Death Valley National Park
Capture the spectacular textures and patterns of mosaic canyons, salt flats, and sand dunes with our full immersion landscape photography workshops Death Valley National Park in California
Death Valley National Park is the largest national park in the United States and one of the most interesting places on the planet to visit and photograph. Featuring the lowest, driest, and hottest locations in North America, the park is surrounded by mountains that rise to over 11,000 feet. Yet most photography workshops barely scratch the surface of what this amazing park has to offer.
We’ll use our 4x4 vehicles to trek to three of the most remote and spectacular areas of the park that seldom get seen: the Racetrack Playa – the only place in the world where the “sailing stones” are found, the Eureka Sand Dunes – the tallest dunes in California and possibly North America, and the Ubehehe Crater – a half-mile wide volcanic crater located in the northern half of Death Valley. We’ll photograph these truly unique locations at sunrise and sunset as the light creates stunning landscapes and abstracts.
Furnace Creek is the center of some of the most iconic scenery in Death Valley, and we’ll photograph Zabriskie Point and Golden Canyon, the Mesquite Sand Dunes, Dante’s View, Badwater Salt Flats, Devil’s Golf Course, and much more. In the intense heat and harsh light of the day, the desert can appear colorless and lifeless. But during the sunrise and twilight hours of the day, the rich textures and patterns of the canyons, dry washes, and sand dunes come alive in the golden light.
5 Night Stay / 4.5 Training Days
Dates: April 2-7, 2019
Basecamp: Ranch at Death Valley
Class Size: 3 to 6 Students
Tuition: $2,695
What to Expect
- 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 full immersion landscape photography workshop is going to be all about photography. Your photography. Our workshops include a unique blend of (1) capture time in the field, (2) guided hikes, (3) 4x4 travel to remote locations, and (4) class time for post-production instruction.
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 with breakfast in the field in order to maximize our shooting time. We’ll often continue until mid-to-late morning before heading back to Basecamp.
Back at Basecamp, we’ll have time for off-loading memory cards, classroom lectures & instruction , working on our images, one-on-one guidance, or 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.
More important than just getting you to some of the best and most remote areas of the park at the best times of the day, this five-day photo expedition will challenge you to take your photography to the next level and to develop your own photographic voice.
In the Field:
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.
In the Classroom:
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.
Tuition & Payment Terms
What’s Included in Your Tuition:
- Group rate on your lodging
- Field meals and snacks
- All ground transportation during the workshop
- Workshop course materials
- In-the-field photographic training
- Post-production classes
What’s Not Included in Your Tuition:
- Transportation to/from the Basecamp
- Lodging
- Meals
- 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.
Reserve Your Workshop Today
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 Needed
- 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 an intermediate telephoto of 70-200mm
- Flash units (optional)
- Filters – polarizers and neutral density (optional)
- Remote Switch/Controller (optional)
- External drives/storage as necessary
