Workshops

Another Year, Another Journey: Announcing Our 10th Season of Workshops

Wow.

It’s hard to believe that we have been leading photography workshops and tours under the stars for 10 years. It seems like only yesterday that we were sharing our first workshops with you in Acadia, Arches, Crater Lake, Death Valley and Zion.

A decade under dark skies, moonlit landscapes, urban nights, far off lands and celestial events.

Thank you.

Thank you for helping us reach this major milestone.

Ten years for an education business with a very humble beginning and big dreams that each year come true, thanks to you. In return, we pride ourselves on the experiences that we can offer to you in this ever-growing astro-tourism world.

New Workshops

In celebrating Season 10, we are offering 25 workshops. We are returning to some of our “Greatest Hits”—the Eastern Sierra and Bodie ghost town, Sloss Furnaces, Sleepy Hollow, historic Charleston, and the urban decay of Rust & Ruinsim. Keep giving us feedback on your favorite places we’ve gone together, and we’ll make sure to return.

We are also finally checking off a few locations we haven’t been to before but that have been highly requested: the otherworldly landscapes of the Bisti Badlands and classic western landscapes of Monument Valley. Keep sharing where you want to go with us and we’ll do our best to take you there!

Charleston. © Tim Cooper.

Lofoten Islands. © Matt Hill.

Many of us have experienced the solar maximum auroras that have been stretching as far south as Texas. While it is difficult for us to plan a workshop in the continental U.S. with a promise of auroras, we are going back to two of our favorite northern light locations that have epic landscapes to mingle with the frequent dancing green lights: Lofoten Islands and the north coast of Iceland.

Are you hooked on eclipses like we are? We have two options for you to take in the eclipse of 2026: glamp in Hornstrandir Nature Reserve in the remote northwest corner of Iceland, or chase totality, lighthouses and coastline through northern Spain.

Want to add more snowy scenes to your portfolio? We are offering two domestic workshops dedicated to capturing those winter vibes, whether it be the snow-peaked mountains, waterfalls and valleys of Yosemite, or chasing the biggest meteor shower of the year through the epic landscapes of Monument Valley.

Looking to level up specific photographic skills? Season 10 has us offering four unique workshops dedicated to planning, panos, processing, and black and white in some pretty inspirational places, such as Big Bend, Badlands, Chicago and Savannah.

Big Bend. © Chris Nicholson.

Haleakala. © Lance Keimig.

Then there is the thing we love the best, having you stamp your passport to new national parks. This year we will be taking the windy roads to the peak and coastline of Haleakala, the classic landscapes of Grand Teton, the unheralded dark skies and fall foliage of Guadalupe Mountains, the snow-globed Yosemite and the park our alumni voted on revisiting, North Cascades.

We look forward to sharing, celebrating and seizing so many more nights with you soon!

A Few Notes

Before we get into the specifics of the workshops, we’d like to share a few ideas.

How are Some Already Sold Out?

As a special thank you to those who attend our workshops, who sign up for our waitlist and who subscribe to our email list, every year we announce our itinerary to those three groups before “going public.”

This year, as usual, our community has committed very strongly to many of the workshops. (Our gratitude is infinite.) Because of that, 13 of our new workshops and tours sold out during the past week. Additionally, three tours were announced last year and sold out some time ago.

Still, as of press time, 11 of our Season 10 workshops and tours have seats left, so it’s easy to join us in amazing places such as Charleston, Iceland, Haleakala and more!

If you really want to go to one of those other places with us …

We Can’t say it Enough: Use the Waitlist

Openings happen for almost every workshop, and those spots always get offered to the waitlist first. If you see something you really want to attend and there are no tickets now, we urge you to sign up for the waitlist today.

Iceland North Coast. © Chris Nicholson.

Seize the Night in Season 10

As we get ready to commence our ninth fall, we’re looking forward to a winter break from travel, followed by an epic Season 10 full of adventures and stars.

Where will you be joining us? Wherever the destination, we look forward to seizing the night with you soon.

Gabriel Biderman is a partner and workshop leader with National Parks at Night. He is a Brooklyn-based fine art and travel photographer, and author of Night Photography: From Snapshots to Great Shots (Peachpit, 2014). During the daytime hours you'll often find Gabe at one of many photo events around the world working for B&H Photo’s road marketing team. See his portfolio and workshop lineup at www.ruinism.com.

UPCOMING WORKSHOPS FROM NATIONAL PARKS AT NIGHT

We're Going Live! Announcing 4 Online Courses for 2024

We all love being in the field to shoot, but we all also know that opening the shutter is only half the task of creating a great photograph. The other half is processing.

To help with that second half, National Parks at Night periodically offers online post-processing workshops, and today we’re excited to announce the next rounds of those. Moreover, not only are we announcing new sessions for two popular courses we’ve run in the past, but we’re also launching two brand new courses!

The two returning courses are Lightroom Live and Photoshop Live, both of which lead attendees through the basics of mastering these two incredible tools of the digital darkroom. The two new courses take things a few steps further, with Black and White Live and Processing Night Panoramas Live teaching attendees how to master the ins and outs of these specialty areas.

We’ll be hosting all four of these online courses this spring. Each will take place on weekday evenings, two evenings per week, for two weeks—for a total of eight hours of group education over four nights. We also limit each course to 12 attendees, to ensure time for individual attention to questions and answers. Along the same lines, after the course each attendee will be offered a half hour of one-on-one time with an instructor of their choice.

For more information about each of these online workshops, continue reading below. (And in each section, check out our free tip!)

Black and White Live

Black and white imagery has always had an aura of timelessness, drama and sophistication. Using this scheme at night is no different. Since photographers shooting in monochrome cannot lean on color to provide information in any given scene, we are forced to concentrate on other building blocks to evoke emotion, to tell a story or to capture the drama. This four-night online workshop will guide you on the journey through all of that and more.

This course will teach many aspects of the digital black and white process, from tips on capturing the best raw materials in the field to processing with what we consider the best software for the job, Silver Efex Pro.

You’ll also learn what creates a great black and white image, how to understand and control tonal contrast, how to apply local enhancements to create glowing images, and more.

Black and White Tip from Lance

If you’re setting out to create black and white images, learn to see that way in the field. Your camera can help you, as if you set it properly, then it can preview your images in black and white right on the LCD. In the camera settings, change Picture Style (Canon), Picture Control (Nikon) or Creative Style (Sony) to Monochrome or Black and White. This will help you avoid passing up photographing a scene because it lacks interesting color. One example of this would be an urban night scene illuminated exclusively by sodium vapor lights. In color, those scenes are usually quite unappealing, but they often look great as black and white.

Processing Night Panoramas Live

Stitching panoramas can be challenging enough with daytime photographs—the complexity increases even more for images captured at night. If you’ve ever struggled with stitching panorama panels, this is the course for you. We will teach how to process simple and complex night panos in Adobe Lightroom Classic, Photoshop and, most importantly, in PTGUI Pro.

In this online workshop you’ll learn not just how to stitch basic panoramas, but also how to blend twilight and star-point panos in Photohsop and PTGui, how to stitch vertoramas with both star-point and star-trail toppers, how to understand and choose different projections, how to create “tiny planet” photos, and more. The course will also feature a full demonstration of the best stitching software out there, PTGui Pro, with a focus on how to use it for night panos.

Pano Processing Tip from Matt

When stitching a vertorama in PTGUI Pro, be sure to choose among the transverse projection variants. Then click and drag to place the true horizon on the center horizontal line. (If the horizon is behind a landform, align with that instead of the skyline.) Chances are the final result will look just like you envisioned … perhaps better!

