Purposeful Photography is a mantra you hear often around Photography Adventures. We're not out there just to make pretty pictures and have fun, although that's what we do too! Participants on our trips know that we work hard from sun up till starlight--passionately searching for subjects, shooting, processing and showing our results during the workshops.
In that spirit, 2024 will be dedicated to The A6 Forest Ecology Project. As we have witnessed in the past few years, forests are in great danger of many threats such as climate change, fire, windthrow, invasive insects and disease, and development pressures from suburban sprawl, logging, mining and the energy industry.
As storytellers it is our duty to go to these wilderness and backcountry places to document the beauty at risk and the scientists studying the threats as well as the Forest People who live and work in the woods. Of course, this includes Indigenous People who have lived in harmony with the Earth for millennia.
That's why an important component of this project is to put cameras in the hands of Indigenous youth and lead them into the forest sanctuary to share their perspective and to tell their ancestors' stories. Click below to open a gallery of images from the 6 major forest regions--Algonquin, Algoma, Atlantic, Adirondack, Allegheny and Appalachian.

During the 2 years of closure by Covid, Phil Norton lived up to the name "Photography Adventures". He waited for vaccines to be developed in 2021 then set off alone for a 3-month bicycle-camping journey from Canada to Mexico.
It was a repeat of part of the bicycle camping journey he took 42 years earlier when he pedalled 10,000 kms around the Great Lakes and from New Jersey to Texas in 1979-80.
A slide presentation is available for clubs and schools. He also gives a speaking program, "Downsizing," about carrying only a pocket camera and phone and how technology is getting better and smaller.

Post-Covid pandemic we returned Fall 2022 for an excursion to the Group Of Seven painters country with our Group Of F/5.6 photographers. Get on our newsletter email list by contacting phil@philnorton.com For news and tips, please "Like" the Facebook page. For personalized day-trips in Ontario, visit the County Outings website.		It all began with a trip from Canada to Texas in 2015. Then 2016 and 2017 with trips to Newfoundland, Arizona, Saskatchewan and Yukon, plus a cross-country trek along the Trans-Canada Highway. 2018-2019 were a stay-cation years with daily tours into the backcountry of Prince Edward County, Ontario. Covid shut us down for 2 years.

© Photo by Gary McGuffin used with permission

TORONTO RAVINES, STREET SHOOT and CONTACT PHOTO FESTIVAL -- May 1, 2019

Pack your hiking boots and your dress shoes for this all-day mid-week trek from the County to the City. I have been scouting out some hot spots for great photos over the past 2 years and exploring the unique corridors of nature that run through the heart of Toronto--the Ravines. The Ravines hold a rich history with the remains of old industry, railroads, and lore of great nature artists like the Group of Seven and Robert Bateman.

The workshop will include city skyline shots after sunset and getting your fill of red street car shots and downtown characters. Feel the pulse of the city, grab lunch on Yonge, then immerse yourself in cutting edge photographic artistry at the launch of one of the world's largest photography festivals, CONTACT.

More info by clicking here.

BIRDING & NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY IN PE COUNTY -- May 2019

Several half-day tours in Prince Edward County during peak warbler migration. This is your opportunity to add some close-up shots of Ontario’s most colourful birds at the peak of their mating season plumage. Each year we spot from 50 to 80 species as we visit a variety of habitats ranging from open lakeshore and marsh to old growth forest, and grassy fields. Click for details about this trip...

Join us for fun times in the wintry weather meeting enthusiastic photographers and naturalists (3 coming from Quebec on Feb. 9) who are here for all-day tours to Amherst Island. Special invitation to meet the locals at our lunch stop, bathrooms and warming up inside the family farmhouse at Topsy Farms.

This is a magical place. Spotting snowy owls, short-eared, saw-whet, and barred, bald eagles and hawks, rough-legged and harrier, deer, voles scurrying around at our feet, stone walls, old barns and Great Lake vistas. More dates will be announced and custom tours arranged for your group. $70 per person including a ride in the van (save the $9 ferry fee and gas) for the first 4 if you register immediately! Bring something for the potluck lunch. Non-refundable. Must sign liability waiver. Limit 9 people.

Optional: going out on the town in Kingston after our island tour!

Contemplative Photography Workshop

Slow down your approach to subjects and scenery. Get into a relationship with your subject whether it’s wildlife, an inanimate object, a landscape or a person. Take your time and click one great image rather than 20 rapid-fire shots. Live the moment.

Together we will define what Contemplative Photography means to you. Find abstract art in simple things all around you. Incorporate your photographic passion into your daily life. By looking and truly seeing, you'll retain memories and knowledge that will be more valuable than your photo collection.

Bring along 10 of your own digital image files on a USB stick, 1500 pixels or more wide. Or bring prints. Instructor Phil Norton is hosting the workshop at his home studio in Picton, Ontario.

Click for more details.

TESTIMONIAL

I had an absolutely marvellous time on the March 2016 South West USA photo trip! You found really great places for us to visit and then to photograph. Your passion for photography is contagious! It was such great fun to hang out for days with fellow photographers and immerse myself in photography 24/7! Thank you Phil, for all the pre-work that you did so that our group of photographers could just show up and starting shooting! Your good nature and helpfulness its others is what keeps these photo trips going forward. Lastly, thanks for helping me complete an item off my bucket list! S.M.

To see a Facebook album of photos from our previous trips to Amherst Island, click here.

2018

Parts Unknown in Prince Edward County

Canadians: how about a Staycation this summer. Stay close to home for your vacation and discover some unknown parts of rural Ontario and Quebec. A series of half-day outings along the shores of Lake Ontario are kicking off the season on June 23, June 30 and July 7, 2018.

"Parts Unknown" will take you into unusual wildlife habitat and along backcountry roads where we encounter the authentic rural side of this growing tourist and wine region. Each outing will include a coffe and snack break and local farms to purchase fresh eggs and honey and garden produce.

October 2017 - The Saguenay Region of Québec

Join the 6 photographers already signed up for these 5 days of autumn adventure. They're coming from Cincinatti, Toronto and Montreal. 5 nights' lodging, transportation on land and sea, 3 breakfasts at the legendary Hotel Tadoussac and a 3-hour whale-watching tour where the white beluga whales live. There are so many amazing scenes that change through the seasons, weather conditions and times of day. We can't do them all but we'll have optional sunrise outings and we'll schedule in some down-time to enjoy our unique accommodations. Bring your laptop to edit photos over a glass of wine in the evening. Details...

April 2017

Maple sugaring time and butterfly garden
Weekend
Montreal and Quebec Province

Details...

May 2017

Birding and Nature Photography
Weekend
Prince Edward County, Ontario

Details...

June 2017

Road trip west--choose any
or all segments
Alberta, BC, Yukon, Alaska

Details...