Camera club plans event at the Great Swamp Conservancy

By KAtE Hill Staff Writer

On June 3, Cazenovia resident Jerry Hook and other members of the Canastota-based “Swamp Snappers Camera Club” are hosting a free threepart open house at the Great Swamp Conservancy at 8375 N. Main St., Canastota. The event is open to anyone interested in developing their nature photography skills.

The event, titled “A Guide to Nature Photography,” will begin at noon with an hour of handson camera setting advice given by the club’s experienced photographers. Participants are invited to bring their cameras and questions.

From 1 to 2 p.m., professional photographer Ed Guarente will present on the eagles of Onondaga Lake.

Guarente is based in

Central New York and has over 30 years of professional photography experience. For much of that time, he specialized in senior, wedding, and studio photography, but when the COVID pandemic hit, he shifted his focus to nature photography. He has captured many images of the bald eagles on Onondaga Lake.

Guarente’s presentation will cover camera equipment and settings,

“Quality, SERVICES INCLUDE OTHER SERVICES INCLUDE www.CazenoviaJewelry.com advice for capturing outstanding images, and some basic Lightroom and Photoshop image enhancement tips.

From 2 to 3 p.m., the Swamp Snappers will lead a guided tour through the Great Swamp Blue Heron Trail to the Great Blue Heron Rookery, where over 30 nests currently stand. The club members will be available to answer questions, help with camera settings, and more.

Members of the public are welcome to attend only the parts that interest them or join in all three.

The not-for-profit Swamp Snappers Camera Club typically meets on the first Saturday of each month at 1 p.m. at the Great Swamp Conservancy.

Hook, who is one of only a couple of Swamp Snappers from Cazenovia, said he hopes the upcoming event will encourage more Cazenovians to join the club, especially since the community does not have a camera club of its own.

“The big thing [about the event] is we are offering a free membership for l Page 3

From May 19 to Oct. 2 visitors to Lorenzo can enjoy guided tours of the mansion furnished with 160 years of Come

Jerry hooK

On June 3, Cazenovia resident Jerry Hook and the other members of the Canastota-based Swamp Snappers Camera Club will present a free three-part photography event at the Great Swamp Conservancy. Pictured: Great blue heron taken at the Great Blue Heron Rookery one year if you join that day,” he said.

Hook added that he would love to form a Cazenovia-based camera club, but because he doesn’t live in town yearround, he thinks he is probably not the right person to get one up and running.

To learn more about the Swamp Snappers and the Great Swamp Conservancy, visit greatswampconservancy.or g original furnishings. Explore the visitor center for the history of Cazenovia, building of Lorenzo, and an amazing carriage and sleigh display. Visit the museum shop which features a unique selection of Lorenzo merchandise, books, and gift items. The grounds are open daily, year-round, dawn until dusk to stroll through the Ellen Shipman-designed formal garden and Dark Aisle Arboretum or hike the connective trail through the 87-acre site.

This season Lorenzo will unveil a new exhibit, Art as Memory: What We Leave Behind. Guest curator, Elisabeth Genter Montevecchio has chosen to display some of the personal expressions of art, such as sketches and needlework, left behind by Lorenzo’s residents and their families. As you explore, she invites you to consider: what did your ancestors create for you to remember them by? What will you leave behind? What does history look like to you? Meet the curator at the free opening reception on June 3, from 1 to 3 p.m. This exhibit made possible thanks to a New York Hu - manities Grant, and is on view with guided tours through Oct. 9.

Location: Lorenzo State Historic Site, 17 Rippleton Road, Cazenovia.

Dates for 2023 Season: May 19 through Oct. 9.

Days Open: Wednesdays through Sundays, and Monday holidays

Times and tours: 10 to 4:30 p.m. Tours available every half hour. The last tour begins at 4 p.m.

Contact: For more information: call 315-655-3200, visit parks.ny.gov, or connect on Facebook.

May 20 at 1 p.m.: Join us as speaker Merri Ferrell presents “19th Century American Carriages.” The presentation will cover the industrialization of carriage production in the United States. Merri will include the specialized trade groups who undertook painting, trimming, and other design work. Her talk will also highlight Brewster & Company, an American carriage company established in 1810.

Merri Ferrell started her museum career at the Henry Morrison Flagler Museum in Palm Beach, Florida, and later was curator of carriages at Maymont, the 105-acre estate of Mr. &

Mrs. James H. Dooley in Richmond, VA. Following this she became curator of carriages and the carriage reference library at the Museums at Stony Brook (now the Long Island Museum) in Stony Brook, NY. Merri created a ground-breaking conservation program for horse-drawn vehicles and has been a preservation advocate throughout her career. Today, Merri is a contract museum consultant, volunteers at the Metropolitan Museum cataloging their collection of Brewster & Company drawings and is the executive manager of a 443-acre equestrian facility.

Lorenzo’s collection of thirty-three horse-drawn vehicles was donated in the 1970s by Mrs. Walter Oakman, great grandniece of the estate builder. In the 1930s, saddened by their destruction to make way for automobiles, and determined to save the remnants of the horse-powered era, she began collecting. For Preservation Month, Lorenzo would like to pay tribute to Mrs. Oakman’s forward thinking in not only preserving an important mode of transportation, but also a link to an American industry and the people it employed. Admission to the event is free.

Don’t miss your old favorites, such as the Friends of Lorenzo Garden Gala on June 8, Lorenzo Driving Competition celebrating their 45th year on July 14-16, or “Community Day” at the Rippleton Schoolhouse on September 24.

For something new, enjoy the Caroga Arts Collective concert on the lawn Aug. 13. Stay tuned to friendsoflorenzo.org for information on their pre-concert fundraiser.

Visit for Christmas at Lorenzo from Dec. 5-10 and enjoy this year’s display of the “Twelve Days of Christmas”.

For more information call 315-6553200, visit parks.ny.gov, or connect on Facebook.

Lorenzo State Historic Site is operated by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation which oversees 180 state parks and 35 historic sites that are visited by over 75 million people annually. For more information on any of these recreation areas, visit parks. ny.gov, connect on Facebook, or follow-on Twitter.