When and where?

July 23 - 27 Mt Rainier National Park, Washington

overview

Spend 4 nights with astrophotography experts Derek Culver and Andrew Imhoff exploring and capturing the vibrant alpine wildflower meadows and glacier clad volcano underneath the Milky Way Galaxy!

Shooting Locations:

Fire Lookout Tower, Wildflower Meadows, Glacier Lakes, and the best views of Mt Rainier under the Milky Way.

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 Wednesday July 23 at 6pm at the Sunrise Visitor Center in Mt Rainier and end Sunday July 27 at 6am after sunrise! We recommend booking your flight after 12pm on Sunday so you are not rushing back to the airport.

what will you learn & difficulty

This workshop is great for beginner and experienced night photographers and adventurers alike, but particularly lends itself well to beginners. You must be able to hike on uneven surfaces for about 1 mile total with some of your camera gear at night- we will even split up the group between leaders between easier and harder hikes on one 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, focal length blending and focus stacking!

Lodging

We will be providing camp spots (and comfortable camping gear upon request) for everyone for 3 nights and the final night in the Paradise lodge. There are hotel alternatives for the 3 camping nights for those who prefer a bit more comfort, please inquire so we can assist you. We cook or go out and eat while we camp!

Logistics

Every one is responsible for their own transportation to and from the workshop and throughout the duration of the workshop, however for this workshop we can provide all transportation for a fee. Often, we can arrange carpools between students which adds to the social environment as well as save costs on rentals and gas. We recommend flying in and out of Tacoma/Seatac Airport, and flying out after 12pm on the 27th so there is enough time to reach your flight.

workshop cost & payment terms

The tuition for this workshop is $3,000 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 $1,800 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

We meet Wednesday July 23 at 6pm at the Sunrise Visitor Center in Mt Rainier and end Sunday July 27 at 10am after breakfast at Paradise Hotel.

wednesday july 23rd

Meet us at camp at 1pm near Sunrise Visitor Center or at the Sunrise Visitor Center at 6pm!
Depending on your fitness level, you can hike 5 miles round trip to a Fire Lookout tower with Derek, or you can do an easy .25 mile hike with Andrew to shoot tonight! Derek’s group will head out to catch sunrise, astro, then hike back all together to then link up with Andrew’s group back in the wildflower meadows. Plan do be out until around 1am! We will caravan back together to our campground.

thursday july 24th

You can shoot sunrise up at Sunrise Visitor Center area the next morning if you have the energy! The rest of us will sleep in. We will cook breakfast for everyone at the campground (hotel participants are invited too!) and soak in the forest environment. We will do a group dinner then head to our second shooting locations capturing the wildflowers, Mt Rainier, and hopefully climbers!

friday july 25th

After sleeping in from the night before, we will do a group breakfast then an editing session. We will soak in the beauty of Mt Rainier and you are free to explore most of the day! In the later afternoon we will reconvene and hike to a secret astro spot with an epic Glacier lake! We can swim, shoot sunset here, and also shoot from here or leave timelapses of the Milky Way and climbers on Mt Rainier.

saturday july 26th

Those with energy are welcome to shoot sunrise! The rest of us will sleep in. We’ll do a quick breakfast, say goodbye to our beautiful campground, then head over to the Paradise side of Mt Rainier! We don’t check in to our hotel until 2pm so we will stop at some nice vistas and waterfalls along the way, as well as grab a group lunch together! Today will be more relaxing as we can check into hotels, shower, edit; you are also free to explore the amazing Paradise Meadows and nearby lakes! We will reconvene around 6pm for a group dinner then head out to shoot our final night! We will explore some easy wildflower trails and shoot a reflective lake, the Milky Way over the Tatoosh mountain ridge, as well as Rainier from a new angle.

sunday july 27th

The trip unofficially ends after we shoot the night before or at sunrise, but checkout isn’t until 10am- 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.

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!