australia
astro + photography adventure workshop
an outback oddysey, australia
April 11 - 20, 2026
Join Derek Culver and award winning Kiwi photographer Tom Rae as we tour you around and teach you the art of night photography under the darkest night skies in the world deep in the Australia Outback and along the Great Southern Coast, of South Australia! Australia is an untapped gem of potential for night photographers; the Southern Hemisphere night sky catalog is filled with colorful Nebulae, huge Galaxies like the Magellanic Clouds, and stunning diamond like constellations that most of us do not have views of from the Northern Hemisphere.
April is the best time to shoot astrophotography in South Australia as the summer months cool down, the nights get long, and several stunning parts of the Southern Night sky are available to shoot all night along with the best orientation of the Milky Way core for stunning panoramas! I’ve travelled all over the world, and Australia has the darkest skies, and you don’t have to sacrifice modern luxuries to enjoy them.
Our goal is to help you realize your creative potential, provide lessons to equip you with new creative techniques, guide you safely to world class night photography destinations, and send you home with amazing photos and unforgettable memories! Tom Rae will be one of the highlights of this trip, he is a young but incredibly gifted teacher with a serious talent for capturing the night sky; people end up loving his accent just as much as his passion for teaching others.
After a week of astrophotography adventures in the outback under the darkest skies in the world, we take it easy along the Great Southern Road, our editing lessons in cafe’s by the ocean, with relaxed astrophotography sessions along the coast like this one above!
logistics and lodging
We start on Friday March 13th in Christchurch, on the South Island of New Zealand. Travelling from the US it takes about a day to travel, then you automatically “lose a day” to the time zones. So ideally your flight out will be on March 11th, and you will arrive on March 13th in New Zealand.
We finish on Monday March 23rd in Auckland, on the North Island of New Zealand.
We take a short and easy flight midway through the trip from the South Island to the North Island; we help you book that! And can assist you every step of the way with booking tickets.
Once in New Zealand, we provide all transportation and lodging throughout the trip including pick up and drop off from the airports. Once you sign up the tickets between the South and North island are simple, and we will help you book them so we are all on the same flight or flying out at the same time.
difficulty and group size
This astrophotography workshop is great for all levels of adventurers and photographers, and requires some modest hiking (all under a mile) with camera gear on uneven surfaces at night and is best suited for astrophotographers who are ready to take their images to the next level and jump into tracking and panoramas.
We will cover astrophotography basics like single exposures, and build upon shooting and editing fundamentals as we get into tracking, stacking, panoramas, and combining exposures. Our small group size, 6 students to 2 teachers (some workshops have 12 students and only 2 teachers and call that small… crazy!) allows us to tailor lessons individually and give lots of 1on1 hands on instruction under the stars. We do quite a bit of editing throughout the trip and also provide custom editing videos.
location highlights
Mt Cook
Lake Tekapo
Castle Hill (pending permits)
Lake Pukaki
Coromandel Peninsula
Waitomo Glow Worms
Deep Space/Tracking right at Wild Canvas in Waitomo
workshop cost & payment terms
The tuition for this workshop is $7,500 total. A non-refundable deposit of $1,500 is required to reserve your spot with the remaining balance due 60 days before the workshop starts. Alumni, please reach out for a discount! Payment plan options are also available at check out.
itinerary
March 13
Meet in Christchurch, on the South Island of New Zealand! We pick you up at the airport, do an introduction, and head out to some epic rocks underneath the Southern Nights skies…
For the full itinerary or questions about this trip, please contact us in the form above or email adventures@blazingheavens.com
New zealand gallery
