Eastern Sierra Night Photography Workshop plus a Bodie Night
TBD, 2027
Most of our clients prefer our workshops with multiple nights or one night and one morning interior access session in Bodie. But if we get enough interest, every once in a while we offer a shorter, simpler, less expensive option for photographers who prefer one night. Our 3-night itinerary includes two days/nights capturing landscapes and practicing our night photography techniques, optimized for adequate light, enhanced shadow detail, and low noise. For the third night when everyone is experienced and working together to minimize stray light, we’ll stay near Bodie to be close for our 6pm-1am night session after the park closes. In the 15 seasons that we’ve been leading workshops in Bodie several nights per year, this format with at least two practice nights is the only one that addressed the problems of group shooting (stray light, slower photographers new to night photography) from slowing down the process so much that everyone gets far fewer images from Bodie. And every step along the way can be optimized, from lighting and exposure to post-processing, so it’s important to present and practice every step along the way in order to maximize success.
Summer can offer scattered rain showers during the afternoon, a colorful sunset and potentially rainbows as the storms clears, followed by clear skies for Milky Way photography under a dark night sky. We’ll spend the first two nights practicing night photography at the iconic Mono Lake South Tufa site and up in the Yosemite’s Tioga Pass area. Few workshop leaders have a permit to operate on Inyo National Forest lands, including Mono Lake. We do. We operate several workshops in Yosemite National Park each year, so we have that permit as well and can take you shooting up in the High Sierra!
Weather and photographic opportunities will influence our daily itineraries. We’re local, so we know more subjects/locations, and how the weather and light evolve.
For the last day we’ll have one post processing session before we head to Bodie and have the park to ourselves from 6 pm to 1 am. Bodie provides a plethora of subjects perfectly situated for Milky Way compositions as well as star trails for those interested. The daylight hours for the first two days will offer landscape photography. You will have two trip leaders, each with 75+ nights experience shooting and leading groups in Bodie (plus over 15 interior access sessions). We prefer our workshops to have no more than 8 participants for a 4:1 student to instructor ratio, to give you maximum attention.
A portion of the proceeds of your fee goes to the Bodie Foundation to assist in their “arrested decay” program in preserving the park. Please note that in Bodie we’ll spend a few hours standing and walking at an elevation of 8374 feet. Consult your doctor if you have any concerns.
Here’s my album on Flickr with 1200+ real photos (no faked sky substitutions, no faked Milky Way reflections, no AI) from Bodie. See a sample itinerary below. As local area experts who live and lead workshops here, we constantly adjust our plans to take advantage of the best weather and light. Of Jeff’s nearly 12,000 photos on Flickr, 2000 are from Mono County, and 1000+ more are from Yosemite! Like I said, we live here> We work here. Leading workshops. Hundreds of workshops already, within an easy 1-5 hour drive of our house.
Itinerary
To ensure you get the best pictures and to accommodate for any adverse weather, we keep the exact itinerary flexible. The following is an example of what to expect, though it may change slightly as necessary during the workshop.
- First night – We’ll meet for dinner shortly after everyone has checked into their hotel. From there we’ll head to either Mono Lake or Yosemite’s High Sierra for sunset and night photography, anticipating returning to our hotel rooms around midnight.
- 2nd night— Sunrises will be optional while we shift our waking hours into night. We’ll meet in the late morning for an early lunch to have while we have the first post-processing session. If the weather and sunset forecasts are stunning we may grab a picnic dinner and head up into the High Sierra (both USFS and NPS lands) in pursuit of amazing compositions. Afternoon weather can be dramatic and we’ll shoot through sunset into a second night of Milky Way photography.
- 3rd night – We’ll start in the late morning with a post-processing session. We’ll break after lunch so you can gather gear and layers of clothing for the Bodie night session. We arrange for an early group dinner so we can arrive at the Bodie gate by 6pm, where we’ll meet our monitor for the night. He/she will give us a review of the park and its rules. We will have full access to the park during closed hours until we need to head to our cars to be off of Park property by 1 am.
- Day 4 – Having exited the Park at 1am and arrived back at our lodging around 1:30, we encourage everyone to sleep in, to have arranged a late check out, and rest before heading toward home.
- If you have the time, our 320-page photographers’ guidebook “Photographing California Vol. 2 – South” can give you more locations to shoot on your trip, in Yosemite or southward down the Eastern Sierra.
Great Basin School of Photography, LLC operates under permit in Yosemite National Park.
What’s included:
- Guiding by two local experts who know the sites & weather (we live here)
- Photography instruction: subject, composition, exposure settings
- Post-processing instruction: day, night, special effects
- 6pm-1am guided /illuminated dark sky night photography in Bodie
- Permits for everywhere we go: your workshop won’t get interrupted by your tour leaders getting arrested (we’ve been told that most of our competitors haven’t maintained Inyo National Forest permits to be allowed to take you to Mono Lake)
What’s not included:
- Lodging (Standard cancellation terms, not tied to workshop terms; lodging recommendations will be provided upon registration)
- Group transportation (minimize illness risk)
- Meals/snacks/beverages – We’ll use outdoor seating or take-out when practical
