Panorama Intensive: Badlands
Join us for a masterclass in panorama photography in Badlands National Park, home to 244,000 acres of otherworldly landscapes, grassy prairie and wildlife such as bison, black-footed ferrets, mountain goats and bighorn sheep. This is a small class size with big results for those who aspire to master this craft inside and out.
Workshop Details
Main Workshop
April 27-May 2, 2025 — Sold Out, Join Waitlist Below
This is a 5-night, 6-day workshop. Your adventure begins on the morning of April 27, and ends after a final slideshow on the afternoon of May 2.
$3,800. 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
8, with 2 instructors — 4:1 ratio
NPS website
Add-On: Devils Tower
May 3-4, 2025
This is a 2-night optional add-on available only to attendees of the main workshop. Your adventure begins on the afternoon of May 3, and ends after a night shoot on May 4.
More information below.
$1,099. Registration information will be sent to attendees of the main workshop.
Group size
6, with 2 instructors — 3:1 ratio
NPS website
Workshop Leaders
Registration
Hoping to get a spot? Sign up below for our no-fee waitlist.
| • Deposit of $600 is required to reserve your spot at the workshop. |
| • Balance of $3,200 is due on January 26, 2025. → 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 January 25, 2025. (see cancellation and refund policy) |
| • The workshop fee does not include lodging, food, airfare, entrance fees, or transportation to or during the workshop. |
The Badlands Pano Experience
The Northern Hemisphere Milky Way is a wondrous spectacle. Perhaps you’ve tried night sky panoramas and run into troubles, or you simply want to get better or even more consistent. If you say to yourself, “I’d really like to master that …” then this is the right workshop for you.
You’ll be taught by deeply passionate and experienced night photographers dedicated to carefully crafting and processing night sky panoramas. They will cover everything from the basics to complex multirow panoramas.
The vast landscapes of Badlands National Park are ideal for this workshop, with ample room to spread out and still be able keep your pano sweep clear of other attendees.
This will be a complete curriculum focused on teaching you everything: planning, gear, capture and processing/compositing.
Also note that attendance is limited to eight people by design, so you all have more room to spread out and compose successful panos, and receive extra attention in the field for learning this specialized technique.
The Devils Tower Add-On Experience
Want to make some new night images to lock in what you learned during the Pano Intensive? Then join us at Devils Tower National Monument for 2 nights afterward!
We will explore the strange stone mountain of America’s first national monument. This amazing natural feature is revered by Native Americans in folklore, shrouded in mystery, and topped by mercurial skies.
Devils Tower is nestled among the prairies of the Black Hills in northeastern Wyoming. It has remarkably dark skies, as well as views of the tower from all sides, far and near. This includes prairie and forest views, as well as an up-close view from the paved trail circumnavigating the base of the formation.
All of these elements combine to make Devils Tower National Monument a must-visit park. It’s a powerful place steeped in ancient tales connected to the stars and Earth—ideal for night photography.
This optional add-on experience will be based on the boundary of the park at the Devils Tower Lodge, where we’ll enjoy instant access to all the stunning locations for night photography. (You can see the Tower from the lodge!) Breakfast, dinner and lodging are included.
More information will be sent after you register for the main workshop.
Note: This optional add-on is available only to workshop attendees. You will receive a link to purchase a ticket (if desired) after registering for the main workshop, once we’re ready to take orders.
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. We will be happy to offer advice and answer questions about both day and night photography, but the focus of the formal education will be panorama photography.
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. Additionally, a few of us have written books that may be productive pre-workshop reads.
What You Will Learn
We hope to push you to step outside your comfort zone—to test the limits of what you and your camera can do.
TOPICS COVERED WILL INCLUDE:
planning a panorama remotely and in the field
choosing and using the right gear
understanding and finding your nodal point/eliminating parallax to avoid stitching errors
setup and capture of single-row panoramas
setup and capture of multirow panoramas
setup and capture of vertoramas
setup and capture of tiny planets
post-processing your panoramas in Lightroom Classic, Photoshop and PTGui Pro
understanding pano projections and distortion
blending twilight foregrounds with starry skies
and more …
This workshop will have both field and classroom instruction. We will be in the classroom during the day, and out in the field at different locations each night.
PANOPHERNALIA
To get the most out of the workshop, you will need some specific gear and software.
You do not need a panorama rig/kit with a rotator, but having one will enable you to make more accurate, repeatable panoramas, and is strongly recommended.
Why a rotator with clicks? Not having to repeatedly turn on your flashlight to see how many degrees you rotated will significantly improve your night panos. Having a reliable rotation solution is also crucial for multirow captures without parallax stitching errors.
If you want to talk about your gear before committing, please contact us to discuss. We will also have some informational emails and a Zoom call or two leading up to the workshop to help you prepare, and part of that will be discussing gear.
Below is what we require and what we recommend. If you want to invest in gear beforehand, attendees will receive access to special discounts after registration.
