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 4×4 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.

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) 4×4 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 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.

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.