Death Valley Spring and Night Photography

Death Valley Spring and Milky Way

March 2-7, 2025

We’ll explore Death Valley’s sand dunes, salt flats, eroded badlands, and spectacular vistas. It also has sites with a rich history of mining, and rustic cabins and head frames remain. We like the early March timing to shoot the Park, before the worst of the oncoming heat starts to arrive in mid to late March. We also timed this to be close to the new moon date, so we will be able to shoot the Milky Way in this “International Dark Sky Park” as well! While a “super bloom” is rare, we usually find a few decent patches of wildflowers. The timing peaked in late February into early March in 2016, so we could have great timing if 2025 is another healthy bloom year.

We watch where rains pass in the fall and where plants are growing on our visits in December and January, so we know where to look when we return in early March. We scouted in November 2023 and held workshops in December 2023, January, Februrary, March and April 2024, and we enjoyed wildflowers on all of those visits.

What’s included:

Guiding to subjects & light, based on our 60+ trips exploring the Park
Optimized itinerary based on experience, weather apps & conditions
Photography instruction, composition consultation (if desired)
Post-processing instruction

What’s not included:

Lodging (lodging recommendations will be provided upon registration)
Transportation
Meals/snacks/beverages
Entrance fee to the park
Group lodging terms (high price, poor cancellation terms, etc.)

Sample Itinerary
To ensure you get the best pictures and to accommodate for weather, we keep the itinerary open and flexible: we have an idea of which opportunities are available and what’s left on our priority list, but conditions and weather influence what’s next. This is an example of what to expect, though it may change as necessary during the workshop. We change lodging once to cover more ground while having less time driving, more time shooting, while getting more sleep before our sunrise shoots!

Day 1 — Travel. Meet in the afternoon in Stovepipe Wells after everyone has checked in to their hotel. We’ll photograph sunset, possibly blue hour, then head in for dinner. We may opt to go out and get a few night shots before retiring to our hotel rooms for the evening.
Days 2 — We’ll meet for an optimal sunrise near Stovepipe Wells, and make a few photography stops on our way to breakfast. We’ll grab a quick bite and then head back out for more photography, particularly in the directions west and north while it’s most convenient. We’ll break for lunch and dinner as needed, perhaps get a meal to go so or in Beatty or Panamint Springs, we can shoot away in more interesting places, away from the crowds. Nights we can practice night photography or conduct post-processing demos. On some of the clearest mornings we’ll go out for Milky Way photography.
Days 3 — Similar, but moving to the Furnace Creek area for recommended lodging so we can have shorter drives to points south.
Days 4, 5 – Similar optimal sunrise at a predetermined place based on weather and sunrise forecasts, we may make a few photography stops on our way to breakfast. We’ll grab a quick bite and then head back out for more photography. We’ll break for lunch and dinner as needed, sometimes take one to go so we can shoot away from the crowds. On some of the clearest mornings we’ll go out for Milky Way photography.
Day 6 – meet for sunrise, have a farewell breakfast, and head back to our hotels to check out and make our way homeward.
If you have the time, our 320-page photographers’ guidebook “Photographing California Vol. 2 – South” can give you more locations to shoot on your trip, in Death Valley or the southern Eastern Sierra.