Lightroom Live

For 99.9 percent of the photography world, the process of post-production starts with Lightroom. Yet so many photographers feel that they don’t fully understand the software, let alone know enough to wield its full potential.

With a strict focus on the Library and Develop modules, in this online course you'll learn how to add keywords, create collections, globally adjust your images and fine-tune your masterpiece with local adjustment tools.

And as a bonus, you’ll get our video Lightroom: Correcting Your Catalog Chaos.

Lightroom Tip from Gabe

Most of our night skies have atmospheric haze, especially from the horizon to 20 degrees above, which is where the core of the Milky Way tends to reside most of the year. Lightroom’s Dehaze slider was built to cut through haze and provide more separation in the lower-contrast areas of the scene—but it also works wonders on dark night skies! A little Dehaze can go a long way in making your stars and the Milky Way pop. Watch out though, because Dehaze also increases saturation and can make your skies too purple or blue, so be ready for a potential color adjustment afterward.

Photoshop Live

Photoshop is a challenging program to learn on your own. And it’s also massive. But don’t worry—as a night photographer, you don’t need to learn every tool, setting and checkbox in order to harness the program’s power. Having a good foundation of the program and some basic knowledge of key features (as well as intricate knowledge of some subtle features) will help you develop the skills necessary to create advanced night photography composites and finely crafted images.

Our areas of focus will be understanding the architecture of Photoshop, strategies and best practices for using layers, mastering advanced local adjustments, masking, and much more!

Photoshop Tip from Chris

Photoshop has lots of selection tools. Magic Wand. Quick Selection. Object Selection. There’s a tool for selecting the sky, or a subject, or a focus range, or a color range. Which is best? All of them! Each of the selection tools has their pros and cons, and situations where they outperform their counterparts. Therefore, learn how to use each of these tools and practice with them all. You’ll learn the situations that each excels in, and then you’ll always know which to use in different scenarios.

Come Learn With Us Online

Wherever your next passion for learning lies, we hope that one of these online courses can help. For more info on each, click here:

We look forward to seeing you there!

Chris Nicholson is a partner and director of content with National Parks at Night, and author of Photographing National Parks (Sidelight Books, 2015) and Photographing Lighthouses (Sidelight Books, 2024). Learn more about national parks as photography destinations, subscribe to Chris' free e-newsletter, and more at www.PhotographingNationalParks.com.

UPCOMING WORKSHOPS FROM NATIONAL PARKS AT NIGHT

Seize the Night in Season 9: Announcing Our New Workshops and Tours

Wow, can you believe it’s our ninth season of night photography adventure workshops and photo tours? It’s unfathomable how far we all have come (though we have a long way yet to go). Thank you so very much for supporting us all of these years, and we hope to see you very soon someplace awesome.

Here is a big lineup of 26 adventures and learning opportunities crafted to help you go places and be more of the night photographer you dream of becoming.

Eighteen destinations are domestic and eight are international. Yet two of the domestic destinations are outside the lower 48 states.

This year we visit five new national parks and return again to for national parks with new programming.

And whether it was by design or coincidence, we will soon be traveling to many, many islands: Bannerman, Easter, Faroe, Hawaii, Iceland, Ireland, Lofoten, Martha’s Vineyard, Monhegan and Puerto Rico.

If you’re new, or relatively new, to all of this, you might be interested in a special workshop we’re offering for only the second time next year: Our Intro to Night Photography course, this time to be held in Saguaro National Park. This workshop is for beginners to night photography. We take you step by step from exposure to focus and beyond, to get you started with seizing the night.

And one new kind of event is being offered: a night photography retreat in the Catskills that blends mindfulness, motion and creativity. Plus an all-new Rust and Ruinism tour that embraces the natural decay of human-made structure and infrastructure. We are also offering other level-up opportunities such as our Post Processing Intensive in Miami, a winter Panorama Intensive in Arches National Park and an alternate look on Death Valley.

So get ready to board planes, boats and automobiles for nocturnal adventures during 2024 and 2025.

The Workshops

Below you can read a little bit about each of the workshops we’ll be running in our ninth season. Click on the photos or the links to read even more.

If you’d like to see a lineup of all the workshops we have scheduled for 2024-25, including updates on how many tickets are available in each, see our Season 9 Workshops page:

Passport Series

These are our signature event workshops, which we hold in national parks. We teach every day, either in the classroom or on field trips, and we shoot every night in beautiful and inspiring places.

In 2024 we’ll be visiting some amazing and unique parks, including one far off the mainland, and an obscure one deep in the mountains.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

Deep, narrow and dark adorned by a crown of stars.

This workshop brings you to breathtaking views of a narrow canyon with dark, steep walls—so steep that sunlight and moonlight barely visit its bottom. We will explore its South Rim under a crescent and first-quarter moon, photographing sheer rock face culminating in the distant rush of water below.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison — June 8-13, 2024

Crater Lake National Park

An ancient volcano filled with the most pristine blue water and dark skies erupting with endless stars.

The winner of the National Parks at Night alumni "return to this park" vote! We will traverse the caldera of this extinct mountaintop volcano, focusing on the expansive Milky Way-topped vistas and massive star trails over the deepest lake in the U.S. Crater Lake is home to world-class dark skies and otherworldly landscapes.

Crater Lake National Park — July 7-10, 2024

Gateway Arch National Park and Northern Route 66

Road trip! Exploring the night at Gateway Arch National Park, the north end of Route 66, and beyond.

Route 66 is known as “The Mother Road” and was the shortest year-round route between the Midwest and the Pacific Coast when it was established in 1926. It stretched 2,448 miles, and was the first fully paved highway in the U.S. This road trip photography tour will cover the northern section of this amazing drive, traveling the entire Illinois section and much of the Missouri section, including the star of the show, Gateway Arch National Park.

Gateway Arch National Park and Northern Route 66 — October 18-23, 2024

Great Basin National Park

Bristlecone pines, mysterious subterranean passages and some of the darkest skies in the United States.

Great Basin lies just off the loneliest road in America. You don’t arrive here by mistake. Want to walk among the 4,000-year-old bristlecone trees that are just a few hundred feet from a spectacular glacier, or around alpine lakes reflecting the snowy mountaintops and the Milky Way? Great Basin reveals its true beauty among its many trails, and we’ll be hiking to experience it.

Great Basin National Park — August 8-14, 2024

Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park

A national park on the island of Hawaii. Luxurious adventure in paradise.

The Big Island of Hawaii is simply amazing. Rainforests meet lava flows and the night sky blends into the endless ocean. From sea level to 13,678 feet, this island park has a stunning array of landscapes and ecosystems.

Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park — June 6-12, 2024

Hot Springs National Park & the Solar Eclipse

Journey through The Natural State for the 2024 Great American Eclipse.

There is nothing like witnessing (and photographing) a total solar eclipse. The temperature suddenly cools, your skin tingles, and the entire world stands still and collectively holds its breath. It’s surreal and spectacular. We’ll be deep in the zone of totality at Hot Springs National Park, where the eclipse is predicted to last for 3 minutes, 39 seconds. Prior to that we’ll visit the dark sky park of Buffalo National River and get a better understanding of why Arkansas definitely lives up to its nickname “The Natural State.”

Hot Springs National Park & the Solar Eclipse — April 2-9, 2024

Yellowstone National Park North

The world’s first national park. Clear skies, mountains, canyons, geysers and wildlife—this park has it all.

Yellowstone has pretty much everything a nature photographer could want to shoot, and we're going after it all! Explore the northern half of this epic park, where mountains reach high and valleys bottom out to beautiful rivers that meander through grasslands. We'll also explore waterfalls, geysers, hot springs, vast landscapes and more, under tantalizing Wyoming night skies.

