Travel Highlights
Recent Festivals
The Southeast Arizona Birding Festival
The Southeast Arizona Birding Festival is an annual event coordinated by Tucson Bird Alliance that connects people from all over the world with the diversity of birds of the Sonoran Desert and Sky Island region. Unique birds such as Elegant Trogon, Rivoli’s Hummingbird, and Five-striped Sparrow are able to be seen and photographed on one of our many festival field trips with the support of the best birding guides along with a wide variety of presentations and fun social events. The festival is held during the breathtaking monsoon season every August, a “second spring” that creates myriad food resources for local and migrating birds. As one of our long-standing festival partners, Hunt’s Photo and Gary Farber, have supported our mission to inspire people to protect and enjoy birds of the Tucson and Southeast Arizona region and cultivate an inviting birding community.
Festival of The Cranes
Friends of Bosque del Apache appreciates our decades long relationship with Gary Farber and Hunt’s Camera and Video. They have been a wonderful partner and supporter for many years at our annual Festival of the Cranes. They bring top notch photo and optics gear for our attendees to try out and purchase. Gary also helps Friends source the best photography instructors to keep Festival goers learning year after year!
San Diego Bird Festival
Hunts Photo and Video has been involved in the San Diego Bird Festival for a number of years, as a Festival Sponsor and a Retailer in our Exhibit Hall. Through their partnerships with major brands, we've been able to expand the amount of photo gear and programming available to our festival participants, bringing in names like Tamron, Fujifilm, and Panasonic.
In our "Covid Year," Gary Farber was instrumental in hooking us up with quality speakers for that mostly online festival, which showed us what a trusted partner he is in his ability to bring in talent. Gary is especially well-networked with young bird photographers who are pushing the envelope in the industry, winning awards and gaining notoriety for their work. Through Gary's efforts, we have met several young birder/photographers who have provided workshops at the festival. One of them, Alexander Eisengart, has been invited to return to the festival several years in a row. For someone so young, he has a poise and skill that rivals any experienced adult we've worked with.
Through our partnership with Hunts, we've exposed many birders to the world of birding with a camera, kicking off new ways to enjoy this pastime. In addition to all of this, we are so impressed with Gary's dedication to young photographers.
The support we get from Hunt's enables us to reach out to the young birders and provide them with unique opportunities to learn and to connect with one another. Birding with a camera is still a growing facet of the industry, and we are so glad to have Hunt's by our side to teach us about this demographic and help us provide the best services possible. We are so grateful.
Jen Hajj, San Diego Bird Festival Coordinator
Florida Photo Fest
For 22 years, Florida's Historic Coast has played host to this exciting Photography event! Florida’s Photo Fest offers more than 100 photography events at locations throughout St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra & The Beaches every April!
Florida’s Photo Fest is an exciting opportunity to learn from professional photographers and nature educators. Sessions cover the spectrum of abilities, from beginners who use iPhones to advanced photographers with top-of-the-line equipment to everyone in between. Classroom and outdoor sessions are used to teach technique, strategy, equipment selection, wildlife identification, processing, and more.
Its headquarters are at the Celebration Hall on Anastasia Island. With plenty of free parking, the meeting facility is the perfect location for educational seminars covering a variety of topics, including creative processes, Photoshop & Lightroom, composition, printing, and flash techniques, and the festival’s exhibit hall, full of a variety of lens companies, gear sales and buy back companies, and lens cleaning & repair. Hunts Photo & Video is one of our longstanding vendors and supporters of the annual event, and we are so grateful for the continued support, the discounts extended to festival participants, and the network of photographers, up and coming and seasoned, that Gary has connected us with over the years.
The natural beauty of Florida’s Historic Coast is an integral part of the festival’s field workshops. Notable locations include Frank Butler Park East, Marineland Rock Beach, St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum, GTM Research Reserve, and Matanzas Inlet. Hands-on education takes place on birding and nature tours, boating trips, and walking tours led by local operators. The festival offers workshops focused on photographing birds of prey, birds in flight, horses on the beach, historic architecture, landscapes, portraits, macro photography, and night photography.
We are quickly approaching the start of our 22nd event and look forward to many more!
Brittany Jones, Florida Photo Fest Coordinator
