Festival Artist

Each year the Festival Committee selects an image (photograph or fine art) that is featured on tee-shirts, publicity pieces, brochures, the website and in other ways as determined by the Committee. The artist of that image is designated as the Festival Artist and the original art work is prominently displayed at the Art Show.

It is an honor to be featured artist at the Lodi Sandhill Crane festival this year!  Disclaimer: I am a birder first and a happenstance photographer second!  Don’t ask me about f-stops, shutter speeds, lenses or RAW files.  Embarrassingly, I know very little. I just point and shoot and hope for the best!

I started birding in 2021 when my college roommate invited me to go birding during the pandemic. I was 63 years old when I caught the birding bug and bought a Nikon Coolpix P950 in order to ID birds.  Since 2021, I have logged over 400 birds from Gray Lodge to Africa to Costa Rica.  Whether I am watching Sandhill Cranes fly into a pink sunset or looking into the yellow eyes of a Great Horned Owl, I am always in awe!

I am so grateful for the many birders I have met along the way who have educated me, gently corrected me and shown me where to see a Townsend’s Warbler out at Babel Slough, a Harris’s Sparrow near Putah Creek or a Snowy Plover at Bodega Bay.  And I am humbled by those who have encouraged me to share my photos with others.  I hope you enjoy the photos I have chosen for this show as much as I enjoyed taking them and sharing them with you!

Click on the image below to see a gallery of works by Nora Williams.