Photographer Tes Jolly Inducted into Legends of the Outdoors Hall of Fame

Award-winning wildlife photographer and Realtree.com contributor Tes Jolly will be inducted into the Legends of the Outdoors Hall of Fame. (Image provided by Tes Jolly)

Realtree is proud to announce that Tes Jolly, a regular Realtree.com contributor of both photos and feature articles, will be inducted in the Legends of the Outdoors Hall of Fame on August 16 in Springfield, Missouri, at the John A. & Genny Morris Convention Center.

Jolly is an award-winning wildlife photographer and freelance outdoor writer living in Southeast Alabama. Although she writes and photographs many outdoor subjects, she specializes in the wild turkey.

Established in 2002, the Legends of the Outdoors Hall of Fame recognizes outdoor sportsmen and sportswomen who, through countless hours of hard work and devotion to the outdoors, in both hunting and fishing, have played an integral part in setting the standards and guidelines for the rest of the outdoor world to follow.

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Jolly says she is deeply honored to be inducted into such a prestigious organization alongside many of the men and women who have been her friends and mentors for decades.

“It’s honestly so overwhelming,” she says.

Jolly credits those friends and mentors, as well as God and her family for her success.

“All along the path, I’ve had so many people encouraging, supporting and inspiring me. This honor isn’t just for me. It’s for everyone who’s lifted me up all of these years. I just hope I can get through the ceremony without crying too much. It’s such an honor to stand beside the people I’ve admired for years,” she says. “I attended the ceremony last year and walked through the museum. It was really inspiring to see so many folks I’ve looked up to in that list of inductees. Many of them are close friends who’ve helped me so much along the way. This will give me an opportunity to say thank you to them. Of course, I thank God. He’s the one who gets the credit. I’m just trying to follow the path he’s given me. I’m also so grateful to my parents who taught me to enjoy the outdoors while respecting the wildlife.”

Jolly credits her parents with instilling in her a deep love of hunting and the outdoors. (Image provided by Tes Jolly)

Jolly says her parents, who were both avid hunters, instilled within her a deep love for the outdoors by teaching her to hunt and shoot on her family farm in Florida. When she was 9 years old, she was deeply crushed to learn she would not be allowed to hunt with her father, Ned, at a local hunting club that had a men-only rule, which her father was unaware of when he first joined. Seeing her devastation, Ned came up with a clever plan. He dressed her in oversized men’s clothing and a floppy hat and told her to keep quiet and maintain a low profile. Then he introduced her to the rest of the club members as his son, Harvey. Jolly maintained her disguise as Harvey and hunted at the club for three years, until she could no longer hide the fact that she was blossoming into a young lady. By then, the club members acknowledged that the men-only rule was an antiquated way of thinking and females were allowed to participate in hunts.

As Jolly grew in age, so did her hunting, shooting and archery skills. In 1994, she became the first and only female turkey hunting guide at White Oak Plantation in Alabama, where she met numbers of outdoor professionals, such as magazine editors, writers and photographers, many of who became mentors as she continued to pursue a career in the outdoors. In 1996, she met and married outdoor videographer and writer Ron Jolly. During that time, she also became an archery instructor for Alabama’s Women in the Outdoors program, where she taught women the basics of bowhunting for 20 years. In 1992, she decided to pursue her long-held dream of being a wildlife photographer. She succeeded in the field with numerous awards and published photos and writing credits with publications such as Realtree.com, Turkey Country, Outdoor Life, Field & Stream, Turkey and Turkey Hunting, Deer and Deer hunting, and many more, including regional publications, books and calendars.

Many of her latest images and writing examples can be found online with the wild turkey conservation organization, Turkeys for Tomorrow, where she promotes its mission of using science-based solutions to address the decline of wild turkey populations throughout the U.S.

Looking forward, Jolly plans to continue writing about and photographing wildlife, especially wild turkeys, for as long as she can.

“I want to try and accomplish something meaningful and something I can share with others throughout the rest of my life,” she says. “I want to be able to get out there and photograph and write more about wildlife. I pray that God will give me the health and strength to stay out there. One good thing about photography is that if I have physical limitations as I get older, as long as someone can park me in a chair, I can still take photos. I plan to keep photographing until someone folds up a blind with me in it!”