Chasing the Milky Way 2021

Sedona, Monument Valley and Arches National Park

The Milky Way, Milky Way Panoramas, Star Trails, using all the best apps & more

6 days & 5 nights • June 12th – 17th • 2021

Includes hotels in Moab & Monument Valley, transportation, Navajo guide fees, entrance fees & breakfasts

Cost $2,550 Single Room Supplement $525

** Workshop full **

I will be leading a 6 day, 5 night intensive workshop on June 12th – June 17th, 2021 that will focus on capturing the Milky Way and night sky in the Southwest. This workshop will be geared toward the night sky every night in great locations and will also include classroom settings in two of the hotels.

We will be learning the best methods to pre-plan finding the Milky Way wherever you might want to travel to and where it will be each month in the night sky. We will also learn different methods to process your images and I will be showing good software to make your images more powerful. I love shooting after dark and this workshop will be all about the night sky!

** The workshop is open for people that have had vaccinations for the Corona Virus **

Email me to sign up!

I have designed the itinerary to include some powerful locations where the Milky Way and Star Trails will be in fantastic locations in the Southwest. June is one of the best times of the year for the Milky Way and also a great time to capture Milky Way panoramas.

Shooting and stitching Milky Way panoramas are one of my favorite ways to capture the Milky Way. I will go over purchasing the right equipment for this if you do not already own it and we will be in a few great locations to be able to do some stunning panoramas.

After dark in the Southwest

I will also be showing how to find the absolute best spots daytime and after dark, using Photo Pills, Google Earth and Stellarium. These apps are indespensible and make life a lot easier than it used to be many years ago. The itinerary will be filled with some of my favorite Southwest locations from Sedona to Monument Valley to Moab with a sunrise, some sunsets and a lot of after dark.

I have timed this workshop perfectly to be during the new moon, when no moon is present and also when there is some moonlight, to add light to our foregrounds. This is one of my favorite times to shoot after dark and we will also do a lot of light painting of our foregrounds and you will see what method you like best. We will photograph stars as points of light, star trails, painting with light, shooting with moonlight and other special techniques for photographing at night. This will be an incredibly special workshop for photographing day and night and you will walk away with many new shooting skills as we will experiment with tons of different methods!

A pretty cool itinerary

We will meet up in Sedona, Arizona where I live for a meet & greet on the first day and afterwards, we will be off for a sunset shoot. After a group dinner, it will be time to capture either a Milky Way or Milky Way panorama among the beautiful red rocks of Sedona. Being out after dark in Sedona is incredibly addicting & one of the main reasons I moved with my wife Holly to this spectacular location.

Early the next morning, we will load up into our 4 X 4 Ford Expeditions and will be off on our fun road trip with Monument Valley our next stop. We will stay at Gouldings Lodge, my favorite place to stay in Monument Valley and it will be time to relax for a bit in our cool little villas. We will next take off to capture one of the most iconic views in the southwest, the location where Forrest Gump stopped running in the movie.

Next, we will be off to photograph the infamous Mittens of Monument Valley at sunset and then it’s time for dinner at Gouldings Lodge. After dinner, we will meet our Navajo guide to four wheel into Monument Valley to try and capture the iconic Totem Pole & Yei Bi Chei with the Milky Way above.

This is a shot I finally captured last year and I can’t wait to share it with all of you. It is just incredible and if the weather goes our way, we should come back with some stunning shots. I will also be lightpainting the rippled sand along with foliage in the foreground and I have a blast doing this with my guide who is the best in the entire valley!

In this Workshop – We will cover

The next morning at sunrise, we will again meet our guide to take us back to the unique rock formations of Totem Pole & Yei Bi Chei to capture it at sunrise which is another exquisite time to shoot this iconic scene in Monument Valley. We will then drive to another photogenic spot or two for more photo ops and then it is off to breakfast at Gouldings Lodge.

After breakfast, we will meet in their meeting room for a 2-3 hour intensive class on the night sky. We will go over many techniques dealing with the night sky from the Milky Way to Star Trails, show tons of examples and also talk about using computer apps and cell phone apps. We will also go over stacking the Milky Way for sharper stars with less noise and also go over stacking star trails. Will be a great couple of hours to dive deep into some powerful night sky stuff!

We will have time to relax and download photos afterwards and be ready to shoot sunset again in a different location for the Mittens and after dinner, we will try and capture the elusive Milky Way panorama over the Mittens which I have never done but will be hoping to capture with all of you this trip!!