Yellowstone National Park North — September 2-7, 2024

Adventure Series

The U.S. has other amazing places to shoot at night outside of national parks, and we like visiting those too. National monuments, national forests, scenic byways, urban ruins and more.

Our upcoming Adventures include a lighthouses workshop on an Atlantic island, a winter week dedicated to panoramas and a black-and-white adventure in the Deep South.

Arches: Panorama Intensive

Master panoramas in winter at Arches National Park.

Join us for a masterclass in panorama photography—during the night and daytime, combining big sky, high desert, natural stone and earth formations to form unforgettable images. This is a small class size with big results for those who aspire to master this craft inside and out.

Arches: Panorama Intensive — February 16-21, 2024

Bannerman Island

Spend an overnight photographing a historic castle in the middle of the Hudson River.

Just 1.5 hours north of New York City rests one of the most impressive ruins in New York state: Bannerman Castle. Built at the turn of the 20th century, it served as an armory, warehouse and mystery to those passing along the Hudson River. This is a rare opportunity to spend the night on an inspirational island and create epic night photos of the castle until the dawn breaks the evening sky.

Bannerman Island — June 15-16, 2024

Catskill Night Photography Retreat

Align your inner and outer stars on creativity.

Combine the craft of night photography with mindfulness and physical motion for a relaxing, invigorating creative reset. Join us for a unique experience: a night photography retreat in the beautiful Hudson Valley of New York and the Catskill Mountains.

Catskill Night Photography Retreat — October 25-27, 2024

Death Valley Alternate Tracks

Jump into a Jeep and explore the lesser-visited gems of this incredible landscape, from ghost towns to canyons to sand dunes and more.

Death Valley is the largest national park in the continental U.S., yet most photography workshops tend to visit the same spots again and again. The park has a lot more to see, and this workshop is going to see it. We'll be avoiding the usual hotspots in favor of driving to and photographing other amazing sights around the park, from a volcanic crater to a Joshua tree forest to an old salt mine and more. Even (believe it or not) a desert waterfall!

Death Valley Alternate Tracks — December 2-7, 2024

Intro to Night Photography: Saguaro

Learn the fundamentals of night photography in one of the most fun national parks for practicing the craft.

You’ve almost certainly seen night photos on Instagram. Photos of beautiful points of stars, a stunning Milky Way, light-painted cactuses with their arms stretched to the sky. If you’ve dreamed of making photos like these, but you’ve never tried, or you’ve tried and failed, then we’re here to help. Join us in Saguaro National Park, the national park jewel of the Sonoran Desert, for five nights of learning how to shoot in the dark.

Intro to Night Photography: Saguaro — October 18-23, 2024

Lighthouses of Martha’s Vineyard

Immerse yourself in a location where lighthouses, sunsets and stars are the everyday and everynight life!

We'll start in western Cape Cod, with 2 nights of private access to a privately owned lighthouse, then we'll ferry over to Martha's Vineyard to embrace island life with bright blue skies, plenty of sandy beaches, the smell of fresh seafood and of course more lighthouses to photograph! For an additional 4 days and nights, we'll explore the island and photograph four of its iconic and historic beacons.

Lighthouses of Martha’s Vineyard — April 28-May 4, 2024

Monhegan Island

The fishing vessels. The hilltop lighthouse. The clapboard cottages. The spectacular dark skies. All 10 miles from shore on the quaint Monhegan Island.

National Parks at Night returns to Monhegan for a full five-night workshop on one of our favorite islands. Monhegan is a place that people go back to over and over again. It’s hard to stay away for long. We’ll explore this peaceful oasis entirely on foot, covering subjects such as the local lighthouse, the village, the waterfront cliffs and a nearly century-old shipwreck.

Monhegan Island — August 30-September 4, 2025

Puerto Rico

Discover the beauty and tranquility of the island of Puerto Rico, even more dazzling under pristine Caribbean skies.

From the bustling urban streets of San Juan to the serene coastal landscapes, you’ll capture the island’s diverse beauty under the moon and stars. Iconic lighthouses along the coast, bioluminescent bays aglow in the night, diverse nature preserves and the remnants of former plantations offer a rich canvas for your nocturnal photographic explorations. Days will be spent experiencing the vibrant culture and one-of-a-kind mix of West African, Caribbean, Spanish and mainland American cuisine.

Puerto Rico — March 17-25, 2024

Rust and Ruinism

Past, present and the beauty of decay. Peel back the past as we explore bygone American relics of the Midwest.

Rust and ruinism find their allure in the beauty of decay. From the period architecture of the Mansfield Penitentiary and the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum to the arrested deterioration of the mighty Carrie Furnaces, we’ll photograph some of the best urban decay in Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

Rust and Ruinism — June 23-28, 2024

Savannah in Black and White

One of the most charming, historic and photogenic cities in the U.S., glorious in black and white.

Founded in 1733, Savannah is one of America’s oldest cities and is steeped in history. From its Civil War forts and antebellum architecture to its cobblestone streets and city squares, this jewel of the south is a photographer's playground.

Savannah in Black and White — November 10-15, 2024

Voyager Series

As much as the U.S. is beautiful and dynamic, so is the rest of the world. We’re always on the lookout for beautiful landscapes and fascinating cultures to immerse ourselves in, especially in the dark. Over the next two years (we plan these trips a little further out), we’ll be heading to overseas destinations that range from northern European islands to northern Africa and more.

Denmark

Long days and pleasant twilights in Denmark’s cities and coastlines.

Twelve days and 11 nights of great experiences and more in a big adventure in a small Scandinavian country. We’ll spend time in small villages and along the beaches, and we’ll explore the long summer twilights with the country’s varied and iconic lighthouses. From city to country, shoreline to shoreline, you’ll see and eat your way through the world’s oldest monarchy.

Denmark — July 7-18, 2024

Easter Island

Be among the privileged few who get to hang with the moai under the stars.

Few places on earth are as mysterious or compelling as Easter Island. The giant stone figures known as moai oversee this remote island 2,200 miles off the coast of Chile. Most of Rapa Nui, as it’s known to the locals, is a national park. Not only is it hard to get to Easter Island, it is notoriously difficult to access the park after the sun goes down. But we will be taking a lucky group of fellow night photographers on this rare opportunity of spending an unforgettable week with the moai.

Easter Island — February 10-17, 2025

Faroe Islands

Explore and photograph the mystical Faroe Islands, in the dreamy North Atlantic waters of Scandanavia.

The Faroe Islands offer some of the most dramatic landscapes in the northern hemisphere. Faroe is an archipelago of 18 windswept islands between the Shetlands, Iceland and Norway. Mostly long and narrow, the islands rise steeply from the sea, with villages along the coastline wherever there is safe harbor. Many of the islands are connected by undersea tunnels, and villages on opposite ends of individual islands are connected by tunnels through the mountains.

Faroe Islands — May 11-20, 2024

Ireland: County Mayo

Explore the best of the west of Ireland on this 8-night tour of County Mayo.

This tour is based in Westport and Ballina, two charming towns of County Mayo, the gem of Ireland's west coast. From there we’ll make daily excursions to far-flung places such as Achill Island in the north and the edge of Connemara in County Galway to the south. Ruined abbeys, the castles of Mayo’s legendary Pirate Queen Grace O’Malley, and deserted-village timescapes all await.

Ireland: County Mayo — April 15-23, 2024

Lofoten Islands

The Lofoten Islands, a majestic mountain archipelago of dramatic landscapes, unspoiled beaches and winter wonderland.

