A Packer Township man has traveled the United States and abroad to capture photographs of nature.

Jason Stewart will share those shots at the Tamaqua Arts Center throughout June.

A gallery opening and reception with Stewart will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday at the 125 Pine St. Center. It is free and light refreshments will be served.

Stewart said he picked up a camera after a 2013 horseback riding accident left him with several broken bones.

“I couldn’t be too active so I sat in the yard with a camera and fell in love,” Stewart said. “I always wanted to be a wildlife biologist and found this gave me that connection with nature that I desired.”

Stewart enjoys the creative process behind photography.

“But honestly it’s brought me so many places that I never dreamed I’d get to from flying over Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe to seeing a moose calf having a splash fight with its mother in Montana,” he explained.

The exhibit will be a sampling of all his work. He’ll have local shots, along with others from national parks and places like Africa and Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean.

His favorite trip, Stewart said, was to Botswana.

“It’s our first game drive of the trip and we crest this hill in the Land Cruiser. It’s just about sunset and we’re on a river bank, there’s giraffe, elephant, Cape buffalo, impala all near the bank. Hippos calling in the water and a red sunset,” he recalled. “It brought tears to my eyes.”

The exhibit runs through June 27.