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. We rarely do less than a 3-night itinerary because a group shoots best together and produces the most and best work on the third night. But by demand in 2026, we’ll try a short two-night half workshop with one post-processing session in between. We’ll capture landscapes and practice night photography techniques, optimized for adequate light, enhanced shadow detail, and low noise. On the second 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. We’ll use our 15 seasons experience leading workshops in Bodie several nights per year to optimize foreground subjects and compositions for the Milky Way position and time of night. 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 your 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 night practicing night photography at Mono Lake, and possibly up in 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. We can go where the conditions, weather, and opportunities warrant.
Weather and photographic opportunities will influence our daily itineraries. We’re local, living about an hour from Mono lake and Bodie, so we know more subjects/locations, and how the weather and light evolve in this area.
With two local trip leaders each having 75+ nights experience shooting and leading groups in Bodie (plus over 15 interior access sessions) and no more than 8 participants (a 4:1 student to instructor ratio), there’s less “herding cats” and more time spent shooting.
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. Of Jeff’s roughly 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.
What’s included:
What’s not included:
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