Photographer Bruce Flaig to Share Wildlife Images at Rydell Refuge March 21

Bruce Flaig once spent an afternoon firing more than a hundred shutter clicks at a bird perched on a post, waiting for the precise moment its beak snapped shut around a wasp. That image now lives somewhere inside a collection of nearly 200,000 photographs, the product of more than two decades Flaig has devoted to nature photography across northwestern Minnesota.

On Saturday, March 21, the Fertile, Minnesota photographer will bring a selection of that work to the Rydell National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center at 17788 349 St. SE near Erskine. The one-hour presentation begins at 1 p.m. and is free to attend with no pre-registration required. The Friends of Rydell and Glacial Ridge Refuges Association is hosting the event.

The program opens with an approximately 20-minute slideshow that moves through the seasons. "It'll start out in the winter," Flaig said of the photos he plans to share, "go through the seasons and end up back in winter." Most of the images come from within an hour or two of his backyard in northwestern Minnesota. After the slideshow, Flaig will discuss the equipment he uses, display some of his lenses, and take questions from the audience.

Flaig's work has appeared in Birder's World, Bird Watcher's Digest, Wild Bird, Ranger Rick, and Outdoor Photographer. Despite the scale of his archive, he counts only about a dozen images as truly perfect shots. "That's one of the reasons I like it," he said. "I'm always trying to improve."

Refuge Manager Gregg Knutsen said the presentation is aimed squarely at visitors who arrive at Rydell with cameras in hand but without a clear sense of where to begin. Many people come to the refuge with their cameras and "it's something we encourage and provide opportunities for," Knutsen said. "But a lot of people need that starting point, such as how do I get started, what can I expect? So that's where we thought having Bruce come and show some of his photos and experiences would hopefully get people excited."

For more information, contact Knutsen at (218) 686-4329 or gregg_knutsen@fws.gov.