Cape Cod Lighthouses
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.
Workshop Details
August 10-15, 2023 — Completed
This is a 5-night, 6-day workshop. Your adventure begins on the morning of August 10, and ends after a final slide show on the afternoon of August 15.
$2,295 + applicable taxes. Register below.
Skill level
Intermediate and above. Participants should have a firm grasp of the basic principles of photography and of their cameras, and have a comfortable understanding of night photography fundamentals.
Group size
14, with 2 instructors — 7:1 ratio
NPS website
Workshop Leaders
Registration
This event has passed. Thanks for your interest!
| • Deposit of $600 is required to reserve your spot at the workshop. |
| • Balance of $1,595 is due on May 12, 2023. —> Pay balance here. |
| • You may choose the “Pay in Full” ticket if you desire to pay all at once. |
| • Last day for a cancellation request is May 11, 2023 (see cancellation and refund policy). |
| • The workshop fee does not include lodging, food, airfare, or transportation to the lodging or to our nightly shoot locations. |
The Cape Cod Experience
Cape Cod comprises a captivating collection of simple scenic wonders. Ponds. Beaches. Sandy dunes. Pine forests. Old dune shacks. Cranberry bogs. Atlantic waves cascading onto the coast. These old shores hold countless treasures for the night photographer, including half a dozen beautiful lighthouses.
Though all of Cape Cod offers artistic subject matter, this workshop will focus on the these beacons of nautical navigation.
We’ll visit the lighthouses day and night, working around some of the inherent challenges and detailing some exposure and post-production techniques that go a long way toward making lighthouse photographs that shine. For example, capturing and/or enhancing light rays, keeping the light from blowing out, composition and correcting perspective, and so on.
The workshop will offer a mix of night-sky conditions, taking place during a crescent to new moon, providing the perfect situation for photographing the lighthouses with the summer Milky Way rising vertically from the southern horizon.
Of course, Cape Cod offers the photographer more than just lighthouses, and we’ll dabble with that other subject matter too. We’ll check out those shores and cottages and shacks and seaside villages. We’ll also explore the quaint streets and charming waterfront of Provincetown at night, and some of its culture during the day.
We will be running this workshop during the Perseid Meteor Shower. While photographing the meteors won’t be the focus of the workshop, there should be plenty of opportunity to include them in your night images—with or without a lighthouse in the foreground.
What You Should Know
This workshop caters to knowledgeable photographers with an intermediate or higher skill set. Participants should have a firm grasp of the basic principles of photography and of their cameras, and have a comfortable understanding of night photography fundamentals.
If you would like to attend this workshop but are unsure whether you have adequate night photography skills, we can offer pre-workshop tutoring to get you ready for your adventure with us. Alternatively or additionally, a few of us have written books that may be productive pre-workshop reads.
What You Will Learn
Though we will touch on other aspects of night photography as needed, we will target the workshop toward how to photograph lighthouses effectively at night.
TOPICS COVERED WILL INCLUDE:
balancing the exposure of a bright lantern in a dark environment
timing a lighthouse flash with an exposure
compositional concerns
controlling perspective distortion in the field and in post-processing
creating a “beam” effect
star trails with a lighthouse
and more …
This workshop will have both field and classroom instruction. We will be in the classroom during some days, as well as out in the field at different locations some days and each night. Participants can stay out shooting as long as they, or their camera’s batteries, hold out. While in the field, the instructors will demonstrate their own techniques, and work with participants one-on-one to make sure everyone gets the most out of the workshop.
Our locations have generous room to explore, so everyone will be able to spread out and not get in one another’s way. Each participant will have the opportunity to work one-on-one with Chris and Gabe in the field.
We do not tell our attendees what to photograph, and won’t line you up in a row to all shoot the same thing (unless it’s helpful to get some people on track). Instead, we encourage you to use what you have learned to create your own unique images, and to let us guide you through the process should you desire. We do not teach you to do what we do, but rather how to develop your own night vision.
Night Conditions
Logistics & General Info
Travel
Cape Cod is easy to get to, though it does require a bit of time in the car (unless you fly into a small airport on the Cape itself). You are responsible for arranging and paying for your own transportation.
