Some of the best-looking landscape photography images I’ve enjoyed include the night sky or Blue Hour timing for the photography. Night sky views and landscapes go hand in hand, since both evoke feelings of vastness and showcase incredible beauty.
A great source of night photography tips is learning from an expert in this type of photography. My friends Jeff Sullivan and Lori Hibbert are just such experts, and they host several workshops showcasing tips for night photography and also specific night sky photography tips.
We're using Jeff and Lori’s images throughout this article with their permission. Truth be told, simply browsing through their website is a joy - so many wonderful images!
What can you look forward to regarding night photography tips when you attend a Great Basin School of Photography workshop?
Table of Contents:
- Beautiful Locations
- General Night Photography Tips
- In-Depth Workshop
- Night Photography Tips for Specific Types of Images
- Other Great Basin School of Photography Workshops
- Recommended Night Photography Gear
Beautiful Locations
One of the first things experienced landscape photographers do when planning a photo trek or photography excursion is to research where to go and when to go there. Jeff Sullivan and Lori Hibbert, co-founders of Great Basin School of Photography, have found wilderness areas that offer spectacular landscape views and breathtaking nighttime scenes.
Bodie, California, is the main area for the Bodie at Night and Eastern Sierra photography workshop. Besides the night photography tips you’re seeking, you’ll also have lots of adventure photographing all the sights of this gorgeous wilderness area, including the ghost town of Bodie itself.
Bodie, California, is a ghost town in Mono County that was a gold boom town in the late nineteenth century. The town itself is full of interesting buildings in various states of decay, preserved as a popular tourist destination and a good spot for starting out the workshop.
You reach the area via State Highway 395 in Central California near the Nevada border and within an easy drive to other landscape photography destinations in the Eastern Sierra, Mono Lake, and Yosemite areas.
The opening image of this article is the town of Bodie. The California State Parks department took over the area in 1962 and is preserving the town in a state of “arrested decay” that is fascinating in itself even without the workshop’s night photography tips. Let me tell you, just getting there is an adventure, it’s really rustic and remote.
General Night Photography Tips
The workshop begins with an early dinner and Day 1 activities that include traveling to a nearby site for sunset and night photography tips and practice. On Day 2, you will set up for sunset and Milky Way photography after hiking to a more remote area.
Jeff Sullivan plans the timing for the workshops around the nighttime conditions for the area. The Moon will be visible as a crescent and will set about an hour or so after sunset, so the night sky will be truly dark in your remote location.
A nice, dark sky location is a premier spot for putting into practice all of the night photography tips you’ll learn from the instructors and from the support and experience of others attending your workshop.
In-Depth Workshop
The final day of the workshop, Day 3, will begin mid-morning and will cover a review and evaluation of what you’ve learned and experienced in terms of night photography tips, methods, and ideas.
That part of the workshop wraps up mid-afternoon for you to enjoy a nice early dinner. After meeting up, you’ll travel to Bodie where you can enter the state park in the early evening, having the park to yourselves from then through sunset and until full astronomical darkness.
What level of photographer should you be in order to benefit the most from these night photography tips and other workshop instruction? A good understanding of the basics of composition, long exposure photography, Golden Hour and Blue Hour, plus astrophotography basics such as the 500 Rule will allow you to immediately put into practice what you’re learning.
A certain level of physical fitness is desirable as well. Bodie, CA is a high elevation area, 8,374 feet, to be exact. There will also possibly be several miles of hiking over undeveloped terrain while carrying your own photography gear. We’re not talking National Geographic levels of difficulty, but hiking with gear at elevation can be taxing.
Night Photography Tips for Specific Types of Images
Some of the night photography tips are basic and usable over a large scale of types of subjects and situations, but some will be very specific for the type of imaging being attempted. Milky Way photography, for instance, involves some specific night photography tips in order to capture the best images.
Photographers at any skill level will enjoy learning the night photography tips presented by the instructors. If you’re brand new to nighttime landscape photography or if you've been capturing the night sky and landscapes at an expert level for a while, the Bodie Workshop will be a thrilling experience for you.
Other Great Basin School of Photography Workshops
In addition to this workshop with the night photography tips, Jeff and Lori also host several other workshops in remote California locations. The Sierras, Yosemite, and Death Valley are some of the locations available, with different times of the year set aside for maximizing the learning experience.
Whatever workshop you choose, you will enjoy it and you will learn a lot about landscape photography, abandoned areas photography, and all sorts of night photography tips. Spaces are limited, so sign up soon!