Death Valley National Park Workshop

Death Valley National Park

LENGTH: 4 days (April 20, 2012 - April 23, 2012)      MAX. STUDENTS: 10      COST: $1099.00

Your instructors on this workshop will be Aaron Bieber and Christopher Blake. Read about them here.

“Zabriskie Point, Dawn” by A. Bieber

The simplest way to see things differently is to see different things. Traveling to a place like Death Valley National Park forces you to look at your surroundings in a new way. When you are faced with the seemingly endless salt flats of Badwater or the incredible Eureka sand dunes, you have to think outside of the box to build your compositions, which is the road to inspiration and creative vision.

As weather and circumstance permit, we will be visiting some of these great locations during our five-day stay in Death Valley:

• Badwater
• Artist’s Palette
• Dante’s View
• Stovepipe Well Dunes
• Eureka Dunes
• Golden Canyon
• Devil’s Golf Course
• and more!

Register now!

This workshop coincides with a new moon, which will allow us to make incredible night photographs with star trails and light painting. If you’ve never done anything like that before, this is a great opportunity.

Who should attend this workshop?

This workshop is open to photographers of all skill levels. There is no heavy hiking involved; we will be doing some walking on paved roads as well as trails, but this is by no means a wilderness trek. To get the most out of this workshop you should be able to walk for about a mile along easy terrain and expect to arise before dawn and stay out into the night each day.

There is no specific equipment requirement for this workshop; anyone with a camera is welcome, although you may find yourself limited without at least an entry-level SLR camera, either film or digital.

“Long Way to Nowhere” by A. Bieber

Itinerary

Each day of the workshop will be broken up into three sessions, described here:

Session 1 – Dawn

We’ll meet in an agreed upon location and set out to photograph dawn, then return to the inn for breakfast.

Session 2 – Late morning

We will set aside time in the late morning to have a group discussion and critique. Anyone who is shooting digital and has a laptop may use this time to share their work with the group.

There are a few locations that can be effective during morning and afternoon sun, such as Golden Canyon, so we may opt to explore one of those locations together during the day. If you wish to explore on your own, you are welcome to.

Session 3 – Sunset

We will travel to our chosen location to photograph sunset. After night falls, we will commence night photography sessions. It is not unusual for the ambitious in the group to photograph well into the night.

Note: Some of you may not want to join us for the next sunrise session. You can meet us at breakfast, normally around 9-9:30 AM.

Though we will be photographing locations as a group, each will offer the opportunity to spread out across a large area. Two-way radios work out very well for us, so we’re going to give you one. It’s an effective method for the group to communicate across distances of a mile or more, and we’ll also use the radios to communicate between vehicles while traveling to each location.

Important Notes

The weather in Death Valley can go from very warm to very cold. You should pack accordingly, keeping in mind that in windy conditions before dawn and after the sun goes down it can feel very cold.