Astrophotography Basics
in Appalachian Dark Skies

Photography Workshop

Date TBD - Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains

The backup dates are:
-February 1, 2025
-February 28, 2025

If you're unable to attend a backup date after the initial rescheduling, a full refund will be issued.

Backup Dates

Astrophotography requires clear skies. Significant cloud cover for the duration of the scheduled night will require a re-scheduling of the workshop to a backup date. A re-scheduling notification will be sent no later than 24 hours before the scheduled start time.

Weather

Maximum of seven persons

Group Size

We will meet at 7pm on January 31, 2025 before entering the park. Photo shooting time will be from approximately 8pm to midnight, with optional time to 2am for cloud flexibility.

Date and Time

Workshop Details

This is a Beginner Level workshop. You do not need any prior experience with astrophotography!

You will join me in the Blue Ridge Mountains at a dark sky location for one night. You will be introduced to the following topics:

-How to use the gear you already own
-Long Exposure fundamentals
-Focusing on infinity
-Finding the best locations for dark skies
-Milky Way photography
-Constellation photography
-Framing night sky subjects with mountain foregrounds
-Tracking celestial events (meteor showers, eclipses, etc)

At the end of the night you will walk away with:

-Two to four final photos
-Experience and training enough to equip you for solo astrophotography
-A better understanding of your gear and how to use it

What to Expect

Do you want to learn and experience photography under the night sky? This workshop is designed to teach astrophotography basics, and introduce you to the wonder of capturing nighttime scenes. You'll be guided step-by-step with me, teaching you this technical but wonderful field of photography.

You'll learn to identify photo targets, set up long exposure photographs, compose and frame night sky subjects, and track celestial events for unique photo opportunities.

Location: Shenandoah National Park - More detail provided week of workshop.
Date: The night of Friday, January 31, 2025 (It will extend into the morning hours Saturday)
Price: $250

This is a Weather Dependent workshop. More detail provided below.

About this workshop

Book Here

Interested in Joining?

It'll be nighttime! Make sure that you can stay awake and focused for the duration of the night, and that you can safely drive home.

Energy Drinks or Caffiene

An external or internal timer will reduce camera shake and give you more flexibility for stacking identical photographs in post-editing.

Intervalometer

This workshop will focus on wide-field photos, so a wider lens is better. Anything wider than 24 mm is preferred.

Bright lenses, with apertures less than f/3, are best for night skies.

Wide Angle/Low Aperture Lens

If you have this gear accessible, consider bringing it along to make your overall workshop experience better.

Gear recommendations

Clear sky nights in the winter are often very cold. Be prepared for wind chills below 20 degrees up in the mountains. Wind and ice/snow on the ground are not grounds for rescheduling. Bring gloves, hats, a heavy-duty jacket, hand warmers, blankets, etc.

Warm Clothes

Long-exposure photography requires a stable platform for your camera. Small "desktop" or pocket tripods are not suitable for this workshop. Tripods for astrophotography should be stable, adjustable, and reach approximately chest-height for best results.

Tripod

A camera capable of manual shutter control. Most name-brand DSLR and mirrorless cameras qualify.

Phone cameras are not suitable for this workshop.

Camera

In order to attend this workshop and have a complete, valuable experience, you need to bring the following gear. If you're unsure about your gear's specifications, send me a contact form and I'll give you direct feedback.