We’ll spend four nights shooting foreground subjects under stunning dark sky shooting conditions in the Eastern Sierra. First we’ll have two nights practicing night photography at the iconic Mono Lake South Tufa site and up in the Yosemite’s Tioga Pass area. Weather and photographic opportunities will influence our daily itineraries. For another two days we’ll have two post processing sessions before we head to Bodie and have the park to ourselves from 6 pm to 1 am. Having two nights in Bodie will give us time to shoot more subjects and (in June) more Milky Way arch panoramas, as well as star trails for those interested. In August the Milky Way is too high for arch panoramas, but there’s an extra hour of darkness per night, for 2+ extra hours total night shooting hours in Bodie. The daylight hours for the two days in Mono Lake and Tioga Pass will offer landscape photography, with favorable timing for wildflowers in the area. You will have two trip leaders, each with 60+ nights experience shooting and leading groups in Bodie.
In recent years we have updated our lighting, our exposure technique, and our post-processing techniques. We’ll have two practice nights with interesting subjects in the area before our two Bodie night, and we’ll pursue some daytime landscapes and sunsets as well, as well as schedule a post-processing session or two.
Originally a gold boom town in Mono County, CA during the late nineteenth-century, Bodie is now a historic ghost town. A popular tourist destination, we’ll have the park to ourselves during the evening and night sessions.
June can offer scattered rain showers during the afternoon, a colorful sunset and potentially rainbows as the storms clears, followed by clear skies for rising Milky Way photography under a dark night sky. August offers an extra hour of dark sky shooting per night. The tradeoff is that it has a more upright Milky Way position, so Milky Way arch panoramas are not practical).
We prefer for our night photography groups to be limited to about 8 participants. A portion of the proceeds of your fee goes to the Bodie Foundation to assist in their “arrested decay” program in preserving the park.
Please note that Bodie is at an elevation of 8374 feet. Consult your doctor if you have any concerns about being at altitude for a few hours on a few nights.
Sample 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.
What’s included:
What’s not included:
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