Rental Car
You will need a rental car.
There is no need for four-wheel-drive.
If you are interested in carpooling or sharing a rental car, let us know and we will try to connect you with another attendee looking for the same.
Nearby Airports:
Boston (BOS) —3 hours to Provincetown
Providence (PVD) —3 hours
Hyannis (HYA) —1 hour
Provincetown (PVC) — 0 hours, but has limited options
You are responsible for arranging and paying for your own transportation.
Lodging & Food
You are responsible for arranging and paying for your own accommodations and meals.
Lodging
The workshop will be based at a hotel near Provincetown, giving us easy access to points north and south. You are not required to stay at the official workshop lodging, though doing so does make it easier to meet with the group each morning. Info and group code will be sent when our lodging partner is ready to begin taking reservations.
If you are interested in sharing a room, let us know and we will try to connect you with someone like-minded in the group.
Food
Varying food options are abundant, mostly at locally owned eateries, and as you might suspect, the seafood is excellent.
We encourage eating two meals per day—a good breakfast and a great late lunch.
When on the night shoots, you may wish to bring snack food or a sandwich and plenty of water.
Weather
There’s a saying in New England: “Don’t like the weather? Wait five minutes.” The fluctuations in conditions can be hard to predict. A rainy day can turn sunny in half an hour, a clear sky can cloud over just the same. You may be wearing a T-shirt at midday, and donning a sweatshirt, jacket and wool cap for the night. In other words, come prepared.
Temperatures should range from the high 70s F in daytime to the mid-50s at night. In August, humidity, cloud cover and days with rain are less prevalent than earlier in the summer.
Recommended Attire
Shorts for daytime, light- or medium-weight pants for night.
At night you may also want a long-sleeve T-shirt, and a lightweight jacket.
Lighthouses are amazing to photograph in poor weather, so if rain falls, we will be out shooting. You might consider bringing a raincoat, rain pants, waterproof shoes and whatever else keeps you comfortable when water is falling from the sky.
Comfortable and protective shoes are recommended for getting around. There will be one or two hikes, but we will be on sand, so specialty footwear isn’t required. (Though you might want to wear something waterproof.)
Exertion Level
The exertion level of this workshop is Easy to Moderate. (See more about our classifications.)
The out-of-the-way lighthouses may or may not be accessible due to the fluid nature of bird-nesting closures in late summer, but we will hike to whichever lighthouses the park service lets us. That will likely include a hike of 2 miles (one way) over sand, and another hike of 1.5 miles over sand. We hope to do both.
The trails over sand are flat, but require some effort because—well, because it’s walking on sand.
Aside from those two hikes, the lighthouses we visit and photograph will be close to the cars, at sites that are easy to walk around.
Considerations
Please read our FAQs section for more information about skill and gear requirements, and other information that pertains to all our workshops.
If you have questions, please contact us—we're happy to talk it over with you.
Cape Cod and Cameras just go together …
“I spent a winter road-tripping from Connecticut to the Cape whenever snow fell. We logged a lot of miles and buckets of coffee.”
I have so many memories of Cape Cod, and so many involve photography.
I remember visiting the Cape in my early 20s with my family, when we rented a cottage in Sandwich. Three days of storms meant whales couldn’t feed, so when the weather broke and we went on a whale watch, hungry giants surfaced all around us. I used a lot of film.
Later in my 20s, a photographer friend and I spent a winter road-tripping from Connecticut to the Cape whenever snow fell. We logged a lot of miles and buckets of coffee. We also snapped quite a few frames.
In my 30s, I often visited my cousins in Providence, and would venture off in mornings and late afternoons to explore the Cape in all seasons, but particularly in fall. I filled quite a few memory cards on those day trips as well.
In my 40s, I spent time with Lance on the Cape three times. Once we shot night photos in as many locations as we could, consciously trying to capture different images while working nearly back to back. The other times we led National Parks at Night workshops together. Again, photography was the crux of my Cape Cod experience.
Have I ever visited this fantastic area without a camera? I honestly don’t know. But I know for sure that this next time I’ll be shooting once again. And enjoying every frame.
