Eastern Sierra Fall Colors, Bodie Interior Access and Night Photography September 22-27, 2025

Eastern Sierra Fall Colors plus Bodie Interiors, Bodie Night Photography September 22-27, 2025

Five nights, September 22-27, 2025

Every once in a while we offer both Bodie sunrise/interior access session and a Bodie night photography session in one workshop. This time of year, we’ll have about 4.5 hours of dark sky shooting in one night session!

This workshop will start in Bishop spending two days/nights visiting numerous sites famous for fall color. Weather permitting, we’ll consider one afternoon/evening in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest for sunset. On the third day we’ll work our way up the Eastern Sierra to the Mono Basin / Tioga Pass area where the aspens in some locations we know will have color. We’ve discovered multiple locations which aren’t known to the public and offer incredible photography opportunities while avoiding the crowds.

We will spend one or two days on post processing techniques during the middle part of the day when light isn’t best photographically. The second post-processing day will depend on the desires of the group. Some folks like to just take pictures while others prefer in class instruction. Having two knowledgeable instructors, we may be able to do both.

Our fourth day will find us greeting our monitor at the Bodie gate at 6 am where we’ll receive our instructions and then be escorted into town where several buildings will be opened for us to go inside and photograph the historic artifacts. We will have access to the buildings until noon. You’ll have three hours to photograph golden hour until 9, when the park opens to visitors, but we’ll have exclusive interior access. We’ll wrap up and then grab lunch and head out for more fall color photography in less visited locations.

A portion of the proceeds of your fee goes to the Bodie Foundation to assist in their “arrested decay” program in preserving the park. We’ve raised over $150,000 in 80+ special access sessions to help with this effort over the past 12 seasons. We’re proud to support the preservation of our local historic park.

Please note that the bristlecones are at an elevations of 10,000-11,000 feet, and Bodie is at 8374 feet. (Consult your doctor if you have any concerns.)

Here are links to sample photos from Bodie interior access trips, the areas we’ll mainly be in for fall colors, and Bodie night access in September/October. See a sample itinerary below (we constantly adjust our plans to take advantage of the best weather and light).

What’s included:

Guiding by two local experts who know the sites & weather (we live here)
Photography instruction: subject, composition, settings, filters
Post-processing instruction: day, night, fall, special effects
6am-noon access to Bodie State Historic Park

What’s not included:

Lodging (Standard cancellation terms, not tied to workshop terms; lodging recommendations will be provided upon registration)
Group transportation (minimize illness risk)
Meals/snacks/beverages – We’ll use outdoor seating & take-out

Itinerary

To ensure you get the best pictures and to accommodate for any adverse weather, we keep the exact itinerary flexible. The following is an example of what to expect, though it may change slightly as necessary during the workshop.

September 26 – Meet (location TBD) after lodging check-in in Bishop. Grab a to-go dinner and head to the high country above Bishop. We’ll photograph sunset into blue hour and make our way back to Bishop late in the evening.
September 27 – We’ll meet for sunrise in the high country, then work our way to various locations to capture the beautiful, colorful aspen trees. After breakfast and a morning shoot, we’ll head back to town, grab lunch and a picnic dinner. We’ll consider a visit to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest or other nearby areas for dinner, golden hour and sunset. We’ll practice night photography somewhere appropriate for the seasonal position of the Milky Way.
September 28 – We’ll possibly photograph a nearby location, grab breakfast, check out of the hotel and start heading north. We’ll make numerous stops along the way (trying to avoid any locations over-run due to local tourism promotion that week). We like to have a post-processing session to review what we’ve captured, show how to quickly adjust the images, and discuss what’s next. After checking in to our lodging, we can grab dinner and head out for sunset. You’ll have the option for a self-directed practice sunset in Bodie , since their open hours will extend until 10pm on this night (our workshop there is on the following night). It’s fully dark by 8:05 pm, so we should be able to catch a few night images to practice for the following night.
September 29 – We’ll meet at the Bodie Gate at 6 am for our introduction/safety talk with our monitor (bring portable items for breakfast, there is no food service in Bodie). We’ll head into the historic town of Bodie for sunrise, golden hour and access to the interior of many of the buildings in town. We can photograph the interiors until noon, at which time we’ll break for lunch and either have a post processing class or take a break before re-convening at 4 pm for dinner so we can leave as a group at 5:30 to carpool and caravan up to our 6 pm evening and night session in Bodie. Aftyer over four hours of dark sky shooting time, we’ll return to the cars in time to be off State property by 1 am.
September 30 – You’ll get back to your lodging from our night session in Bodie around 1:30am, so sleep in, check out and enjoy a relaxed travel day. Or extend your stay if you like, in case you’ve visited some spots that you want to pursue a sunrise or sunset in. If you want to explore down the Eastern Sierra or pop over a pass to Yosemite Valley, Jeff’s guide book “Photographing California Vol. 2 – South” can suggest many locations to you.