This could be super exciting if it works out and we will be there at the optimum time but as always, everything on this workshop depends on the weather cooperating! If time permits, we will also try and drive to El Capitan Rock and set up for star trails! This is an image I have always wanted to capture and weather permitting, this will be a fun one to try!

Moab & Arches are unreal

The following morning we will head off to the beautiful town of Moab and check into our hotel, the Best Western. We will head out after lunch in Moab for a not so easy hike to stunning Delicate Arch, which is the premier location in all of Arches National Park. The hike is about 1 and 1/2 miles each way with about a 450 foot elevation and is about an hour or so up to Delicate Arch.

This is a tough hike and I want to make sure everyone is ok with this kind of hike. After shooting it at sunset, we will hopefully be able to capture it after dark with the Milky Way as I did last year. It depends if other photographers want to capture it also but we can work with them as I did last year. We will use LED light panels and also Walkee Talkees as I will work on lighting Delicate Arch from a distance while the group lets me know how it is looking. We will also have some fun under the stars as this location is just amazing for all kinds of after dark photography!

We will sleep in the next morning, have breakfast and then have another post processing session in the meeting room of the Best Western hotel. Afterwards, we will all be off for lunch & then check out downtown Moab which is a super cool town! Later in the afternoon, we will bring a packed dinner and drinks and head out to a spectacular hike to one of my favorite locatiuons, Corona Arch. We will set up around sunset, have our dinner on the rocks and then be ready for the Milky Way over Corona Arch.

My wife Holly will model for us with and without a headlamp and we will try to capture some stunning images in this fantastic location! If time permits, we might also try and capture star trails over Corona Arch & then head out back to the hotel to get some sleep on our last night.

Car trails on Arches National Park in Moab

In this Workshop – We will cover

• How to scout out great night sky locations

• Stepping out of your comfort zone to create powerful & timeless images

• How to shoot the Milky Way & star trails with multiple exposures

• Lightpainting techniques and which gear works best

• Learn to use hyperfocal focusing & the right aperture for depth of field

• How to shoot Milky Way panoramas

• Exposure Blending & Luminosity Masking

• Photoshop techniques including HDR , panoramas & converting to black & white

• Individualized instruction

• Mastering your camera gear for after dark shooting

• Using the best computer and phone apps for the night sky including Photo Pills

• Learn how to shoot Star Trails any night of the year & also with tons of color

Time & Logistics

Workshop Time

The workshop begins at 3pm on Saturday, June 12th, 2021 and ends Thursday, June 17th, 2021 after we return to Sedona from Moab. We will try and have a farewell dinner on that last night somewhere in West Sedona

Getting There

We will have a meet & greet at my home in Sedona at 3pm on the first day of the workshop, Saturday, June 12th, where we will go over many aspects of the workshop that we will be covering, with many shooting tips and techniques covered. We will go over our locations and also who will ride in each vehicle.

We have three or four large SUV’s for this workshop but if anyone wants to drive their own vehicle during the workshop, please let me know as some people like to do this. We will have 3-4 people in each car with their luggage and camera gear throughout the entire workshop unless we have another car driving.

Cost

The cost for the workshop is $2,550 per person. The single room supplement to have your own room is $525.

We will eat as a group at restaurants for socializing, asking questions and continuing lecture discussions.

Workshop includes

Transportation in large SUV’s

Lodging in Monument Valley and Moab

Entrance fees & permits

Navajo Guide fees in Monument Valley for day & night shoots

All breakfasts

Photo instruction every day

Photoshop training twice in the meeting rooms.

Workshop does not include

Lunches, dinners & lodging in Sedona

Please email me here if you want to save a space for this workshop. This is going to be one super photogenic workshop with tons of photo ops in every location during the day but especially after dark!

Workshop Limit

The workshop is limited to 10-12 participants for now. We have had to add 2 more because of the Corona Virus.

Skill Level

This workshop is for the intermediate to advanced photographer who is comfortable with their equipment and has a good grasp of photographic principles and a basic understanding of their camera operations including using f/stops and shutter speed. Basic Photoshop is also recommended but not required as we will be covering many ways to help your images look their best with some easy tips and techniques.

** Two of the hikes in Moab will be strenuous, especially the hike to Delicate Arch. It is quite a ways in and steep for most of the hike. You need to be fit, in shape and don’t mind a tough hike. The payoff is definitely worth it!