Half of the park is at night! Rocky Mountain National Park is an incredible place to photograph the night sky. Mountain silhouettes, alpine lakes and wide open skies make for some unique stargazing and astrophotography opportunities. Trail Ridge Road offers access to many vantage points well away from light pollution, and the opportunity to see and photograph the night sky at 11 to 12,000 feet above sea level, through 2 miles less atmosphere than at sea level. September is a great time to capture the Milky Way reflected in alpine lakes!

We will spend 4 nights capturing the night sky above Longs Peak, Bear Lake, Rock Cut, and a variety of other fantastic night photography locations in Rocky Mountain National Park, as well as take in a couple of mountain sunsets as well! The workshop will include classroom work to better your photographic craft, including time to process and critique your images.  We will shoot each evening into late at night as weather allows, with a few hours each day dedicated to classroom instruction and image processing.  We will end the workshop with a supportive group slide show and review. 

Colin is an award-winning photographer who has spent the past several years exploring the mountains of Colorado and red rock Canyonlands of Southern Utah. As a resident of nearby Longmont, CO, he has spent more than a decade exploring the photographic riches in and around Estes Park in every season, and has been leading workshops and tours in the area for several years as the founder of Rock Light Photo Tours.  He is a certified and insured photography travel guide in nearby Rocky Mountain, Arches, Bryce Canyon, and Canyonlands national parks. 

- Capturing the Milky Way with your digital camera

- Techniques and gadgets for better Milky Way photography

- Making your mountain sunset images pop

- Determining proper exposure
- Capturing great images in challenging lighting conditions

- Analyzing a scene for compositional options

- Using filters to improve artistic results

- Adobe Lightroom workflow for getting the most from your images

- Post processing for Milky Way photography

- Stacking images to reduce noise 

- Creating composite images with layer masking

- Techniques for creating and compiling star trails images

Skills Needed:

All skill levels are welcome.  Participants who have a good working knowledge of their cameras, and basic understanding of digital workflow and knowledge or exposure to Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom will get the most from this workshop. 

Physical Demands:

Though locations visited during this workshop are readily accessible, the mountain terrain requires some moderate hiking (typically less than 2 miles round trip, with a max elevation gain of 500’). Participants MUST be in good physical shape, and able to climb and descend moderate to steep inclines at high elevations (9,500-12’000’). They should wear sturdy boots and use caution on slippery and rocky slopes.  As this is a night workshop, we will be shooting late at night, sometimes into the wee hours of morning.   If you are coming from the flatlands near sea level, I highly recommend arriving in the Estes Park area at least a day or two before to acclimate to the elevations. 

Group Size:

Maximum 6 photographers.  

Registration fee: $1400 per person, plus room fees per package.  Deposit to reserve a space: $500 (plus a housing deposit as appropriate)

Dates and Times

Workshop begins Wed, Sept 9 at 4:30pm, and ends Sun, Sept 13 at 10:30am.

Non-photographer/tag-along rate: $500 - for a spouse/partner/friend who wants to come along, eat meals with the group, and travel to some of our shooting locations.  Note there is a double occupancy rate for the lodging options at the vacation rental property.

Where to Meet

Participants will gather and be based at the vacation rental property in Estes Park, Colorado.   Directions and details will be sent well in advance of the workshop.

For all of my workshops, I rent a large rental house that will be our home  base, giving us a place to gather for classroom sessions, a kitchen to use for meals, and a chance to mingle with and learn from your fellow photographers. 

A limited number of private rooms are available in the spacious luxury 4 bedroom & 3 bedroom vacation rental properties in Estes Park, CO that will be the home base for the workshop. These gorgeous homes will give us a place to gather for classroom sessions, a kitchen to use for meals, and a chance to mingle with and learn from your fellow photographers.  

- Private bedroom (King bed, pvt bath (1 avail): $225/night + tax single occ, $275/night dbl occ. 

- Private bedroom (King bed, shared bath (1 avail): $200/night - $250/nt dbl occ.

- Private bedroom (Queen bed, shared bath (1 avail): $175/night + tax 

NOTE: all rooms in our 4BR home base are booked, but there are still some hotel options not far from the house in Estes Park if you act quickly!

There is a package option for 'no accommodations', which is for people sharing a room with someone who has booked a room already, or for someone who plans to stay in a hotel in town. 

- A digital SLR or mirrorless camera capable of manual exposure settings, as well as ISO settings up to 6400.  

- Plan to bring all of your lenses, from 14mm to 200mm (full frame equiv.), as the variety of daytime locations for sunsets will put all your gear to work!  A wide angle lens (somewhere in the 14mm to 35mm range) capable of an aperture of f/2.8 or lower is best for capturing the Milky Way.  Consider renting a lens if you don’t own one. (a longer lens >200mm for capturing wildlife in the park is optional)

- A sturdy tripod (or two if you wish to have a 2nd camera going (for star trails, etc)

- A circular polarizer filter, while not required, can be a useful tool for controlling glare and reflections for the sunset locations. NOTE: Colin is a rep for NiSi Filters, which makes an excellent circular polarizer filter, and he can get you a 15% discount off retail prices. https://nisiopticsusa.com/shop/nisi-circular-filters/round-cpl-circular-polarizer-filter/ti-enhanced-cpl/      

-  Hiking boots or other sturdy shoes: while the hikes to locations we will visit will be fairly short (typically less than 1-2 miles round trip) a good set of sturdy hiking boots is good for protecting the ankles on rocky trails and slippery rocks. 

- Lots of clothing layers – Mountain weather can be finicky, and temps can be chilly at night in the mountains, and warmer during the day.  A warm jacket, gloves and a warm hat are a must for night shooting in RMNP.  BE PREPARED for temps ranging from near 80 during the day in Estes Park to around freezing at night on top of Trail Ridge Road (12,000' above sea level).  Come prepared for sun, rain, wind, and maybe even snow (there has been measurable snow at least once in the last 100 years on Trail Ridge Road every day of the year!)

- A headlamp, preferably with a red light setting. A dimmable headlamp is a bonus. 

- Your own method of transportation.  We will carpool to locations as possible, so not everyone needs to drive every day. (4WD/AWD not required)

- A laptop computer, ideally loaded with Adobe Lightroom Classic and Adobe Photoshop, to best take advantage of the Lightroom workflow instructional sessions and group processing time.  (a tablet loaded with Lightroom is also an option) Cables and devices necessary to download your images from camera to laptop or tablet. 

OPTIONAL:

A star tracker mount

A an astro-modded camera body