Our favorite location to experience the auroras, which have been climbing to a solar maximum over the last few years. This will be a winter workshop focused on photographing the rugged snow-covered mountain islands, northern lights, pristine fisherman huts, and the untouched beauty of this remote and breathtaking region of the world. March is a perfect time to visit Lofoten—the milder winter temperatures make the overall experience ideal for catching the auroras over a snow-globe winterscape.

Lofoten Islands — March 12-20, 2024

Morocco

Morocco’s mysteries will be revealed in this immersive 2-week exploration of the palaces, gardens, mountains, coastline and desert.

Majestic Morocco. Colorful spice markets, ancient earthen kasbahs and medinas, and a city painted blue are just a few of the mesmerizing locations we’ll explore. From the hustle and bustle of the markets to the starry skies of the Sahara and on to the Strait of Gibraltar, our trip will leave you with incredible memories (and photographs) of the people, places and food that have made Morocco such an exotic destination for so many years.

Morocco — November 10-24, 2025

Iceland: Westfjords

Puffins, herring factories and blueberries, oh my!

The northwest corner of Iceland is a dazzling and deeply indented coastline featuring about 30 fjords, each with different surprises awaiting discovery. We’ll visit the best place in Iceland to see puffins, spend 3 nights in a hotel that once housed herring workers, photograph waterfalls, swim in a geothermal swimming pool and wander some of the most magnificent landscapes you’ll ever see.

Iceland: Westfjords — September 7-13, 2024

Iceland: Westfjords Camping

Arctic foxes, waterfalls and auroras—oh my!

Immerse yourself even more fully into the remotest part of the remotest part of Iceland: the Hornstrandir Nature Reserve. We’ll camp in style during a fully catered experience in this sub-arctic wilderness. Days will be spent observing and photographing arctic foxes, as well as hiking through the valleys and up into the hills along the ubiquitous cascading waterfalls. There will be a night in Reykjavik with a welcome dinner, and a night on either end of the camping experience in Isafjordur, the largest town in the Westfjords.

Iceland: Westfjords Camping — August 31-September 7, 2024

Skills Series

All of the aforementioned workshops and tours focus a lot on exploration. Our Skills Series events focus on learning something specific—still in an inspiring place, but we focus on a precise skill set. Next year in this category we’ll be teaching post-production on the beautiful shores of Miami.

Post-Processing Intensive: Miami

Master photography post-production with a week on the South Florida coast.

You’ve spent a lot of time building your camera skills and honing your photographic vision. Now it’s time to take it to the next level. Over 6 days in the heart of sunny Miami, we'll teach all the skills needed to use modern technology to finish our photos, and even to create images that were impossible only a few short years ago.

Post-Processing Intensive: Miami — November 11-16, 2024

A Few Notes

Before we get into the specifics of the workshops, we’d like to share a few ideas.

How are Some Already Sold Out?

As a special thank you to those who attend our workshops, who sign up for our waitlist and who subscribe to our email list, every year we announce our itinerary to those three groups before “going public.”

This year, as usual, our community has committed very strongly to many of the workshops. (Our gratitude is infinite.) Because of that, nine of our new workshops and tours sold out during the past week. Additionally, two other events were announced last year and sold out some time ago.

Still, as of press time, 15 of our Season 9 workshops and tours still have seats left, so it’s easy to join us in amazing places such as Gateway National Park and Northern Route 66, Morocco, the Faroe Islands, and more!

If you really want to go to one of those other places with us …

We Can’t say it Enough: Use the Waitlist

Openings happen for almost every workshop, and those spots always get offered to the waitlist first. If you see something you really want to attend and there are no tickets now, we urge you to sign up for the waitlist today.

Seize the Night in Season 9

As we wind down our 2023 itinerary, we’re looking forward to a winter break from travel, followed by an epic Season 9 full of adventures and stars.

Where will you be joining us? Wherever the destination, we’re looking forward to seizing the night with you soon.

Matt Hill is a partner and workshop leader with National Parks at Night. See more about his photography, art, workshops and writing at MattHillArt.com. Follow Matt on Twitter Instagram Facebook.

UPCOMING WORKSHOPS FROM NATIONAL PARKS AT NIGHT

Super Season 8: Announcing our 2023-24 Night Photography Workshops and Tours

It’s All in the Numbers

Here we are again, another year later, announcing a chock-full itinerary of new workshops. Let’s take a look at some numbers:

8 …

This is Season 8 of National Parks at Night workshops. We can’t fathom how to adequately express how grateful we are to all of you who make this possible. Thank you.

25 …

The number of workshops and tours in our Season 8 itinerary. That comprises 16 based at destinations in the U.S. and 9 based overseas.

12 …

The number of units of the National Park Service we’ll be workshopping in, including:

  • the newest national park (New River Gorge)

  • one of only two U.S. national parks that’s not in a state (Virgin Islands)

  • a national park our alumni voted for us to return to (Olympic)

  • a national historic landmark that’s allowing us exclusive night access to its Industrial Age grounds (Sloss Furnaces)

  • a national seashore that’s home to some of the most photogenic lighthouses in the country (Cape Cod)

  • a national park gem of Utah that will go dark under an annular solar eclipse (Capitol Reef)

  • and more!

6 …

The number of countries we’ll be visiting for adventuring and photographing day and night—the most ever for an itinerary in our 8 years so far.

100 …

Once July rolls around and we sail away from Monhegan Island, the number of workshops and tours that National Parks at Night will have run since our first year. That’s right, we’re hitting triple digits! And we fully intend to throw a party!

A Few Notes

Before we get into the specifics of the workshops, we’d like to share a few ideas.

How are Some Already Sold Out?

As a special thank you to those who attend our workshops, who sign up for our waitlist and who subscribe to our email list, every year we announce our itinerary to those three groups before “going public.”

This year, as usual, our community has committed very strongly to many of the workshops. (Our gratitude is infinite.) Because of that, nine of our new workshops and tours sold out during the past week. Additionally, five other events were announced last year and sold out some time ago.

Still, as of press time, nine of our Season 8 workshops and tours still have seats left, plus Faroe Islands this fall), so it’s easy to join us in amazing places such as Joshua Tree National Park, Cape Cod, the Lofoten Islands, Iceland and more!

If you really want to go to one of those other places with us …

We Can’t say it Enough: Use the Waitlist

Openings happen for almost every workshop, and those spots always get offered to the waitlist first. If you see something you really want to attend and there are no tickets now, we urge you to sign up for the waitlist today.

The Workshops

Below you can read a little bit about each of the workshops we’ll be running in our eight season. Click on the photos or the links to read even more.

If you’d like to see a lineup of all the workshops we have scheduled for 2022-23, including updates on how many tickets are available in each, see our Season 8 Workshops page:


Passport Series

These are our signature event workshops, which we hold in national parks. We teach every day, either in the classroom or on field trips, and we shoot every night in beautiful and inspiring places.

In 2023 we’ll be visiting some amazing and unique parks, both popular and a few of more obscure but incredibly beautiful gems.

Great Basin National Park

Bristlecone pines, mysterious subterranean passages and some of the darkest skies in the United States.

Great Basin lies just off the loneliest road in America. You don’t arrive here by mistake. Want to walk among the 4,000-year-old bristlecone trees that are just a few hundred feet from a spectacular glacier, or around alpine lakes reflecting the snowy mountaintops and the Milky Way? Great Basin reveals its true beauty among its many trails, and we’ll be hiking to experience it.

Great Basin National Park — June 18-24, 2023

New River Gorge National Park

America’s newest national park is ripe with opportunities for photography and outdoor adventures.

