South x Southeast’s
Okefenokee Swamp
Cumberland Island
Jekyll Island
and
Crooked River State Park
Photo Workshop
April 1-5, 2026
This workshop is being held on Easter weekend. We’ll spend the evening of Friday, April 3rd, Good Friday, on the prairie of the Okefenokee Swamp for sunset and full moonrise.
We are honored to have Peter Essick as our instructor. Please see his bio below.
This Workshop will let you explore two of Earth’s most diverse eco-systems – only 60 miles apart – the Okefenokee Swamp and Cumberland Island – both as pristine as they were thousands of years ago.
We will also spend a morning in the Crooked River State Park, a coastal park in historic St. Marys, Georgia.
Before driving up the coast to Jekyll Island where we’ll shoot on Boneyard Beach, St. Andrews Beach, The Wildlife Viewing Platform, the Jekyll Island Club Resort and Historic District, as well as the historic Faith Chapel.
Please join us for boating, photographing, beach-combing, birding, critiquing, and walking through history.
Begins: Wednesday, April 1, 5 pm. Ends: Sunday, April 5th. Limited to 10 students
Wednesday, late afternoon – St. Marys, GA
Arrive on the coast, settle in, and enjoy the day exploring on your own. We’ll meet at 5pm on the dock in St. Marys for a 2-hour walkabout and shooting before enjoying an early dinner (we have an early call the next morning!).
St. Marys waterfront ©nmccrary
Thursday – Cumberland Island All-Day Visit
Thursday – Cumberland Island All-Day VisitKnown for its pristine beaches, wild horses, and historical architecture, Cumberland is a gem on the East Coast.
Cumberland Island Birding: Cumberland Island National Seashore is home to more than 322 species of birds ranging from peregrine falcons, painted buntings, red knots, oystercatchers, black skimmers, warblers, Wilson’s plovers, and snowy plovers.
The Cumberland Island Queen, our ferry, leaves at 9am from the St. Marys Dock for a 30 minute ride to Cumberland Island. We will enjoy a private van, with an experienced guide/driver from the National Park Service. During our 7 hour shoot on Cumberland we may visit Plum Orchard Mansion, the Settlement, Cumberland Island Wharf, First African Baptist Church, and plenty in between. Please let us know if there’s something in particular you’d like to photograph – we’ll do our best to include it in the tour! The ferry will return to St. Marys at 5:30 pm . We will provide breakfast biscuits, brown-bag lunches and snacks for an all-day affair on one of the most magical islands in the world.
Oak & Palms ©Lucie Langford Canfield
Friday Morning, Good Friday – Crooked River State Park for sunrise
Crooked River State Park’s nature trail winds through maritime forest and salt marsh, and photographers may see gopher tortoises, fiddler crabs, herons, and other birds. A nature center features fish, snakes, turtles and other animals native to coastal Georgia. Visitors may venture to the nearby ruins of a tabby mill, built around 1825 and later used as a starch factory during the Civil War.
Friday Afternoon – Okefenokee Swamp for Sunset and Full Moonrise over the Prairie
At 4:30 pm we float out to meet the 6:30 sunset and rise of the full moon. A cook-out at the dock will be provided before we launch into the swamp.
Whoever has beheld the manifold charms of this paradise of woods and waters, comes away fascinated and spellbound. Its majestic pines and cypresses, its peaceful waterways, and lily-strewn prairies, together with the splendid wild creatures that inhabit them, should be safe-guarded from destruction for any purpose. The primeval Okefenokee is worthy of national preservation.
-Francis Harper
The Birds of the Okefenokee Swamp:
The Okefenokee Swamp is home to over 200 bird species that live year-round, migrate through, or over-winter there. The swamp is the largest blackwater swamp in North America and is part of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, which is the largest in the eastern U.S.. The refuge’s 440,000 acres include swamps, upland forests, waterways, and “prairie wetlands” that provide habitats for many types of birds, including: wading birds: Blue herons, wood storks, and white ibis.
Other birds: Loons, grebes, pelicans, egrets, ibises, spoonbills, waterfowl, vultures, hawks, gallinaceous birds, rails, gallinules, coots, cranes, shorebirds, pigeons, doves, cuckoos, owls, goatsuckers, swifts, hummingbirds, kingfishers, and woodpeckers. The Okefenokee Swamp is also home to threatened and endangered species like the red-cockaded woodpecker, wood stork, and indigo snake. The swamp is also known for its amphibian populations, which are considered bio-indicators of global health.
Saturday, April 4th – Jekyll Island, Boneyard Beach, and the historic district
After a late night in the swamp we’ll start off for Jekyll Island at 10am. Jekyll offers diverse photographic opportunities, from the iconic Driftwood Beach with its sun-bleached trees to the historic district with its Gilded Age architecture. Other notable spots include the Jekyll Island Club Resort, Faith Chapel, and various beaches like St. Andrews Beach which has it’s own viewing platform.
Jekyll IslandBoneyard Beach, Jekyll Island ©nmccrary
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.
ZOOMS:
Zooms to be held regarding this workshop:
1. The first zoom will be held March 19th. Peter Essick will give a presentation on his work, and experiences, and tell you, as a photographer, what to expect on this workshop. We’ll also answer last minute questions.
2. A Group Critique Zoom will be held April 23rd. Participants will be asked to send 4 images to Peter and Nancy one week after the workshop (and you’ve had time to edit them). During the Zoom we’ll critique the images as a group.
Travel Insurance:
SxSE strongly suggests you purchase travel insurance, both for trip interruption, and health and safety concerns. In the past we have used Allianz, which is both economical and has proven to be responsible during a claims situation. For international workshops with SxSE travel insurance is required.
SxSE Provides:
Meals:
Breakfast biscuits and juice for the 9 am ferry to Cumberland. Photographers are asked to bring their own bottled water for the day.
Thursday’s Picnic Lunch on Cumberland Island.
Friday’s sunset cook-out on the dock in the Okefenokee Swamp
Transportation and Fees:
Ferry to Cumberland Island Thursday morning, return ferry Thursday Afternoon.
Entry Fees to Cumberland Island.
Private vans, and NPS tour guides, for 7 hours on Cumberland Island.
Private boat rides through the Okefenokee, with tour guides from the Georgia State Parks Service and Okefenokee Adventures for Friday evening sunset
Entry Fee to the Okefenokee Swamp
You Provide:
Meals:
All meals with the exception of Thursday breakfast, Thursday lunch, and Friday dinner.
Alcohol. Due to insurance concerns, SxSE will not provide alcohol.
Transportation:
To and From your home to the coast and back.
Accommodations while on the workshop. There are numerous economical airbnbs and hotels between St. Marys and Kingsland, GA. If you’d like to share a house with another workshop photographer please let Nancy know and she’ll spread the word.
Travel Insurance: Allianz Travel has been a responsible provider for SxSE in the past.
FEES:
$2500
For information on partner or spouse rates please inquire with Nancy – nancy@sxsemagazine.com
