When and where?

June 2nd - 8th Vermillion Cliffs and Escalante Wilderness, based out of an Airbnb in Kanab, Utah.

overview

Spend 6 nights with astrophotography experts Derek Culver and Andrew Imhoff exploring and capturing the backcountry geologic beauty and incredibly dark skies of the Vermillion Cliffs and Escalante Wilderness! We will be touring you around to the best spots around kanab, 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:

The Great Chamber, Antelope Canyons, White Pocket, Rainbow Bentonite Hills, Toadstool Hoodoos, and the Wave (permits pending).

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 Kanab, Utah on Monday June 2nd at 5pm to begin our adventures and lessons and we end on the morning of Sunday June 8th at 7am! We do a mix of camping and staying at the Airbnb (especially for cleaning up and our editing sessions) to stay fresh as well as immerse ourselves in the beauty.

what will you learn & difficulty

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

Lodging

We alternate between camping and our airbnb stay for a balanced experience of comfort and immersion! Single occupancy rooms, and we use the Airbnb as a base for cleaning, resting, and our editing sessions and we 4x4 you out to all the incredible shooting and camping locations. We provide all the camping amenities you will need for the trip including comfortable and warm sleeping gear, starlink, charging station, water, and warm meals while out in remote areas.

Logistics

We provide all transportation once at the workshop, including navigating the tricky 4x4 roads to the amazing spots we will be photographing and camping at! Often times we can arrange carpool groups to and from the workshop that adds to the social dynamic of the workshop and saves on rental and gas costs. For this workshop we can actually arrange to shuttle you to and from the airport (Flagstaff, Page, or St George) for a transportation fee- Please reach out to us so we can assist you with logistics.

workshop cost & payment terms

The tuition for this workshop is $3,800 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 $3,000 total, $500 deposit to reserve a spot, but with the discount applied when the remaining workshop balance is collected!

ITINERARY

Please email us with any questions- derek@blazingheavens.com

The workshop officially starts Tuesday June 2nd at 4pm in Kanab and finishes on Sunday June 8th after sunrise.

tuesday june 2nd

Meet in Kanab, Utah at 5pm at our Airbnb then head to an early dinner and introduction at 6pm in town! We will get some sleep then head out later in the night to shoot the Milky Way as it passes through the view of the Great Chamber. Those with "big sleepover energy” may stay for sunrise with one of us, as it’s quite phenomenal up there!

wednesday june 3rd

We will sleep in (sunrise is optional for those with energy), grab breakfast in Kanab, and have our first editing session at our Airbnb to process our images from the night before. Later in the afternoon we will head out to White Pocket!
We will enjoy white pocket for sunset, head to bed early, then wake back up when the Milky Way is at it’s prime and shoot! Panoramas, epic foregrounds, light painting, tracking; this is one of the greatest places for astrophotography of all time!

thursday june 4th

We will be staying out at White Pocket for 2 nights! We have a robust first class camping set up with chairs, awnings, refrigerator, lots of food and snacks, water of course, starlink (we recommend NOT using internet for a better experience but we have it if you need!), and lots of amenities to be comfortable out in the wilderness. We’ll enjoy the amazing landscapes, hang out, explore the rock formations and petroglpyhs, edit, then shoot again for a second night here!

friday june 5th

In the AM we’ll pack up early and head back to our Airbnb to shower, recharge, and recover a bit for an easier day and night. We’ll do another group dinner and editing session today going over our images from White Pocket and teaching you our editing techniques and secrets.
We’ll get to bed early then head out on an easier night photography adventure shooting the Toadstool Hoodoos nearby! Love this spot for it’s ease but it’s a high reward location with cool sandstone rocks and super dark skies, great for panoramas and tracking.

saturday june 6th

After an easier night at the toadstools, we’ll sleep in and recover! Depending on if we get permits tonight, we will either head to these remarkable bentonite rainbow hills and shoot the Milky Way over them OR if we get lucky we will shoot at the Wave at North Coyote Buttes (we will know by February if we get the permits or not!). If we have the energy we can shoot both of them :)

sunday june 7th

We keep this day and night open for an official editing and recovery day! If we get completely clouded out on a previous night, we will focus on editing during the cloudy night then have the opportunity to use this last night to revisit that location!

sunday june 8th

The trip unofficially ends after we shoot the night OR after breakfast, but checkout isn’t until 11am- we’ll make sure everyone 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.

We recommend booking your flight out later in the day to give you time to sleep in and not have to rush to the airport, but we can certainly accommodate what works with your schedule and flight availabilities.

Keep an eye out for alumni discounts at future workshops as well as our annual alumni star party!