Novoflex VR Slim
Required:
a solid, dependable tripod
a balancing head (e.g., the Novoflex MBAL20, Fanotech EZ-Leveler II or Benro LBA2)
a RAW-capable mirrorless or DSLR camera
a reliable way to trigger your camera without vibration or flashing lights (intervalometer, wireless trigger, etc.)
minimum: an invertible ball head (e.g., the Acratech GXP-SS or Novoflex ClassicBall)*
* you will not be using this if you have a pano rig (unless this is your leveling head)
Strongly Recommended:
a dedicated panorama rig with rotator (e.g., the Novoflex VR-Pro II HD, VR-System Slim, or Fanotech M2 w/RD16-II or M1-L w/RD16-II)
if not a rig, then a rotator with detents (e.g., the Novoflex Panorama-QC, Fanotech Advanced Rotator RD8-II or Benro DP70) and a nodal rail (e.g., the Acratech Nodal Slide or Novoflex QPL-Panorama)
Again, don’t fret about what you have/need while considering this workshop. We can talk about your kit. But we feel it’s important to know beforehand that some key pieces of gear will make a big difference to get the most out of the trip.
Software:
Our post-processing work will be in Adobe Lightroom Classic, Photoshop and PTGui.* Prior knowledge of Photoshop and PTGui Pro are not required, but knowing how to work with layers and masks in Photoshop will help you greatly. Feel free to reach out beforehand for assistance or suggestions on how to best improve your knowledge of these topics.
* Required software.
Night Conditions
Logistics & General Info
Travel
Badlands National Park is very accessible, being only one hour from Rapid City, South Dakota.
Nearby Airports:
Rapid City Regional Airport (RAP) — 1 hour from Wall, South Dakota
Denver International Airport (DEN) — 6 hours from Wall
Pierre (PIR) — 2 hours from Wall
Rental Car
You will need a rental car.
You might consider renting an SUV to have access to the entire park. Some of the gravel roads are not well suited to regular passenger cars. A four-wheel-drive vehicle will be useful, but is not required for the workshop.
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.
You are responsible for arranging and paying for your own transportation.
Lodging & Food
You are responsible for arranging and paying for your own meals and accommodations.
Lodging
We will be staying just outside the park boundaries in the town of Wall.
You are not required to stay at the official workshop lodging, though doing so does make it easier to meet with the group each day.
Info and group code will be sent once 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
Wall has a handful of food options, including one supermarket and a few restaurants, as well as the shops at the world-famous Wall Drug Store.
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
Expect daytime highs in the mid-60s F, lows in the mid-30s.
Recommended Attire
Pants and long-sleeve shirts for daytime, much warmer pants, base layers, sweaters, gloves, a warm hat and jackets for night.
A wool or alpaca sweater and winter jacket will likely be useful. Think base layers and winter gear!
Comfortable and protective shoes are recommended for getting around. There won’t be long hikes, but we will be on trails, so quality trail shoes or hiking boots would be optimal. Bring hiking poles if you desire the most secure footing. Micro spikes are also recommended in case of late-season ice or snow on the ground.
Exertion Level
The exertion level of this workshop is Easy. (See more about our classifications.)
No vigorous activity will be required during the workshop, but please consider your physical abilities prior to registering. There won’t be any long hikes, but there will be trails involved, and you should be comfortable carrying your own equipment over uneven ground in the dark, potentially on patches of snow and/or ice.
Considerations
IMPORTANT: We encourage reading 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.
An Otherworldly Place …
“The collision of grasslands and eroding stone/earth felt like we had taken a portal off-planet.”
What’s so good about the Badlands?
My first visit to this national park was during sunset. My friend and I were arriving from a daylong trip across South Dakota from Kansas. I remember being in awe of the landscape. The collision of grasslands and eroding stone/earth felt like we had taken a portal off-planet. Perhaps an alternate reality of Venus or Mars.
My short two hours in the park left an impression, though. So much that I vowed to come back and explore it more. And that I did with fellow NPAN Partner Chris Nicholson.
During our trip to the Badlands, we experienced a lush, verdant scene with blooming yellow clover. The park was experiencing record-breaking amounts of rain. The result was an explosion of color and wildlife. For the second time, I felt like I was transported off-planet.
I returned with Tim to photograph the 2021 Perseid Meteor Shower with a group and it was an out and out success. Badlands has immutably become a top-notch location for me.
Other surprising things we learned include:
Just north of the east end of the park is the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site. Their presentation of how America survived the Cold War is alarming and deeply educational.
All around the park are national grasslands. Rich prairies teeming with agriculture, industry, wildlife and some secrets.
Between the north and south units of the park lies the Pine Ridge Reservation. The story behind this plot of land is heartbreaking, and if attendees choose to stay extra days, we encourage spending some time learning more from the Lakota tribe. Educational opportunities are possible by contacting the White River Visitor Center, which spends nearly all of its time working with the local community to cooperatively enrich and support them.
And more …
But all in all, the Badlands National Park workshop experience with us is ripe for adventure, learning and achievement. I am so excited. We’re gonna make some beautiful images together and find a way to help you render your vision of the park under cover of night.