Our nation's newest national park, New River Gorge is an adventurer’s paradise. We’ll spend our days whitewater rafting, zip-lining through the treetops, and exploring the area’s natural, railroad and mining history. Then, of course, we'll be shooting in the dark! Timed at the peak of fall foliage, and the tail end of rafting season, this will be a very full week of both day and nighttime activities.

New River Gorge National Park — October 22-27, 2023

Olympic National Park

Majestic mountains, magical rainforests, magnificent coastline. Experience the wonder that is Olympic National Park.

The winner of the National Parks at Night alumni "return to this park" vote! For 6 nights, photograph on the rugged mountains, in the vibrant rainforests and along the pristine coastline of Washington state’s Olympic National Park, one of the most beautiful and diverse national parks in the U.S.

Olympic National Park — September 16-22, 2023

Saguaro National Park

Sonoran nights, desert blossoms and the symbol of the American west.

Deep in the Arizona desert stands a forest of cactus that can reach heights of 60 feet. The distinctive saguaros, silently spreading across the landscape, reach for the stars and the heavens beyond. Barrel, prickly pear and teddybear cholla cactuses also adorn the arid foreground, while foxes and coyotes dart in and out of the moonlight shadows. We'll photograph it all (and more) on 5 spring nights in the Sonoran Desert.

Saguaro National Park — April 4-9, 2023

Virgin Islands National Park

An unparalleled opportunity to explore the beaches, coves, mountains and dark skies of this unique national park in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

A workshop on island time, journeying through and photographing Virgin Islands National Park. Pristine shores, tropical forests, and countless historic and prehistoric archeological sites sit under the night skies of the western Atlantic Ocean.

Virgin Islands National Park — November 27-December 3, 2023

Adventure Series

The U.S. has other amazing places to shoot at night outside of national parks, and we like visiting those too. National monuments, national forests, scenic byways, urban ruins and more.

Coming up, the Adventures will include a lighthouses workshop along a famous stretch of Atlantic shore, an ocean island, some amazing desert landscapes, and a couple of inspiring celestial events.

Bannerman Island

Spend an overnight photographing a historic castle in the middle of the Hudson River.

Just 1.5 hours north of New York City rests one of the most impressive ruins in New York state: Bannerman Castle. Built at the turn of the 20th century, it served as an armory, warehouse and mystery to those passing along the Hudson River. This is a rare opportunity to spend the night on an inspirational island and shoot until the dawn breaks the evening sky.

Bannerman Island — August 4 and 5, 2023

Cape Cod Lighthouses

Half a dozen lighthouses, five summer nights, countless New England villages, one amazing national seashore.

The arm of Cape Cod stretches out and up into the Atlantic Ocean, providing a landscape beautiful to view but hazardous to ships for centuries. The lighthouses stand sentinel, guarding these classic New England shores, ready to be photographed under the summer Milky Way.

Cape Cod Lighthouses — August 10-15, 2023

Capitol Reef & the Solar Eclipse

Capture the dark side of the moon with a ring of fire over one of the most stunning landscapes in the U.S.

Capitol Reef is the least-known of Utah’s “Mighty 5” national parks, yet is stunningly beautiful and aesthetically diverse. And it lies in the path of the 2023 annular solar eclipse! We’ll be there for an opportunity to photograph the eclipse, plus we'll have an entire night photography workshop during a new moon in this International Dark Sky Park.

Capitol Reef Solar Eclipse — October 13-18, 2023

Great Sand Dunes & the Perseids

North America's tallest inland sand dunes and Colorado's dark skies are ideal for experiencing the stunning Perseid Meteor Shower.

Do you dream of creating the holy grail of meteor shower images—a meteor shower radiant composite? Then this is the workshop for you to focus on planning, shooting and editing your own radiant images. Since 2023 should be an amazing year for the Perseids, you’ll likely capture meteors on multiple nights over the largest sand dunes in North America.

Great Sand Dunes & the Perseids — August 10-15, 2023

Monhegan Island

The fishing vessels. The hilltop lighthouse. The clapboard cottages. The spectacular dark skies. All 10 miles from shore on the quaint Monhegan Island.

National Parks at Night returns to Monhegan for a full five-night workshop on one of our favorite Islands. Monhegan is a place that people go back to over and over again. It’s hard to stay away for long. We’ll explore this peaceful oasis entirely on foot, covering subjects such as the local lighthouse, the village, the waterfront cliffs and a nearly century-old shipwreck.

Monhegan Island — July 3-8, 2023

Panorama Intensive: Bryce Canyon

Master night sky panoramas among the hoodoos of the legendary Bryce Canyon.

Utah’s Bryce Canyon National Park is pano-licious! We’ll be basing ourselves in this breathtaking landscape, noted for its geologic wonders and wide views, all to focus on learning to create nighttime panoramas. Single-row, multi-row and Milky Way will feel second-nature by the end of 5 nights on the rim and on the floor of the amazing Bryce amphitheater.

Panorama Intensive: Bryce Canyon — May 23-28, 2023

Sloss Furnaces

Step back in time and photograph one of the industrial marvels of the Industrial Age—at night!

The focus of this night photography workshop will be a deep dive into light painting, composition, and black and white photography. Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark is an incredible collection of 20th century metal machinery located on the eastern edge of downtown Birmingham, Alabama. We will use moonlight and light painting to breathe fire back into the furnaces.

Sloss Furnaces — November 16-19, 2023

Voyager Series

As much as the U.S. is beautiful and dynamic, so is the rest of the world. We’re always on the lookout for beautiful landscapes and fascinating cultures to immerse ourselves in, especially in the dark. Over the next two years (we plan these ones a little further out), we’ll be heading to overseas destinations that range from one of the most enigmatic islands in the oceans to a recent mainstay for landscape photographers.

East Greenland Schooner

See icebergs, auroras and arctic wildlife up close on this truly adventurous, sea-based tour.

Experience the extraordinary scenery and Inuit culture of Greenland’s captivating coastline. This trip along the striking and sparsely populated east coast of Greenland will begin and end in the village of Kulusuk, but everything in between will truly be an exploration. Glacier hikes, stand-up paddleboarding, sea kayaking, and of course photography—you’ll have the opportunity to do all of these and more on one of our grandest adventures yet.

East Greenland Schooner — September 4-13, 2023

Easter Island

Enigmatic Easter Island. At night. Need we say more?

Few places on earth are as mysterious or compelling as Easter Island. The giant stone figures known as moai oversee this remote island 2,200 miles off the coast of Chile. Most of Rapa Nui, as it’s known to the locals, is a national park. Not only is it hard to get to Easter Island, it is notoriously difficult to access the park after the sun goes down. But we will be taking a lucky group of fellow night photographers on this rare opportunity of spending an unforgettable week with the moai.

Easter Island — February 12-19 and 21-28, 2023

Iceland North Coast

Come to the more remote coast of the more remote island, to photograph the sea, the culture and the wild landscapes of northern Iceland.

Each area of Iceland has its own unique character and features. In the north, the massive waterfalls are mostly wide rather than tall, contrasting the tall, narrow ones in the south. The north tends to be colder, and snowier. It’s definitely less crowded. This trip comes at the end of winter, with longer days, and hopefully with a good chance of seeing the aurora above the Arctic Henge.

Iceland North Coast — April 7-17, 2023

Iceland: Snaefellsnes

A pointy peninsula featuring a black church and a perfectly pointy mountain, with a bonus retreat on a special island.

