When and where?

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

overview

Join us for an unforgettable 6 nights of astrophotography experts Derek Culver and Andrew Imhoff exploring and capturing the backcountry views and darkest skies in the remote canyons of Arizona! We provide all 4x4 transportaion, camping and hotel accomodations, and tour you at the best times, while teaching you the photography techniques and philosophies we use to capture night scenes, and creating amazing memories with a group of like-minded photographers.

Otherworldly rock formations, sandstone cathedrals, vibrant bentonite badlands, and warm desert nights under the cosmos. Based out of a large house in Kanab, we’ll do a mix of editing sessions from our home base and camping out under the stars (everything provided for you) for a comfortable but immersive photography experience. This workshop includes all 4x4 transportation required and accommodations as we will have one foot in comfort and one foot immersed in adventures exploring, capturing, and camping surrounded by the world’s best geology and dark skies!

Shooting Locations:

Coal Mine Canyon, 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!

Itinerary

We meet in Tuba City, Arizona on Tuesday September 23rd to begin our adventures and lessons and we end on the morning of Sunday September 28th at the North Rim Lodge, Grand Canyon. If you would like the full itinerary, please fill out the question form and request the itinerary. We are camping for 3 nights (all gear provided) then staying at a luxury glamping stay for 3 nights.

what will you learn & difficulty

This workshop is great for beginner and experiences night photographers and adventurers. You must be able to hike on uneven surfaces for about 1-2 miles with some of your camera gear. We will be teaching fundamentals to night photography from planning your shot, focusing, and proper settings all the way to blending images, using star trackers, and stacking images!

Lodging

We alternate between 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. Hotel alternatives included in itinerary for those who prefer more comfort on our camping nights. Please email us if you would like to see the full itinerary.

Logistics

Everyone is responsible for their own transportation to the workshop and during the workshop. Most of the time we can help arrange carpools between our workshop guests from the airport and in the parks in order to save costs and add to the social atmosphere of the workshop! Some workshops we can offer transportation for a fee. The closest and most convenient airport is El Paso (4 hour drive) or Midland/Odessa airport.

workshop cost & payment terms

The tuition for this workshop is $3,500 total, with a non-refundable deposit of $750 to reserve a spot. The remaining total balance of the workshop is due 2 months before the workshop starts. Alumni discounted cost is $2,800 total, same deposit to reserve a spot, but with the discount applied when the remaining workshop balance is collected!

ITINERARY

Please email us for the full detailed itinerary- derek@blazingheavens.com

The workshop officially starts at 4pm on April 22nd and ends at 9am on the morning of April 27th! We will meet in the Chisos Mountains, Big Bend.

Tuesday April 22nd\

1 hotel then coal mine

2 camp LRC

3 camp Tatahatso

4 hotel north rim - cape royal

5 hotel north rim - bright angel

We’ll be camping at the Chisos Mountains with food, grocery, and shower amenities (hotel alternative is walkable to our campground) and do dinner, introduction, and an easy sunset and astro shoot right at our campground. Tonight we will work out the rust, troubleshoot our camera setups, and dial in on settings and compositions with an easy 1 mile hike at Balanced Rock.

wednesday april 23rd

We will sleep in (sunrise is optional for those with energy) then head to breakfast and our first editing session! You will have most of the day to explore the park until we reconvene for an evening exploration an easy hike in the Chisos Mountains. Tonight we will focus on getting shots up in the Chisos Mountains with an epic send to this viewpoint with the Milky Way core rising!

thursday april 24th

After sleeping in we’ll pack up and head about 45 minutes to our glamping set up in Terlingua! We’ll grab food on the way and edit photos while we wait for our rooms to be ready! We’ll be here the next three nights, we will do some optional impromptu group hikes (depending on energy levels) to some epic nearby canyons as well as more editing once we’re showered and rested up. We’ll reconvene in the evening for shooting this epic spot!

friday april 25th

Tonight we will head over to this epic canyon vista as well as another spot of this sneaky arch and cacti garden that could be blooming!

saturday april 26th

Expect clear skies, however if we do get clouded out one night we can use this last night to return to one of the other spots. Otherwise, tonight we hang out at the Airbnb to eat, edit, and shoot lots of tracked shots right from our glamping spot!

sunday april 27th

The trip officially ends at 8am but checkout isn’t until 11am- we’ll make sure every one gets back to the airports on time and grab breakfast on our way out! 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 part!