We're here for you.
Learn more about your instructors and fellow adventurers.
Gabriel Biderman
Partner, Instructor, Director of Collaborations
I am a travel and self-taught fine art photographer, who has been exploring the night topography for over 20 years. I love the “process” of creating the image and pushing the limits to what we can do when we capture time for seconds, minutes, or even hours! I'm well versed in both film and digital, and I enjoy blending the surreal look of the night to enhance historic and urban landscapes. My work has been exhibited in NY, London, San Francisco, and Hawaii and I am the author (with Tim Cooper) of the recently released book Night Photography – From Snapshots to Great Shots.
I moved to Brooklyn 15 years ago and started working as a fine art printer, but with the onslaught of digital, those opportunities became scarce. Soon after that, I was hired by a small mom and pop photo store called B&H. It has been a great experience, giving me the opportunity to try out the latest gear and meet some amazing friends and fellow photo fanatics! For the last 12 years, I have been representing B&H at various workshops, trade shows, and seminars - taking pictures all along the way from Paris, France to Paris, Texas!
One thing that I have learnt along the way is how much I enjoy sharing my night visions with others. I get an absolute thrill when one of our students has the "Ah-ha" moment. I also try to keep the whole workshop experience fun while nudging you to keep on clicking.
I've been fortunate enough to drive across our beautiful country several times and have visited many of our National Parks along the way. It is a dream of mine to shoot and create an epic image of each park at night. Many of you also share this passion for preserving and appreciating these wondrous places. Indeed, the National Parks at Night are the ideal stage to take in the universe!
Come share this adventure of a lifetime with us!
Tim Cooper
Partner, Instructor, Director of Finance
I love photography and I love teaching. Combining these two passions is how I have spent the last 22 years of my life.
Like many people, I’ve always felt I had a creative side. Again, like many folks, that side stayed buried for way too long. Originally from New Jersey, I worked as an electrician for several years before moving to Montana to discover my love of photography. Finally, my creative outlet!
Before long I was teaching for my Alma Mater, Rocky Mountain School of Photography. It soon became apparent that I also love to teach. I found that sharing my knowledge, watching people grow, and witnessing their excitement as they exercised their creative side was truly satisfying.
While teaching, I also began a career as a commercial and assignment photographer working with clients such as The North Face, The Ritz Carlton, Vasque boots, 3M and The International Heart Institute. My editorial and commercial photographs have appeared in Travel & Leisure, New York Times Magazine, Outdoor Photographer, Fly Rod & Reel, Modern Luxury and Private Clubs as covers, advertising, art and editorial illustration. In addition to commercial photography, I also love to educate by writing and recording. \
I am the author of the training videos Perfect Exposure for Digital Photography, Perfect Composition, Magic Light, and DSLR Camera Basics. I was the digital tech for many early Photoshop books and co-wrote three books in the series Complete Photoshop for Digital Photographers. My e-Books include The Realistic HDR Image and The Magic of Light Painting. I was graciously asked by my friend Gabriel Biderman to add a couple of chapters to his Night Photography:From Snapshots to Great Shots, and my latest solo bookis HDR Photography: from Snapshots to Great Shots.
Above all, though, I love being out in the field. The inevitable camaraderie that develops during workshops is pure pleasure. And, I can’t imagine a better way to spend time than enjoying the beauty of our natural world, witnessing the magic of the night sky, and sharing my love of photography.
Matt Hill
Partner, Instructor, Director of Marketing
I really want you to come with us on our adventures. Why? Simply put – I love being creative and I love teaching. I also have been pursuing the deepest possible understanding of night photography for over 20 years.
My top five reasons for you to join us:
I worship the pursuit and exploration of time dilation through long exposure photography.
We'll experiment with methods and techniques you may not have tried before.
I have a lot of patience. (Heck, I'm a night photographer...)
I sincerely care about you feeling like you made massive achievements during your adventure workshop with us.
