Museum showcases nature photography of Grant Jefferies
By CARL MARIO NUDI
Grant Jefferies has loved the outdoors since he was a young boy living in Palmetto.
“Growing up I spent all my time in the water,” said Jefferies, whose childhood home was only a half-block north of the Manatee River. “Dad always had a boat, and I developed a love for being outside.”
This appreciation of all things natural stayed with him, and he used that love of nature to cultivate a long career as a photographer.
Jefferies retired last July after working 30 years, first as a staff photographer, then chief photographer, at the Bradenton Herald.
“Even while working at the newspaper I would gravitate to the natural assignments,” he said. “It’s always been something I loved.
“Working for a newspaper there always was the hard news that you would have to deal with, and it never leaves you,” Jefferies said. “I would lie in bed, and it was always in my head.”
So when he wanted to show the beauty of the area instead of all the bad, he would look for shots of dynamic landscapes and seascapes or of the abundant wildlife that inhabits Manatee County.
Now that Jefferies has retired he has been devoting his time to creating a new career for himself.
He has been taking nature photos throughout Manatee County and across the country and offering them for sale on his website.
And his work has received some regional and local recognition.
Last September he was featured on a television episode of WEDU’s “Art Plus” program, and on Feb. 16 an exhibit highlighting his work opened at the South Florida Museum in Bradenton.
“A Walk in the Park: Exploring Manatee’s Preserves” will run through May 28 in the museum’s Rincon Gallery on the second floor near the Environmental Hall exhibits.
“We were familiar with Grant because of his work at the Bradenton Herald,” said Jessica Schubick, communications manager at the museum. “When we found out he was working on a project, we asked if he would be interested in showing his work at the museum.”
Schubick said it was a perfect partnership, because the Environmental Hall was designed to educate museum visitors about Florida’s environment where they can walk through three separate ecosystems — the riverine, pine uplands and estuary.
All of the photos in the show were taken in Manatee County since Jefferies retired, many at some of the Manatee County Parks and Natural Resources’ preserves.
Emerson Point Preserve at the western tip of Snead Island was dear to Jefferies’ heart, and visitors to the show will see several photos taken there.
“When I was growing up in Palmetto I would hop on my bicycle and ride out to Snead Island and hike through the trails out there,” he said. “There wasn’t anything out there except the Indian mound.
“I would love to just observe the birds,” Jefferies said.
Then one day he remembered hearing construction machinery, and as he walked toward the noise Jefferies saw workers putting concrete footers in the ground for a condominium.
“That was a sad day,” Jefferies said. “But when the county purchased Emerson Point (before the condominium was finished), I knew it would be there forever.
“My grandkids will get to experience what I did,” he said.
Although he recently moved to Northwest Bradenton, after he and his wife, Toni, were married, Jefferies said his roots still are in Palmetto.
“I grew up in Palmetto,” he said. “I walked to Palmetto Elementary School, walked to Palmetto Baptist Church, I could walk to everything.”
His mother, Willadine, grew up only two blocks from the house on 14th Avenue West where she would eventually raise Jefferies and his brother, David, after she married his father, John.
Now Jefferies has two children of his own, a son Jonathan, and a married daughter Laurie Voight, who also has two children, and one on the way.
Jefferies said it seems he has always been taking photos, and mostly of nature.
As a child he had a Kodak Instamatic 110 and would try to capture the wildlife in the woods he would tramp through.
It wasn’t until after he graduated from what then was called Manatee Junior College (now State College of Florida in Manatee County), with an associate degree in music education, that Jefferies got serious about photography and purchased a 35mm film camera.
He was percussionist/drummer in a Christian rock band, and they toured throughout the states.
“When we weren’t playing, I would take pictures,” Jefferies said.
After about a year of playing in the band, Jefferies attended Stetson University in Deland and earned a bachelor degree in psychology.
He went on to earn a master in divinity at the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C.
He continued to shoot photographs, and after graduating from the seminary he started working at The Wake Weekly for about nine months.
Jefferies moved back to Palmetto and got a job with the State of Florida as a case manager working with disabled adults and elderly for almost two years.
While working for the state, Jefferies would shoot football games and other photographs during his spare time and offer them to the Bradenton Herald to publish.
“I got to know the photographers there, and when a job came open at the Bradenton Herald they asked me to join their team,” he said. “I took the job.”
For Jefferies, his 30 years at the Bradenton Herald were very rewarding.
“To be able to be part of the community and tell their story, whether happy or sad, is a great privilege,” he said. “Working at the Bradenton Herald was a good career. It helped me grow as a photographer.
“I loved my time at the newspaper,” Jefferies said. “I got to do stuff that I would never have thought in a million years that I would. You experience history on a daily basis.”
Jefferies said the subject of his work depends mostly on the weather or time.
“The weather gives me an opportunity to do a landscape,” he said. “For example, if there’s a big storm coming in off the Gulf [of Mexico], I can capture those big clouds.
“Also the season gives me opportunities I wouldn’t have during other times of the year,” Jefferies said. “Birds nesting and hatching happens only during a particular time of the year.”
And the kind of photo he gets depends on how much time he has to spend waiting for the shot.
“If I only have two hours it will dictate when and what I shoot,” Jefferies said. “But I always love having time to sit and wait for good light or an animal to do something.
“That’s a big benefit of retirement, he said. “When I was working at the newspaper I would have to squeeze in four or five photo assignments in a day and couldn’t always wait for the perfect light.”
For Jefferies, it is a matter of patience.
“If you stick with it and be patient, you’ll get a good shot,” he said.
More information about Jefferies’ work can be found at his Facebook page, www.facebook.com/Grantjefferiesphotography or his website, grantjefferiesphotography.com.
Ticket information for Jefferies’ photography exhibit at South Florida Museum can be found at the website, www.southfloridamuseum.org.