When and where?

September 23 - September 28, 2025 Navajo Nation and Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona.

overview

Join Derek Culver and Andrew Imhoff as we tour you around to capture the best astrophotography locations at the Grand Canyon! This workshop includes the popular spots at the Grand Canyons as well as backcountry bucket list locations on Navajo Lands that you may have never heard of! That’s the point, we balance our workshops between comfort and immersion, focusing on taking you to the darkest skies with soul touching vistas that we will camp right at! We provide all 4x4 guiding, camping accommodations with stellar views (hotel accommodations too including the historic North Rim Lodge!), while having fun in our small group as we teach you the photography techniques and philosophies, we use to capture night scenes of the amazing places we go together.

Shooting Locations:

Coal Mine Canyon, Edge of the World, Little Colorado River (Navajo Permit) , East Rim Grand Canyon, Tatahatso Point (Navajo Permit), North Rim Grand Canyon, and West Rim Grand Canyon.

What you will learn:

We believe the best way to learn anything is to immerse yourself in it, and we’d like you to come join our world of astrophotography for a week of adventure, learning, and memories! We teach Astronomy basics, how the moon cycles work, how to plan your shots using apps & astronomy fundamentals, how to find compelling compositions, optimal camera settings, focusing your camera at night, light painting, star trackers, editing your night photos, Lightroom & Photoshop, how to capture timelapses (videos of the night sky!) and edit them together, and much more! This workshop is fantastic for all levels of astrophotographers and adventurers! Our small group sizes allow us to give hands on instruction and tailor our lessons to each individual.

Itinerary

Please meet us in Flagstaff or Page, Arizona on Monday September 23rd before 5pm! The trip ends on the morning of Sunday September 28th at the North Rim Lodge, Arizona. If you would like the full itinerary, please fill out the question form and request the itinerary. We do a mix of camping right on the rim of canyons and hotels including the historic North Rim Lodge.

what will you learn & difficulty

This workshop is great for beginner and experienced night photographers and adventurers. This workshop is not strenuous, and we enjoy most of the scenery close to our cars; you must be able to hike on uneven surfaces for about half a mile with some of your camera gear and not have a dibilitating fear of heights. We will be teaching fundamentals to night photography from planning your shot, focusing, and proper settings all the way to using star trackers, blending images, and more advanced techniques that will take your photography to the next level. Our small group size allows for us to tailor our lessons to each individual and with lots of 1on1 hands on shooting and post processing sessions.

Lodging

We alternate between backcountry camping and hotels for a balanced experience of comfort and immersion! We provide all the camping amenities you will need for the trip including all sleeping gear, starlink, charging, water, and meals while out in remote areas. We 4x4 you out to some truly remarkable spots of the Grand Canyon that 99.9% of visitors never see or even know about! We will camp right on the rim with epic panoramic views! This allows us to truly enjoy the natural beauty and allows us to teach you much more photography as we shoot sunset, astro, and sunrise right on the rim! We handle all the logistics and accommodations for all the hotels, campgrounds, permits so that you can show up and spend your energy learning and having fun creating art and unforgettable memories with a small group of passionate photographers.

Logistics

We recommend flying into Flagstaff or Page, Arizona. Vegas or Phoenix would be the next best airports. Everyone is responsible for their flights and transportation to the workshop and during the workshop as we caravan around together. However, we can typically arrange carpools with other participants which adds to social elements of the trip and saves on costs, or we can provide all transportation (airport pick up through airport drop off) for a fee if you fly into Page or Flagstaff, Arizona. Some folks bring a ton of gear and want their space in their cars, others love carpooling. Please reach out so we can help assist you with logistics!

workshop cost & payment terms

The tuition for this workshop is $4,500 total, with a non-refundable deposit of $1,000 to reserve a spot. Transportation fee is $350 and covers everything from pick up and drop off at the airport (Flagstaff or Page, Arizona) and an opportunity to ride along with the trip leaders for extra discussions about photography and life during the trip. The remaining total balance of the workshop is due 2 months before the workshop starts. Alumni please reach out for a discounted price!

ITINERARY

Please email us for the detailed itinerary or other questions- derek@blazingheavens.com. We are in a Backcountry Camp, Hotel, Backcountry Camp, Hotel, Hotel- a nice mix of immersion and comfort! We provide all gear and food while we camp.

The workshop officially starts at 5pm on Tuesday September 22nd near Tuba City and concludes at 9am on Sunday September 28th at the North Rim Lodge. We recommend flying into Flagstaff, Arizona- flying out later in the day on the 28th to give plenty of time to get back to the airport (Some people may stay the night in Flagstaff on the 28th then fly out the 29th. We can typically arrange carpools or can provide all transportation (pick up and drop off from the airport, and everything in between!) for a fee.

September 23

We will camp on the Rim of Coal Mine Canyon! We’ll cook Bison burgers and enjoy this extremely vibrant canyon all to ourselves for sunset, astro, and sunrise- capturing all the phases and colors!

September 24th

We will sleep in (sunrise is optional for those with energy) then head to breakfast and our first editing session in Tuba City! We will check into our hotel to clean and rest up. Tonight, we will focus on getting shots at some pristine backcountry canyons, enjoying the darkest skies in Arizona, at 5,000+ feet above sea level! The dry, high elevation, and seldom cloudy skies make these locations some of the best in the world to shoot astro, with epic canyon vistas. We will shoot sunset and astro at this next (undisclosed) location! We will 4x4 you out here and drive back to the hotel when we get our shots, enjoy the beauty, and are feeling sleepy.

September 25th

After sleeping in we’ll dive into a heavier editing session. Group, and one on one sessions! In the early afternoon we will gas and snack up then head to our next backcountry astro location. We will enjoy the remote desert drives out to our next location overlooking a more expansive part of the Grand Canyon that few people visit! We’ll be camping right on the rim for sunset, astro, and sunrise! Weather is usually warm enough this time of year to cowboy camp or just sleep on your cot right under the stars, it’s awesome.

September 26th

Sunrise optional, depends on conditions and energy! Feel free to sleep in if we go hard and stay up late the night before. In the AM we’ll do a quick coffee and breakfast, pack up our camp leaving no trace, then head out towards the North Rim of the Grand Canyon where we will check in to the North Rim Lodge! The drive itself is beautiful, we will stop at a secret swim spot along the way!

We’ll be staying at the North Rim lodge the last two nights and have simple, quaint, but uber peaceful accommodations a short walk from the Rim of the Grand Canyon in a pristine Ponderosa Pine Forest. We’ll check in, clean up and give you most of the day to relax, enjoy the scenery, and organize and edit our photos together. We will reconvene for a quick group dinner later and then head out to a nearby canyon vista to shoot sunset and astro!

September 27th

Sunrise is optional! We’ll probably be sleeping in from all the astro we’ve been doing. We’ll do a late breakfast and editing session. Lots of editing, relaxing, and enjoying the serine beauty at the North Rim. We’ll do an early group dinner with panoramic views of the Grand Canyon right from out table! We’ll shoot sunset and astro right from the North Rim Lodge tonight.

September 28th

The workshop part of the trip officially ends when we conclude astro sometime in the night, but checkout isn’t until 10am- we’ll make sure everyone gets back to the airports on time and grab breakfast on our way out! Ideally you will want to book your flight out of Page or Flagstaff in the afternoon. Page is a 2 hour drive from the North Rim and Flagstaff is a 3.5-4 hour drive.

We follow up the workshop with custom editing videos using the images we captured together. Keep an eye out for alumni discounts at future workshops as well as our annual alumni star party!