Death Valley National Park

Workshop Highlights

• Shooting Locations – Eureka Sand Dunes, Racetrack Playa, Zabriskie Point and Golden Canyon, Dante’s View, Mesquite Sand Dunes, Devil’s Golf Course, Badwater Salt Flats, Cow Creek, Ubehehe Crater, Mosaic Canyon, Artist’s Palette.

This landscape photography workshop is going to be all about photography. Your photography. The majority of our days will start early, before sunrise. After a quick cup of coffee or tea, we’ll be off to get into position at a location in the best light of the day, and we’ll often continue until mid-to-late morning. We’ll typically have breakfast in the field in order to maximize our shooting time.

Back at Basecamp, we’ll have time for off-loading memory cards, working on our images, one-on-one instruction, or take time to relax. Then, in the mid-to-late afternoon, we’ll head out again to capture the evening skies, getting the most out of the sunset and/or shooting the stars in the night sky. Back at Basecamp, it will be time to enjoy a hot shower, share drinks with the group by a campfire, and have dinner.

Out in the field, we’ll explore different approaches to scene visualization, ground/sky/sea compositions, and how to manage complex highlight and shadow scenes using techniques such as dynamic bracketing, focus stacking, framing, and neutral density filters. Back in the classroom, we’ll spend time developing your post-production workflow – learning when Lightroom is enough and when you need to move your work into Photoshop – using techniques such as luminosity masks to create and solve contrast, color, and blending issues.

You’ll benefit from our guidance, hours of capture time in the field with an instructor by your side, and classroom instruction as you learn new techniques and strategies for creating dynamic images.

We’ll help you take your photography to the next level.

Our Basecamp

• Our Basecamp will be the Ranch at Death Valley (formerly the Ranch at Furnace Creek), a hotel that is comfortable, affordable, and within easy driving distance of our locations. The conference room will give us space to work on our captures and develop new post-production techniques.
• Upon registration, you’ll be given a group discount code for the hotel, and each student is responsible for booking their room.

Tuition

• The tuition for this five-day workshop is $2,695.
• What's Included: group rate on your lodging, field meals and snacks, all ground transportation during the workshop, workshop course materials, in-the-field photographic training, and post-production classes.
• What's Not Included: transportation to/from the Basecamp, lodging, meals.

Meals & Transportation

• Your tuition includes field meals, snacks, water, coffee, etc. Other meals are your responsibility. If you want to bring your own snacks, please do so.
• You are responsible for getting to/from the Basecamp – we'll take care of the transportation from there with our 4x4 vehicles.

Qualifications

• You must (1) bring all your own camera equipment, (2) have complete knowledge of how to use your camera equipment, and (3) be reasonably proficient with both Lightroom & Photoshop. With such a full curriculum, we simply won’t have time to teach people how to use their cameras or software programs.
• Participants should be in reasonably good physical condition and should be able to comfortably walk several miles a day on uneven terrain.

Equipment

• Laptop with both Adobe Lightroom & Photoshop installed & registered with Adobe Cloud
• DSLR or Mirrorless Camera
• Tripod
• Camera backpack
• Lens cleaners
• Extra batteries & chargers
• Extra SD & CF cards
• Lenses – a variety of wide angle zoom such as a16-35mm, a mid-range of 24-70mm, and intermediate telephoto of 70-200mm
• Flash units (optional)
• Filters - polarizers and neutral density (optional)
• Remote Switch/Controller (optional)
• External drives/storage as necessary

Registration, Cancellations, and Refund Policy

• Registrations are accepted on a first-come, first serve basis up to a maximum of 6 students.
• A deposit of $1,000 or payment-in-full guarantees your registration for the workshop. The entire tuition must be paid 60 days prior to the start of class; failure to complete payment may be treated as your cancellation. Need special payment arrangements for your deposit? No problem, just contact us.
• Should you need to cancel, you must cancel 60 days prior to class or you will lose your deposit. Please review our Terms and Conditions for additional information regarding our cancellation and refund policies.
• Registrations made 60 days or less prior to the start of a workshop must be paid in full and are subject to the same cancellation policies stated herein.
• If we need to cancel a workshop for some reason you will be given a 30-day notice and receive a full refund of all payments.
• Please do not make air travel arrangements for a workshop until checking with us first.
• All of our standard Terms and Conditions apply.

License, Bonds, & Insurance

• We are an Authorized Permittee of the National Park Service. Our workshops operate – as warranted by the situation – with a Commercial Use Authorization (CUA) permit, a No-Trace Left Behind certificate, and a detail travel itinerary. Many workshops operate illegally outside these requirements of the National Park Service and are at risk of being fined or even terminated.

What Makes this Landscape Photography Workshop Different?

• The group size for each workshop is limited to no more than 6 students, allowing for a high level of personal interaction, planning, and guidance with your photographic leader.
• We spend time identifying your level of experience at the beginning of the workshop so that your experience can be tailored to your specific needs and goals. We’ll continue to monitor how things are going throughout the workshop, and conclude with what your next steps need to be.
• Our workshops include a unique blend of capture time in the field, guided hikes, 4x4 travel to remote locations, one-on-one mentoring in the field, and class time for post-production instruction. You will have the opportunity to photograph some of the best-loved locations in the parks – and some of the most remote areas seldom seen by others – at the best times of the day.
• Out in the field, we’ll explore different approaches to scene visualization, ground/sky/sea compositions, and how to manage complex highlight and shadow scenes using techniques such as dynamic bracketing, focus stacking, framing, and neutral density filters. Back in the classroom, we’ll spend time developing your post-production workflow – learning when Lightroom is enough and when you need to move your work into Photoshop – using techniques such as luminosity masks to create and solve contrast, color, and blending issues.
• You’ll benefit from our guidance, hours of capture time in the field with an experienced mentor by your side, and classroom instruction as you learn new techniques and strategies for creating dynamic images.