I can help you overcome adverse weather, tough exposure conditions and all of the other stuff mother nature throws at us to test our mettle.
What kind of stuff do I do?
Well, let's see. I adore night photography. So much that I rarely shoot during the daytime. I got the bug for long exposures at night when I was a teenager and have been nuts about it ever since.
I am an artist through and through. I have to create to be happy. In addition to NPy, I am a paper artist, making both 2D and sculptural pieces. I've been commissioned for major hotels in NYC and Newport Beach and exhibited in California and NYC and hang in the private collections of homes around around the world. I'm also working on a multi-year project called, NIGHT PAPER, a surreal combination of cut paper fashions and night portraiture in urban and rural landscapes.
I have been teaching night photography for seven years, mostly with my good friend and co-founder of National Parks at Night, Gabe. We've taught in New York City, Bannerman Island and many historic sites in the Hudson Valley / New York, including Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Green-Wood Cemetery and Woodlawn Cemetery. I really dig entropy, water, sky and time.
My passion for the photo industry and marketing has kept me working within it for two decades. I've worked for Sinar Bron Imaging, Mamiya America Corporation/MAC Group, B&H and Gradus Group, where I was the Director of Marketing and now continue to provide educational marketing for MAC Group. Being a part of a vibrant and thriving industry also keeps me connected to thousands of amazing photographers, artists and educators. Practically everyone in the world loves photography. It's an amazing time to be a photographer.
Who are my heroes?
Wayne Coyne, Walter Murch, Nick Cave and Tom Waits. They are all multi-dimensional storytellers with heart and passion with no regard for convention.
Lance Keimig
Partner, Instructor, Director of International Travel
Night Photography has been my passion since I was first handed a camera 40 years ago. No, my father did not give me a Brownie, but my girlfriend introduced me to her Canon AE1, which I promptly took into my bedroom, turned off the lights, opened the shutter, and started waving a flashlight around to see what would happen. From the first rolls of film that I ever shot, I have been fascinated with the way that time can be expressed and distorted with long exposure photography. The ability to make images that record time differently that how we perceive it with our eyes has held my attention for all of this time.
After exhausting all of the photography classes at the local community college, I moved to San Francisco to study with legendary Bay Area night photographer Steve Harper. Studying with Steve was a life changing experience. In his classes, I learned not only about night photography, but I learned what it meant to be a great teacher. When I began to teach my own workshops eight years later, I based my workshops on my time with Steve. His classes were all about sharing ideas. There was no competition, no rivalry, and the students and instructor all worked and learned together in the most supportive and friendly environment I’ve ever experienced.
I taught my first night photography workshop at Rayko Photo Center in San Francisco in 1998, and knew after that experience that I wanted to teach, and to take the reigns from my mentor, who had recently retired. Since then, I’ve taught well over 100 night photography workshops around the US, and led more than 20 international photo tours. I’ve written 2 books on the subject, and lectured on night photography at conferences in Glasgow and San Paulo, at the Photo Plus Expo, and at the School of Visual Art in New York, as well as in Boston, Houston, and San Francisco.
For me, teaching is not about showing people how to do what I do, but helping people to open the doors and windows to their own creativity, and how to find meaning in their work. Much more than the technical aspects of photography it’s facing those big questions that lead to real growth as an artist. I consider myself extremely fortunate to be able to do work that I love and to share what I have learned with others who catch the night photography fever.
Chris Nicholson
Partner, Instructor, Director of Content
PhotographingNationalParks.com
My parents did a good job of exposing me to a lot of things when I was a kid, but two of the more common themes were photography and nature.
My dad was a serious amateur photographer, relying primarily on Mamiya manual cameras and print film, though he did dabble with digital in his later years. My uncle was a photojournalist who worked for several of the newspapers in southern Connecticut. And a good family friend was a lifetime wedding photographer. Cameras and image-crafting were a constant part of my environment.
