Stark. Desolate. Magical. Vast. Inspiring.

Just a few adjectives to describe Death Valley. It’s a land of expanses and graphics. Of color, light and texture.

In this photo workshop we’ll explore this target rich environment, which is packed with geological beauty along with a dose of cultural history. We’ll visit the sand dunes, salt flats, colorful geological formations, scenic overlooks and more.

This workshop is limited to six participants. With two instructors, this means more individual attention, a better chance to get to know your fellow participants and a smaller likelihood that someone will wander into your shots!

Our days will start early with a sunrise shoot, possibly followed by a secondary location and, of course, breakfast.

In the middle of the day we’ll typically meet for critiques and presentations. This is flexible and will depend on the photo opportunities we come across.

In the afternoon we’ll head out again for a late day and sunset shoot. Conditions permitting, we may try our hands at some night photography and we’ll send you some suggestions on how to ready yourself for that possible adventure.

In the field we’ll place emphasis on using proper technique and craftsmanship behind the camera. We’ll work on improving your landscape photography, including choosing foregrounds, using hyperfocal focusing or digital focus stacking, and knowing when to use graduated neutral density filters or digital blending techniques to capture the entire range of light in a scene.
And we’ll be pushing you to look at the world in different ways, to try something you’ve not tried before, or shoot with a specific purpose or digital darkroom process in mind.

Weather: In mid February expect pleasant conditions with temperatures ranging from lows in the mid-forties to highs in the mid-seventies. With any luck, rains earlier in the winter will bring on a flower bloom. With even more luck we’ll have some rain and the reflecting pools that come with it. Be prepared for cool mornings and evenings and warm afternoons.

Lodging and travel: We’ll be staying at Stovepipe Wells Village, centrally located inside the park. This puts us closer to our photo destinations so we can make the most of our time in the park during the short winter days. It also puts us right in the best place for photographing the night skies if we get that chance.

The room rates will be between $170 (Standard 2 Queen) and $226 (Deluxe 2 Queen) per night plus 12% tax. There is limited availability fo the standard rooms.

These rates will drop if we reserve a certain minimum of rooms. Upon registering we’ll send you details on how to make your hotel reservations.

Getting there: The nearest major airport is Las Vegas. The National Park has kindly provided a few routes you can take, depending on what you want to see along the way or how fast you want to get there. Note that the destination on the map is Furnace Creek. You’ll see the route to Stovepipe Wells.

Your instructors:

Cliff Zenor is a long-time photo workshop and tour leader who has led trips in the US, Canada, Africa, the Galapagos and more for companies such as Great American Photography Workshops (GAPW), Joseph Van Os Photo Safaris, Visionary Wild, and The Ansel Adams Gallery, either leading on his own or teaming with such notables as John Shaw, Jack Dykinga, David Middleton, and Bill Fortney.

His photos have been featured in magazines such as Outdoor Photographer, Horticulture, Fine Gardening and many more.

In the field, Cliff is one of the best teachers you can come across. He’s easy going, encouraging, enthusiastic and an all-around good guy.

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Rod Barbee has been leading and co-leading photo workshops and tour nearly 18 years. Not quite as long as Cliff has. In fact, his first real job as a photo workshop leader was teaming up with Cliff for a GAPW workshop in Olympic National Park way back in 2001.

Since then he’s led or co-led trips in the US, Canada, and Iceland. Rod’s photos have been featured in Outdoor Photographer, Nature Photographer, Oregon Coast, and Northwest Travel magazines. He’s the co-author of The Photographer’s Guide to the Oregon Coast and the author of The Photographer’s Guide to Puget Sound and Northwest Washington.

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Rod Barbee Photography is an Authorized Permittee of the National Park Service.

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