The big picture: Texas 4-H photographers capture Big Bend’s beauty during educational photo adventure

“We take educational field trips and we include the students’ families,” Schlak said. “We try to make it an educational vacation.”

Schlak heads the Texas 4-H Photography Project, a massive group that includes about 4,300 kids from across the state.

“There are about 46,000 students in Texas who take part in 4-H, and more than 10 percent of those kids are affiliated with the photo project,” Schlak said. “That includes Clover Kids, who start at 5 years old, and goes through high school students. Since the project is located in Bell County, many of our members are from here.”

Schlak said the photo excursions are usually loosely organized.

“The families can camp or stay in a motel or lodge, but we get together for our activities,” she said. “At Big Bend, we worked on macrophotography, and flower and plant photography. We have workshops and we take photos, but we also have an educational element to our trips.

Providing some of that “educational element” on the Big Bend trip was Temple’s Earl Nottingham, retired chief photographer for Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

“Earl led workshops in outdoor photography, astrophotography and landscapes,” Schlak said. “I did a painting with light workshop, and some of our 4-H members lead some of the learning sessions.”

Nottingham said he was amazed at the skill levels of the young shutterbugs.

“It was refreshing to see this motivated and energetic group of young folks capturing the beauty of this wild area of Texas through their creative eyes,” Nottingham said. “Based on the photos I have seen from the trip to Big Bend, we have a great crop of budding professional photographers.”

Some of the older Photography Project members are in a 4-H Ambassador’s program, Schlak said. These kids serve in a leadership capacity and organize workshops, community service projects and educational photo adventures. In fact, the Big Bend trip was the brainchild of Coen Hefley, a 16-year-old Bell County resident.

“Last summer, my family decided we would go to Big Bend over spring break,” Coen said. “I got to thinking, this would be a great trip for the 4-H Photography Project.

“There are several reasons I thought Big Bend would be a great place to go,” he said. “The landscape is amazing, and it is listed as an International Dark Sky Park, making it great for astrophotography. We did some light painting, where everything is dark except one object is spotlighted and lit up. We also did some landscape photography with stars.

“We had done another astrophotography trip several years ago, and it had been one of our best trips,” Coen said. “Many of the state ambassadors wanted another astrophotography experience, so Big Bend was perfect because of its dark night sky.

“Additionally, Big Bend contains many features that make it excellent for all types of landscape photography,” he added. “I chose to lead this trip because I knew I would gain a lot of leadership experience, and because my favorite types of photography are landscape and night photography.”

“I think everyone came away with a lot of experience and knowledge. This is especially true for those who might not have been on other photography trips. Besides the amazing opportunity for capturing photos, one of the things I learned from this trip was experience in organizing and leading larger events.”

Coen will be putting those leadership skills to good use again later this month.

“I’m organizing a community service project and a workshop,” he said. “We’re giving local residents the opportunity to have some quality photos taken.”

The community service is a Family Photo Shoot from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Bell County Extension Office in Belton. Families can sign up for the photo shoot by calling 254-933-5305.

“The purpose of this project is to give the kids experience in working at a photography studio,” Schlak said. “One of the 4-H members will serve as a receptionist, one as a technical assistant, another as the photographers — the kids will run the show. The public can have photos made and get the images on a thumb drive.”

Coen also is planning a special workshop for 4-H members.

“I’m going to teach them how to take great photos without leaving home,” he said.