We have a big day beginning Augst 2^nd in St. George Utah. Here you will drop off your vehicles at my home where they can reside during the workshop. From here you will load up your gear into our two Jeep Gladiators. After we have loaded everyone’s gear, we will head off to Kanab and have Lunch.

After lunch we will go over various important documents, safety and then check into our hotel. After we have checked into our hotel, we will have a sit down and have our first lesson on composition so we get your creative juices flowing.

After we finish our lesson, we will check weather and determine where we want to be for sunset. If we have blue bird skies, we may check out a slot canyon, but if not, we will head off to White Rocks and explore the giant hoodoos and strange formations towards the end of the day and catch a monsoon sunset.

Unlike most adventures, this one will continue into the dark as August 2^nd is the New Moon. Because of this we will either stay at white rocks and photograph the hoodoos, or we will switch to Toad Stools and photograph those hoodoos there.

Day two will begin bright and early as we chase the rising sun and spend another morning with hoodoos. Though weather may change this. After we chase our sunrise we will switch to photographing a gentle stream in the bottom of a box canyon as we begin our journey north towards Escalante.  Our first stop will be Hackberry Canyon, with the option to include Cottonwood Narrows. These adventures plus drive will take us to lunch in one of the smaller towns along highway 12.

After lunch we will head into the town of Escalante where we will check into our hotel and have our second photography lesson of our adventure and have some down time to reset, shower, and cool down. We will meet back together for dinner and enjoy food in town. After dinner, we will head out into the Escalante wilderness and enjoy another night of hopefully monsoon weather or astro photography.

This morning will begin on the edge of madness as we photograph the hoodoos along the rim of the Esclante River and Canyon. These overlooked gems are a wonder to photograph and can provide some of the best and most unique images from the region. As we wrap up our sunrise, we will head down the canyon and hike the escalante River while temperatures are cool and say hi to a few of the most impressive arches in the area, Escalante Natural Bridge and Arch.

After we finish up hiking the Esclante River, we head north over Boulder Mountain and arrive at our final destination Torrey, Utah and Capitol Reef National Park. From here we will check into our hotel and then have our third lesson on photography before heading out to catch a stunning sunset at either the painted desert or the Temple of the Sun and Moon weather pending. If conditions are in our favor we may do night shots at the Temple of the Sun and Moon or we will head out and get back to our hotel late.

Day four will begin moderately early as the drive is only 20 minutes since we will be catching sunrise at Chimney Rock. This impressive mountain makes for a wonderful grand landscape, though a second option is also available. We will see how the light is looking and make that decision that morning.

After a wonderfully blissful morning, we will head into Fruita, enjoy some homemade pies at the orchards and will do some basic exploring in Capitol Reef so guests have a chance to see the park. Once we have had our fill of adventure, we will head back into town for lunch and our final full lesson of photography.

As dinner approaches we will make a decision to either to photograph the Painted Hills or Factory Butte. We will make that decision on where we think the clouds will be. One way or another, it should produce some very beautiful images.

Our final day will be a bit different. There is a chance we chase sunrise, but we may actually do a creative gathering and discuss how the workshop went and to do photo editing. I want to see how you edit and I want to show you how I edit my images. This will be a time for creative feedback and thought.

Depending on how long this goes, we make stick around till check out and then have lunch in the town of Torrey one last time then head back to St. George. We will drop you off back at my home if your vehicles are there, or at your hotel of choice. We have a few hotels we recommend and will give you that information when you sign up for the workshop.

• Travel during workshop
• Food during workshop (Expect a mix of meals at restaurants and food on the trail)
• Snacks and additional drinks
• Expert guiding and education
• Hotels during workshop (all guests get their own room, if you are coming with a spouse let us know asap)
• Annual membership with Nature Photography Collective

• Travel to and from workshop.
• Hotel stays outside of workshop.
• Alcoholic drinks
• Tips if desired

• Camera Gear to Pack

  • Tripod
  • Ball head
  • Ultra-Wide 16-35mm (if you can, make this your f2.8)
  • Telephoto 70-200mm
  • Astro Lens (Wide Angle f2.8 or faster lens)
  • Optional- 24-105mm mid-range zoom
  • Optional- 100-500mm super telephoto
  • 3x batteries
  • Camera charger
  • Camera backpack
  • Lens wipes
  • Lens cloth
  • 2 liters of water
  • Laptop for photo editing

For Nature Photography Collective adventures we ask you to pack the necessary gear to make this trip memorable and reduce what is not necessary. In general, we ask for all guests to pack one suitcase per person AND their camera backpack. Space is almost always the limiting factor, so we need guests to be conscientious about what they pack and what they don’t.

Packing List for clothing.

• Long light pants. Enough for 4-5 days.
• Long sleeve baggy and light shirts to protect skin for 4-5 days.
• A short sleeve shirt or two
• 6 days’ worth of socks
• Underwear for 5 days
• Raincoat
• Hat
• Sunglasses
• Mosquito repellant
• Sunscreen
• Toiletries
• Medicine
• Hiking shoes
• Hiking sandals or shoes you are ok getting wet.
• Hand sanitizer