This delightful part of Iceland is located between the capital of Reykjavik and the Westfjords. It’s home to Snæfellsjökull National Park, a twin-peaked volcano and a small glacier. We’ll spend 1 night in Reykjavik, 3 nights on the peninsula, and 2 on Flatey Island, reached by ferry, and then on to the Westfjords, where we’ll spend our last night—unless you stick around for our glamping add-on.

Iceland: Snaefellsnes — August 25-September 1, 2024

Iceland South Coast

The South Coast of Iceland was the first area to be ‘discovered.’ And for good reason. It’s extraordinary.

This is the classic Iceland itinerary, in winter. Following the ring road south from Reykjavik, and eastward along the coast, we’ll photograph the famous waterfalls, horses, basalt towers, lava fields, glacial lagoon and ice beach, and we’ll take a private tour into the ice caves under Iceland’s largest glacier. Oh, and we’ll be aurora hunting every night. Even if you have been there before, there is always something new and unexpected in the volcanic wonderland known as Iceland.

Iceland South Coast — March 11-20, 2023

Iceland: Westfjords

Puffins, herring factories and blueberries, oh my!

The northwest corner of Iceland is a dazzling and deeply indented coastline featuring about 30 fjords, each with different surprises awaiting discovery. We’ll visit the best place in Iceland to see puffins, spend 3 nights in a hotel that once housed herring workers, photograph waterfalls, swim in a geothermal swimming pool and wander some of the most magnificent landscapes you’ll ever see.

Iceland: Westfjords — September 7-14, 2024

Ireland: County Mayo

Explore the best of the west of Ireland on this 8-night tour of County Mayo.

This tour is based in Westport, the charming county town of Mayo, in the middle of Ireland's west coast. From there we’ll make daily excursions to far-flung places such as Achill Island in the north and the edge of Connemara in County Galway to the south. Ruined abbeys, the castles of Mayo’s legendary Pirate Queen Grace O’Malley, and deserted-village timescapes all await.

Ireland: County Mayo — June 2-10, 2023

Lofoten Islands

The Lofoten Islands, a majestic mountain archipelago of dramatic landscapes, unspoiled beaches and winter wonderland.

This will be a winter tour focused on photographing the rugged snow-covered mountain islands, dramatic beaches, northern lights, pristine fisherman's huts and untouched beauty of this remote and breathtaking region of the world. March is a perfect time to visit Lofoten—the milder winter temperatures make the overall experience ideal for catching the auroras over a snow-globe winterscape.

Lofoten Islands — March 17-25, 2023

Skills Series

All of the aforementioned workshops and tours focus a lot on exploration. Our Skills Series events focus on learning something specific—still in an inspiring place, but we focus on a precise skill set. Next year in this category we’ll be hosting workshops on shooting with post-production in mind, learning post-production and how to use the best scouting app in the business, PhotoPills.

PhotoPills Bootcamp: Joshua Tree

Star trails. A crescent moonset over the desert. The Milky Way arching across a forest of Joshua trees. Find them all with PhotoPills and create epic photography.

With PhotoPills, your ideas have no bounds. During 5 days and nights of learning, scouting and shooting in California’s Joshua Tree National Park, we’ll explore the ins and outs of one of the most powerful tools a photographer can keep in their pocket. Learn to plan for and capture the Milky Way, sunsets, moonsets, star points, star trails and more in this desert jewel of the park system.

PhotoPills Bootcamp: Joshua Tree — October 10-15, 2023

Post-Processing Intensive: Asheville

Master photography post-production with a week in this artist’s enclave city nestled in North Carolina’s beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains.

You’ve spent a lot of time building your camera skills and honing your photographic vision. Now it’s time to take it to the next level. Over 6 days in the heart of the North Carolina mountains, we'll teach all the skills needed to use modern technology to finish our photos, and even to create images that were impossible only a few short years ago.

Post-Processing Intensive: Asheville — June 19-24, 2023

Shoot for the Edit: Sedona

Photographing and processing in a beautiful place: among the most brilliant sandstone formations in the West.

When it comes to night photography, capturing the right information in the field is crucial. Set among the beautiful red rock buttes of Sedona, Arizona, this workshop is designed to teach you how to not only capture all of the necessary exposures in the field but also the art of processing those images to produce your final piece of night art.

Shoot for the Edit: Sedona — September 10-15, 2023


So … Where Will You Go?

There ya go. We’ve laid out the numbers, we’ve laid out the places. All that’s left to do is decide where you’d like to go with us next year and beyond. Dream big. Travel big. Shoot in the dark.

We’d love to see you at a workshop. If not there, then at the Nightscaper Conference or the Night Photo Summit. Or at a trade show, or at a camera club. Or online, sharing ideas on our blog, or stories on Facebook, or photos in Instagram.

Thank you all for being part of our community of intrepid explorers and lifelong learners, and for continuing to partner with us on these amazing nocturnal adventures. We appreciate every one of you.

Now onward … to another year of seizing the night.

Chris Nicholson is a partner and workshop leader with National Parks at Night, and author of Photographing National Parks (Sidelight Books, 2015). Learn more about national parks as photography destinations, subscribe to Chris' free e-newsletter, and more at www.PhotographingNationalParks.com, and follow him on Instagram (@PhotographingNationalParks.com.

UPCOMING WORKSHOPS & Events FROM NATIONAL PARKS AT NIGHT

27 Ways to Journey into Night: Announcing our Season 7 Workshops

Where Will You Go?

Season 7 is upon us. It’s so exciting. We’re offering a scintillating array of destinations and opportunities for the luckiest of those honing their craft in night photography, or for those just exploring the world day and night.

For the second season in a row we’re announcing 27 workshops and tours (a far cry from the 5 we ran in our first season in 2016), so more people can head out into the nocturnal unknown. We also have added even more skills-based workshops, including a “101” workshop in a most desirable destination, and a new “Shoot for the Edit” workshop that blends on-location pre-visualization with post-processing wizardry.

There has never been a better time to invest in yourself, trust that wanderlust and join your cohort of stargazing, meteor-chasing photographers. Join us for Season 7, which we fervently believe is the very best yet.

A Few Notes

Use the Waitlist!

As a special thank you to those who attend our workshops and subscribe to our email list, every year we announce our itinerary to those two groups before “going public.” As usual, our community has committed very strongly to many of the workshops. (Our gratitude is infinite.) To that end, eight of our new workshops and tours sold out during the past week. Additionally, six workshops on our list were postponed from 2021 and were already sold out.

That said … If you see something you really want to attend and there are no tickets now, we urge you to sign up for the waitlist today. Openings happen for almost every workshop, and those spots always get offered to the waitlist first.

Moreover, as of press time, 13 of our Season 7 workshops still have seats left, so it’s easy to join us in amazing places such as Death Valley, Yosemite, Bryce Canyon, Morocco, Iceland and more!

The Workshops

Below you can read a little bit about each of the workshops we’ll be running in our seventh season. Click on the photos or the links to read even more.

If you’d like to see a lineup of all the workshops we have scheduled for 2022-23, including updates on how many tickets are available in each, see our Season 7 Workshops page:

OK, onward … Let the journey into night continue. Here’s where we’re going. Where will you go?


Passport Series

These are our signature event workshops, which we hold in national parks. We teach every day, either in the classroom or on field trips, and we shoot every night in beautiful and inspiring places.

In 2022 we’ll be visiting a few of the biggest household name parks, as well as a couple of more obscure but incredibly beautiful gems.

Acadia National Park

Photograph the beauty of coastal New England at one of the richest national parks for photography, under the moonlight and dark skies of fall.

