2023-24 Workshop detail

December 9 – 14, 2023 Death Valley Winter Light $1495
Outside of a rare spring wildflower “super bloom,” low angle winter light is probably the most attractive thing to go to Death Valley for, as I describe here: “The Advantages of Winter Light.” In recent years visiting during this time, we’ve enjoyed stunning weather, no crowds for untracked landscapes, and low season lodging rates. It’s amazing to be in a major National Park in a peak photography season while being able to dial the clock back 20-30 years on the crowds! For 2023 we’ll have dark, moonless skies on the peak night of the Geminid meteor shower, and a very long night with 11+ hours of darkness: perfect conditions for capturing spectacular quantities of meteors. Given this rare opportunity we’re planning on camping somewhere remote on the last two nights to shoot the best nights of the Geminid meteor shower, so we can leave cameras out all night (with a dual battery holder many cameras can go 5-6 hours, so we can shoot most of the night with one battery change).

We’ve opened a January 2024 session for Winter Light landscape photography with post-processing sessions in the evening, including high fidelity black and white conversions. As a bonus, if there’s late fall/early winter rain, the December through early January time frame offers the best conditions for standing water to remain on Badwater salt flats: cooler temperatures, low wind, and a saturated water table below. In 2019 the water that accumulated after Thanksgiving lasted close to 5 weeks, into January. In 2019 we had stunning water and sunset reflections on Badwater salt flats. This year after record rainfall with Hurricane Hilary in August, there’s still ample water on the salt flats, and we’ve even found areas with prolific wildflowers that should be doing well in December!

January 10-15, 2024  Death Valley Black and White Photography Workshop $1495
This second “winter light” session will be similar to the ones we’ve done in December for years, but with more emphasis on black and white photography, utilizing lines, shapes, textures, tones and light to emphasize subjects in strong compositions. Not satisfied with simply making a bland desaturation of color, we’ll add a post-processing session to cover a simple post-processing workflow to give you maximum bit depth and more tonal control over your results. Low angle winter light is one of the most attractive conditions to shoot under in Death Valley, as described on my blog: “The Advantages of Winter Light.” As a bonus, if there’s late fall/early winter rain, the winter months offer the best conditions for standing water to remain on Badwater Salt Flats. Sample Death Valley black and white images here.

February 19-24, 2024 Yosemite Winter and Horsetail Fall $1495
Every year a lot of photographers pursue shots of sunset-backlit Horsetail Fall from a couple of limited locations in the last half of February. The thinning of trees in Yosemite Valley to reduce fire danger has opened up additional interesting compositions for Horsetail Fall. The iconic Horsetail Fall sunset shot requires sufficient snow pack above El Capitan, a warm enough day to melt the snow to feed the waterfall, and clear enough weather to the west as the sun sets for the sunlight to strike the waterfall. So it’s great to have five nights in the park to be there when the conditions come together! Regardless of Horsetail Fall, winter is an enchanting time to shoot Yosemite Valley. Particularly if we get a passing storm, the photography opportunities can be spectacular. Starting in 2020, the popular photography sites south of the Merced River were closed to Southside Drive when Horsetail Fall was available. So up to a mile walking each way may be required to reach the open shooting locations in 2024 (unless you have a handicapped parking pass to park closer). Often one of the participants volunteers to drop people and gear off to stake out our shooting spot early.

March 4-9, 2024 Death Valley Spring & Night Photography $1495
We’ll explore Death Valley’s sand dunes, salt flats, eroded badlands, and spectacular vistas. It also has sites with a rich history of gold, talc and borax mining. We like this timing to shoot the Park, before the worst of the oncoming heat. We also timed this to be close to the new moon date, so we will be able to shoot pre-dawn Milky Way in this “International Dark Sky Park” as well. While a “super bloom” is rare, we usually find a few decent patches of wildflowers. The timing peaked in late February into early March in 2016, so we’ll have good timing if there is another super bloom year. We watch where plants are growing when we visit the park in December and January, so we have a head start on where to look when we return in March. 

Mar 10 – 15, 2024 Death Valley Adventure (The Racetrack, etc.) $1495
When I was researching my “Photographing California” guidebook, I wanted to cover Death Valley thoroughly. We explored a number of remote roads, valleys and ridges, and found some unique and compelling sites that few get to see. Road conditions permitting, we’ll show you The Racetrack and the tallest dunes on the West Coast (nearly 700 feet high), when we can also capture Milky Way. To pull off pre-dawn Milky Way shots in remote locations we’ll need to camp, and we’ll all need high clearance vehicles and All Terrain rated tires are recommended. If you prefer not to upgrade your ties or subject your personal vehicle to five days of unpaved roads (including Racetrack Road), Jeep rentals are available. Here are some photos from the terrain we’ll cover. We’ll keep this group small. Some years we open up a second session in April if there’s enough demand.

April 20 – 25, 2024  Yosemite Spring Flowers, Waterfalls and Moonbows $TBD 
We time this workshop to pursue lunar rainbow “moonbows” around the date of the full moon. In late April redbuds and many wildflowers may be blooming, and possibly some early dogwoods as well. The waterfalls should be going strong, but we’ll beat the May and Memorial Day holiday crowds. You’ll want to book early, since in-park lodging is goes fast this time of year. (Sample Photos.) Contact us to get notified when this workshop releases.

May 7 – 12, 2024 Nevada Ghost Towns and Landscapes $TBD (5 nights 6 days in historic and scenic Nevada locations) 
We arrange access to historic private and public properties for night and day access. We’re likely to find some great landscapes and sunsets along the way, with wild horses, American antelope, wild burros, and more! We now run this workshop on demand; contact us to get notified if/when this workshop releases.

June 4-8, 2024   Bodie, Mono Lake, Eastern Sierra Landscape & Night Photography $1795 (2 nights in Bodie, annual trip)
Our nights in Bodie are on the new moon date and the night after, so we’ll have moonless dark skies for Milky Way photography until we work our way back to the parking lot to be off Park lands by 1am. The Milky Way will be low to the horizon, on the east side of Main Street. We can capture compositions with the Milky Way prominent across the sky, as well as Milky Way arch panoramas. With each of us having over 60 nights experience shooting in Bodie, Lori and I can help you cover more subjects in the time we have available, as well as compositions optimized for the time of night as the Milky Way rises. In recent years we have updated our lighting, our exposure technique, and our post-processing tools and techniques. We’ll have two additional practice nights with interesting subjects in the Mono Basin and High Sierra before our two Bodie nights. We’ll pursue daytime landscapes, wildflowers, and sunsets as well. We’ll schedule multiple post-processing sessions to make sure that you get the best possible results from the images you capture.
More information and registration here.

More coming soon… contact us to get on our mailing list to hear about new workshops as they’re released!

Death Valley Photography Workshops  (more information)
Yosemite Photography Workshops       (more information)
Bodie Photography Workshops             (more information)
Eastern Sierra/Mono Lake Photo Workshops (more information)
Nevada Photography Workshops          (more information)

Discounts may be available for returning customers, including new customers booking a second workshop, contact us for details (like if you might want to sign up for two workshops). We want to offer great value for all of our workshops, including offering rewards for returning customers whenever we are able!

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