And my parents enjoyed nature. More frequently than not, family vacations would involve camping in forested places such as Queechee Gorge, the Shenandoah Mountains and Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We slept in the woods (sometimes without a tent), cooked freshly caught fish over a fire, drank from forest springs, ate fresh berries that ripened after summer rains. This was all normal for me.
With that pair of influences, perhaps it’s no surprise that I was drawn to nature photography as an adult, and to the national parks to pursue that endeavor.
I made my first trip to a national park (Carlsbad Caverns) when I was 1 year old, with (of course) my parents. In the four-plus decades since, I’ve visited more than half of the other parks. My favorites to photograph are Acadia, Everglades, Olympic, Yellowstone, Grand Teton and Great Smoky Mountains—a group I’ve covered a cumulative 25 times. I cherish these wild places not just as photography subjects, but as pockets of nature the way it all once was. They represent what the world was before we, as a species, changed it so dramatically.
As much as I love visiting and photographing the national parks, I also love sharing that passion with others. I regularly lecture at the B&H Event Space in New York City, working with sponsors such as Lexar, Manfrotto and YES Watch. I have also been a featured presenter at the OPTIC Imaging Conference presented by B&H and Lindblad Expeditions, at the PhotoPlus International Conference and Expo, and for the Sierra Club. I also get to edit books for National Parks Traveler, to appear on podcasts about photography and the national parks, and so on.
The inspiration to share this passion also led me to write Photographing National Parks, which was released by Sidelight Books in 2015. I’m always eager to share knowledge about photography, to share opinions about the parks, and to share experiences in these great spaces. I hope we get to do all three together at a workshop soon.
HERE IS WHAT SOME OF OUR WORKSHOP ATTENDEES THINK:
“Chris is a great teacher. Patient, supportive and right there if we had questions.”
“Gabe and Tim were always attentive to everyone’s needs as well. Plenty of great in-field instruction & a whole lot of laughs! Thanks for a trip of a lifetime!”
“Keimig may well be one of the finest photography instructors on the planet.”
“Certainly one of the coolest workshops I’ve ever attended...after spending an hour in class and then a photo walk in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery where each of us, under the guidance of Matt Hill set up for light painting and night sky photography...the results were spectacular! ”
“A great, practical, hands-on learning experience! Lance is a great presenter. He took the time to work with each student, in the field, and with submissions. He provided guidance on both image capture and processing. I came away with a lot of great information (and an autographed copy of a fine book).”
“Lance, you’re simply tops. This was my third workshop with you, each better than the last. Your abilities as a photographer, your commitment as a teacher, your warmth as a friend, are beyond compare.”
“Another awesome adventure with Tim and Gabe!”
“Matt’s easy-going and genuine helpful nature made me feel instantly at ease participating in my first photography workshop. Since it was also my first experience with night photography his depth of knowledge and enthusiasm for his craft made for a wonderful and educational night. A year later I jumped at the opportunity to attend another workshop with Matt, now with a bit more experience under my belt (and also experimenting with film at night) he again helped me take my photography to the next level.”
“Fascinating, erudite lecture on the history of Night Photography by one of the very best in the field. Thank you, Lance Keimig!”
“Tim and Gabe are the consummate teachers. Their knowledge is as limitless as is their patience. They were always ready and willing to help with any challenge.”
“The only reason I did not send you [Lance] a tremendous thank you yesterday is that I was telling everyone I know, and don’t know, that this weekend’s workshop was just incredible. On Friday I was essentially ignorant and am now anxious to do more night shooting because I feel comfortable to go out again…in only 3 days. That is a testament to your leadership and support much more than anything on my part.”
“Working with Matt has been more than I could have imagined. He has the fearlessness to take my ideas further than I had considered with an infectious excitement. It’s been several years and many treks out to the wilds of the Hudson Valley and every time we go he surprises me with innovative ideas to help me tighten up my images or my ideas.”