Our alumni voted for us to go back to Acadia, so we’re going! Photograph rugged Maine coastline, oceanside cliffs, forest lakes and ponds, groves of birch and aspen, carriage roads that weave into the wilderness—all under the Milky Way and moonlight in the only national park in New England.

Acadia National Park — October 1-6, 2022

Grand Canyon National Park: North Rim

The Grand Canyon from the quiet side—serene and colorful panoramas that embrace the Milky Way.

Join us on the “other” side of the Grand Canyon, the less frequented and arguably more scenic side that includes majestic views and vantage points facing south toward the Milky Way. If you have not been to the Grand Canyon, you have missed out on one of the Seven Wonders of the Natural World. Even if you have feasted your eyes on the South Rim, the North offers higher and more comprehensive vantage points as well as peaceful opportunities to fall in love with landscape photography.

Grand Canyon National Park: North Rim — July 3-7, 2022

Mount Rainier National Park

Countless wildflowers, hundreds of miles of trails, 25 glaciers and one active volcano.

We’ll spend both days and nights exploring the subalpine landscape of Mount Rainier. Wildflower-filled meadows, stately firs, waterfalls and lakes will fill our foregrounds as we capture jagged peaks and the omnipresent Mount Rainier.

Mount Rainier National Park — August 14-19, 2022

North Cascades National Park

‘The American Alps’ — a quiet land where mountains rise from the forests to touch the stars.

In the northern regions of Washington state, some of the least-visited and most beautiful mountains in the U.S. rise dramatically from the landscape under untainted dark skies. An alpine wilderness rife with dramatic peaks, lush forests, placid lakes, gushing waterfalls, curious wildlife and more. We will explore by day and night, visiting and photographing different regions of this peaceful, special place.

North Cascades National Park — July 31-August 5, 2022

Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Photograph the wild horses, the badlands, the rock formations—all in a pivotal location for America’s national parks.

Chock full of wildlife, badlands, prairie, grasslands and more, this park is the place that inspired Teddy Roosevelt to begin protecting vast tracts of precious lands. Visit this often-overlooked northern gem of the park system to discover its nocturnal side.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park — July 12-17, 2022

Yosemite National Park: High Sierra

Explore the high country in the crown jewel of California’s National Parks.

When most people think of Yosemite, it’s probably the famous valley that immediately comes to mind. This workshop is based in Yosemite’s High Sierra, centered around spectacular subalpine meadows, mountain lakes and glacial erratic boulder fields.

Yosemite National Park: high Sierra — August 28-September 2, 2022

Zion National Park

Massive sandstone cliffs of cream, pink and red, plus slot canyons and rugged terrain make Zion always worth the pilgrimage.

Boasting some of Utah’s most awe-inspiring red-rock peaks, cascading waterfalls and the beautiful Virgin River, Zion National Park and its amazing landforms are a perfect complement to the night sky. We'll explore this epic, iconic landscape under the stars, as well as venture into a nearby ghost town and its 18th century graveyard under the light of a bright gibbous moon.

Zion National Park — April 10-15, 2022

Adventure Series

The U.S. has other amazing places to shoot at night outside of national parks, and we like visiting those too. National monuments, national forests, scenic byways, urban ruins and more.

Coming up, the Adventures will include a lighthouses workshop along a famous stretch of Atlantic shore, an ocean island, some amazing desert landscapes, some brand new urban excursions and a cemetery famous from literature.

Grand Staircase & Kanab

Get to know Southwest Utah’s roadside gems at night.

Explore the hub of southwest Utah’s high desert. Take the good roads, and those less traveled. See national parks, national forests, state parks and unbelievably beautiful night skies. Photograph sand dunes, toadstools, hoodoos, arches and more.

Grand Staircase & Kanab — May 2-7, 2022

Lighthouses of the Outer Banks

Five lighthouses on one long strip of land, all standing ready to be photographed in gentle moonlight and under the Milky Way, on warm summer nights at the Carolina shore.

Cape Hatteras, Bodie Island, Roanoke Marshes, Currituck Beach, Ocracoke. The Outer Banks has some amazing lighthouses to photograph, all within driving distance along some of the most beautiful shoreline in the country. Come photograph these sentinels of the sea—at twilight, night, under moonlight and with the Milky Way rising behind.

Lighthouses of the Outer Banks — June 22-27, 2022

Monhegan Island

The fishing vessels. The hilltop lighthouse. The clapboard cottages. The spectacular dark skies. All 10 miles from shore on the quaint Monhegan Island.

National Parks at Night returns to Monhegan for a full five-night workshop on one of our favorite Islands. Monhegan is a place that people go back to over and over again. It’s hard to stay away for long. We’ll explore this peaceful oasis entirely on foot, covering subjects such as the local lighthouse, the village, the waterfront cliffs and a nearly century-old shipwreck.

Monhegan Island — July 3-8, 2023

Mojave

Caves. Joshua trees. Train tracks and a depot. Rusted out cars and abandoned shacks. Sand dunes, desert and a million stars. Welcome to Mojave.

Just a bit outside Las Vegas lies the Mojave Desert, and Mojave National Preserve. Within live old secrets of past desert life, remnants of mining and ranching. Old cars, old shacks, an old train depot and railroad tracks. The landscape is at once barren and full of visual interest. Sand dunes, cinder cones, lava beds, the limestone crags of Clark Mountain and the rugged ridges of the horizon. There's a lot to see, and a lot to photograph, in the Mojave.

Mojave — March 17-22, 2022

Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh’s colorful past comes alive with blast furnaces, bridges and the three rivers that unite them all.

We’ll be photographing during day and night as we take a very deep dive into Pittsburgh’s rich history and explore the parks, architecture, museums, the many colorful neighborhoods, and of course bridges! We will also get coveted access to photograph the famous Carrie Furnaces, the only pre-World War II blast furnaces that remain in the Northern Hemisphere.

Pittsburgh — September 8-14, 2022

Sandy Hook

The Gateway to majestic views of New York City, military ruins and the oldest lighthouse in the United States.

Photograph the oldest operating lighthouse in the United States as well as the 100-plus-year-old batteries that were built to ward off enemies trying to enter New York Harbor. We’ll spend three nights photographing these relics of a bygone era while also taking in and photographing spectacular views of New York City. We’ll also explore Sandy Hook during in daytime, taking ranger tours and learning more about the role the area played during the Revolutionary and World wars.

Sandy Hook — October 13-15, 2022

Sleepy Hollow

Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. Yes that one. Headless Horseman, pumpkin head. Ichabod Crane.

Spend three nights photographing in one of the most iconic cemeteries in the world, barely an hour outside of Manhattan in the village of Sleepy Hollow, New York. Expect to be spooked by an abbreviated equestrian with a penchant for drama and overgrown squash. If that sounds like fun, this is the workshop for you.

Sleepy Hollow — November 4-6, 2022

Voyager Series

As much as the U.S. is beautiful and dynamic, so is the rest of the world. We’re always on the lookout for beautiful landscapes and fascinating cultures to immerse ourselves in, especially in the dark. Over the next two years (we plan these ones a little further out), we’ll be heading to overseas destinations that range from one of the most enigmatic islands in the oceans to a recent mainstay for landscape photographers to a couple of seafaring adventures as well.

Barcelona

The city that lives and breathes art.

Barcelona, Spain’s premier city of culture and art, is rich in delicious dichotomies. From the 13th century gothic Barcelona Cathedral to the 19th century art nouveau masterpiece of the La Sagrada Familia, from the respectful and beautiful graffiti to the citywide art installations—here world-class food, art and architecture are woven together to create one of the most beautiful and photogenic cities in Europe.

