fragile World, Fernbank Forest and Work in Progress. He has photographed stories for National Geographic on many environmental issues including climate change, high-tech trash, nuclear waste and freshwater. After 30 years travelling the world as an editorial photographer, Essick decided to focus his work on a more personal documentation of the environmental and cultural changes in his hometown of Atlanta.

Essick’s photographs are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, the Booth Western Art Museum and many other private collections. He is represented by Spalding Nix Gallery in Atlanta, Georgia.

Thursday – Okefenokee Swamp

The Birds of the Okefenokee Swamp: 

Sunrise is 7:30am – We leave the Boat Basin at 6:30 am!

We’ll have breakfast biscuits, juice, and coffee dockside before floating up the pitch-dark canal pre-sunrise. Our experienced guides (who know the Okefenokee like the back of their hands) will point out alligators returning to roost, birds just awakening, and plants coming to life as the first light of dawn begins to break.

 

For 3 hours, we’ll shoot the sunrise, the prolific wildlife, the cypress trunks, black water, did I mention the alligators? We’ll watch as the water lilies, no-wet’ems, and other beautiful flowers open with the sun, and as the water fowl begin to stretch their wings and start the day.

 Thursday PM- Return to the Swamp for Sunset and Moonrise

Around 4:00pm, a cook-out will be served dockside before we float out to meet the sunset at 7:30and the rise of the full moon. 

 

Black Rock Beach ©FloridaStateParks.org

Friday 1 til …

After a sleep-in due to the early morning/late night of Thursday we’ll gather at the house at 1:00 to travel south, to Big Talbot Island. 

Big Talbot is known for its 1-mile long Boneyard Beach where we’ll begin. Nearby, and with bones of its own, is Blackrock Beach. Big Talbot is also known for it’s paved hiking trails through maritime forests, hosts of birds – many will be winging their way back north by then – and the Kingsley Plantation.

We’ll stay for sunset on the beach before driving back up to St. Marys and dinner. 

 

Saturday

We’ll begin early with sunrise at Crooked River State Park, a lovely maritime forest and wetlands near St. Marys.

Post-breakfast, we’ll go our own way for a few hours to do some editing in prep for the group review, revisit a few places we’d like to spend more time with, or just hang out at The House talking photography.

At 4pm we’ll all meet at The House for our group review. Following this we’ll enjoy our farewell dinner.

 

What previous workshop participants are saying….

As a participant in the South x Southeast Photography workshop experience with Peter Essick, I appreciated the opportunity to explore being among trees and moving water.  That was a new way of seeing in the area we photographed.  The group dynamics were lively and supportive.

I felt the support of Peter and that we had time in most settings to take “more time” to explore a different angle or advantage of light.

I particularly liked the learning aspect about Cumberland and the Okefenokee.

Great all round experience.

Thank you Nancy for your organizational skills and gathering a congenial group of fellow photographers. —Wanda Hopkins

 

I have been on several trips with Nancy McCrary and they never disappoint. She always engages photographers who are helpful and willing to share their knowledge.  Her attention to detail with regard to accomodations, meals, daily outings, and other logistics is thorough and she attracts talented and considerate photographers.  Nancy herself is a wonderful artist and very accessible.  Her workshops appeal to any level of photographer.  There are always professionals who attend, but if you’ve only just begun she encourages everyone to share knowledge.  The groups she leads are supportive and I learn something new every time.  After having photographed full-time for a decade, I rarely attend workshops anymore.  That being said, I always love going to ones Nancy organizes since they are always in beautiful places and so much fun.  –Lynne Buchanan

 

In October 2021 I participated in a photography workshop organized by Nancy McCrary, director and founder of SxSE.  The workshop was led by a well known Atlanta photographer Peter Essick. 

It was a very fulfilling experience.  Nancy McCrary showed off her fantastic organizational skills.  The photo excursions on St. Mary’s, Cumberland Island, and to the Okefenokee Swamp were great adventures and a paradise for us photographers. I met many interesting people and had a chance to learn more about Nancy and her wonderful ways of interacting with people.  She provided camaraderie, great food, and wonderful places to photograph. Peter Essick shared readily his photographic knowledge and offered constructive criticism.  The workshop was a unique experience that I would love to repeat. –Malgorzata Florkowska

Entry Fees to Big Talbot Island and Crooked River State Park

Nosh and Beverages at the House

You Provide:

Transportation to and from St. Mary’s, Georgia

Meals: Any meals not listed above. 

Lodging:  There are 2 hotels in St. Marys: Cumberland Inn and Suites and The Riverview Hotel. I’d be tempted to try The Riverview for the ambiance and location, but The Cumberland Inn is more modern. However, there are lovely B&Bs in St Marys, charming homes on VRBO,  and chain hotels with good ratings just up the road in Kingsland – close to the House ( and home of the Naval Submarine Base ).  And, if you’d like to share a home or a room please let us know and we’ll be glad to extend your query to the others.

Alcohol: Outside of social hours provided by SxSE alcohol will not be provided.