Death Valley Dark Sky Night Photography- March 1-4, 2013

Mastering The Night: Workshop and Lightroom Clinic

with Lance Keimig and Scott Martin

Dates: March 2-4, with optional Lightroom class March 1, 2013
Location: Death Valley National Park
Cost: $995+ $250 for optional pre-workshop Lightroom class on March 1.

The Night Skye and Onsight  invite you to Death Valley next March.  Unlike our usual Full Moon Night Photography workshops, this one will take place in the waning stage of the lunar cycle which will offer us some moonlight, as well as dark skies for star point and Milky Way photography. This intensive workshop is intended for photographers with a good grasp of photographic principles and for those who are completely comfortable with their equipment. We’ll be pushing you to step outside your comfort zone, to test and find the limits of what your camera can do, and to make images that you can’t do at home. There will be great light painting opportunities, but if that’s not your thing, Death Valley is huge, and there are countless other options for Night Photography. At least minimal experience or familiarity with Night Photography is recommended, as working in the desert without the aid of light from a full moon can be challenging.

We are thinking of this as an advanced class for those looking to expand your photographic horizons, recharge your creative batteries, share ideas with friends and colleagues, and to go home with some exciting images from this unique landscape. We’ll create individual goals for each participant, and encourage you to blur the lines between night and day, consider why you photograph at night, and to make images that are as far from postcard views as possible. Collaboration is a great way to make new discoveries and new friends, and will be a part of the experience. Working through image ideas and lighting together is a fun and rewarding process, and can help give you that kick in the pants you’ve been looking for.  Locations may include the famous Racetrack Playa, Rhyolite, the Mesquite Sand Dunes, charcoal kilns, Badwater Salt Flats and ??? Discoveries await.

Scott and I will offer an optional pre-workshop one day class on Adobe Lightroom on March first. This mini class will be catered to the participants needs, whether you are an old hand looking to brush up on Lightroom 4 or to improve your workflow, or are a new Lightroom user, the small class size (max of 10) and two instructors will allow us to give everyone individual attention to focus on exactly what you need. It will also offer an additional night for you to explore and make images on your own before the workshop.

The workshop base camp will be at Stovepipe Wells. Reservations will need to be made well in advance, so if you are interested in this workshop, you should  consider reserving a room now. If you wish for fancier digs, or must have reliable internet, then stay at Furnace Creek, but it’s 30 miles each way to our classroom.

Plan to arrive on February 28 or sooner if you plan to take the Lightroom Pre-Workshop class, or March 1st or sooner for just the Night Photography workshop. Check out March 5th or later. Death Valley is remote- very remote. It’s a 10 plus hour drive from the Bay Area, 5 hours from LA, and about a 2 hour drive from Las Vegas, the closest airport. Shooting in remote locations means long drives both before and after shooting hours, so expect some late nights. One night in particular will require a 3-4 drive on a rough road that requires a 4WD high clearance vehicle. We expect to carpool to this location and take a few vehicles as possible. There are Jeeps available for hire at Furnace Creek, and we will be contacting participants in advance to coordinate AWD vehicles. Jeep rental is not included in the cost of the workshop.

Racetrack Milky Way Panorama
by Russell Brown

Scott and I just returned from a scouting and planning trip to Death Valley and are really excited about the possibilities Death Valley has to offer the night photographer. As of January 1, the workshop is full.