Barcelona — September 4-9, 2022

East Greenland Schooner

See icebergs, auroras and arctic wildlife up close on this truly adventurous, sea-based tour.

Experience the extraordinary scenery and Inuit culture of Greenland’s captivating coastline. This trip along the striking and sparsely populated east coast of Greenland will begin and end in the village of Kulusuk, but everything in between will truly be an exploration. Glacier hikes, stand-up paddleboarding, sea kayaking and of course photography––you’ll have the opportunity to do all of these and more on one of our grandest adventures yet.

East Greenland Schooner — September 4-13, 2023

Easter Island

Enigmatic Easter Island. At night. Need we say more?

Few places on earth are as mysterious or compelling as Easter Island. The giant stone figures known as moai oversee this remote island 2,200 miles off the coast of Chile. Most of Rapa Nui, as it’s known to the locals, is a national park. Not only is it hard to get to Easter Island, it is notoriously difficult to access the park after the sun goes down. But we will be taking a lucky group of fellow night photographers on this rare opportunity of spending an unforgettable week with the moai.

Easter Island — February 20-28, 2022

Faroe Islands Schooner

Explore and photograph the mystical Faroe Islands, from a sailboat with 7 other explorers.

The Faroe Islands is an archipelago made up of 18 rugged, isolated volcanic islands located about halfway between Scotland and Iceland. Despite the northern latitude, the climate is surprisingly mild. We’ll take advantage of the influence of the gulf stream as we explore as many of the islands as we can aboard the schooner Arktika.

Faroe Islands Schooner — October 9-18, 2022

Iceland North Coast

Come to the more remote coast of the more remote island, to photograph the sea, the culture and the wild landscapes of northern Iceland.tell your story online can make all the difference.

Each area of Iceland has its own unique character and features. In the north, the massive waterfalls are mostly wide rather than tall, contrasting the tall, narrow ones in the south. The north tends to be colder, and snowier. It’s definitely less crowded. This trip comes at the end of winter, with longer days, and hopefully with a good chance of seeing the aurora above the Arctic Henge.

Iceland North Coast — April 7-17, 2023

Iceland South Coast

The South Coast of Iceland was the first area to be ‘discovered.’ And for good reason. It’s extraordinary.

This is the classic Iceland itinerary, in winter. Following the ring road south from Reykjavik, and eastward along the coast, we’ll photograph the famous waterfalls, horses, basalt towers, lava fields, glacial lagoon and ice beach, and we’ll take a private tour into the ice caves under Iceland’s largest glacier. Oh, and we’ll be aurora hunting every night. Even if you have been there before, there is always something new and unexpected in the volcanic wonderland known as Iceland.

Iceland South Coast — March 11-20, 2023

Lofoten Islands

The Lofoten Islands, a majestic mountain archipelago of dramatic landscapes, unspoiled beaches and winter wonderland.

This will be a winter workshop focused on photographing the rugged snow-covered mountain islands, dramatic beaches, northern lights, pristine fisherman's huts and untouched beauty of this remote and breathtaking region of the world. March is a perfect time to visit Lofoten—the milder winter temperatures make the overall experience ideal for catching the auroras over a snow-globe winterscape.

Lofoten Islands — March 18-26, 2022

Morocco Atlantic Coast

Morocco is sensory overload. Sights, sounds, smells, friendly and curious people, and contrasting urban and desert landscapes.

Enigmatic Morocco is a melange of traditional and modern worlds. We’ll focus on the small cities of the Atlantic coast, beginning with Marrakech and the cacophony at Jemaa el-Fna Square before we travel to the ksar and kasbah of Ait BenHaddou. From there, we will venture north to Taroudant, Essaouira and El Jadida, three of the most interesting towns along the Atlantic coast.

Morocco Atlantic Coast — November 13-22, 2022

Scotland: Orkney Islands

Spend a week exploring and photographing the neolithic monuments and ancient landscapes of Orkney, an archipelago off the north coast of Scotland.

During our tour we’ll explore the remarkable ways that past and present collide at the crossroads of the Celtic and Viking worlds. A cluster of 5,000-year-old archeological sites on the archipelago are collectively designated as a World Heritage Site called The Heart of Neolithic Orkney. The main sites consist of two major circles of standing stones, a massive chambered cairn, and the remains of an ancient village that was exposed on a clifftop during a storm in the 19th century. Orcadians live with these monuments in their backyards—these relics are part of the cultural, as well as physical, landscape that influences the way the locals interact with the world.

Scotland: Orkney Islands — May 21-28, 2022

Skills Series

All of the aforementioned workshops and tours focus a lot on exploration. Our Skills Series events focus on learning something specific—still in an inspiring place, but we focus on a precise skill set. Next year in this category we’ll be hosting workshops on shooting with post-production in mind, learning night photography 101, and two in national parks focused on learning how to use the best scouting app in the business, PhotoPills.

Intro to Night Photography: Death Valley

Learn the fundamentals of night photography in one of the best national parks for practicing the craft.

You’ve almost certainly seen night photos on Instagram. Photos of beautiful points of stars, a stunning Milky Way, old barns and rusted trucks painted with light. If you’ve dreamed of making photos like these, but you’ve never tried, or you’ve tried and failed, then we’re here to help. Join us in Death Valley, the national park jewel of the California desert, for five nights of learning how to shoot in the dark.

Intro to Night Photography: Death Valley — November 8-13, 2022

PhotoPills Bootcamp: Bryce Canyon

Star trails. Suns setting and a crescent moon rising. A Milky Way stretching over an otherworldly landscape. Find them all with PhotoPills and create epic photography.

Long before the photograph comes the idea. And with PhotoPills, the ideas have no bounds. During five days and nights of learning, scouting and shooting in Utah's Bryce Canyon National Park, we’ll explore not just the dramatic canyon rim and the famed hoodoos, but we’ll also explore the ins and outs of one of the most powerful tools a photographer can keep in their pocket. Learn to plan and capture the Milky Way, sunsets, moonsets, star points, star trails and more in this geologic wonder of the park system.

PhotoPills Bootcamp: Bryce Canyon — June 24-29, 2022

PhotoPills Bootcamp: Death Valley

Star trails. Suns setting and full moons rising. A Milky Way stretching over a desert mountain horizon. Find them all with PhotoPills and create epic photography.

During five days and nights of learning, scouting and shooting in California's Death Valley National Park, we’ll explore not just the rolling sand dunes and the vast desert landscapes, but we’ll also explore the ins and outs of PhotoPills. Learn to plan and capture the Milky Way, sunsets, moonrises, star points, star trails and more in this southwestern jewel of the park system.

PhotoPills Bootcamp: Death Valley — February 15-20, 2022

Shoot for the Edit: Colorado

Photographing and processing in a beautiful place. Rocky Mountain High. Colorado.

When it comes to night photography, capturing the right information in the field is crucial. Sometimes we need to make multiple exposures, or change focus during a series of photographs, or shoot the same scene at different times of the evening. This workshop is designed to teach you how to not only capture all of the necessary exposures in the field but also the art of processing those captures to produce your final piece of night art.

Shot for the Edit: Colorado — September 18-23, 2022

So … Where Will You Go?

Thank you all for being part of our community of eager explorers and lifelong learners, and for continuing to partner with us on these amazing nocturnal adventures. We appreciate you so very much.

Here’s to being with you, going forth, into the world, into the night!!

Matt Hill is a partner and workshop leader with National Parks at Night. See more about his photography, art, workshops and writing at MattHillArt.com. Follow Matt on Twitter Instagram Facebook.

UPCOMING WORKSHOPS FROM NATIONAL PARKS AT NIGHT