hanksville
The Milky Way arching over the colorful “mars” like bentonite badlands of Hanksville- crazy dark skies and colorful landscapes make for unbelievable compositions.
when & where?
Hanksville, Utah
April 12 - 17, 2026
We begin Sunday April 12th around 4pm in Hanksville, Utah and finish Friday April 17th at 9am in Hanksville, Utah.
main shooting locations:
Moonscape Overlook
Factory Butte
Bentonite Hills
Goblin Valley
Long Dong Silver
Leprechaun Canyon
acommodations
We will be doing a mix of camping and staying at hotels (single occupancy) for a balance between an immersive astro experience and comfort. Camping allows us easier access to shooting astro at places like Moonscape Overlook, although camping isn’t required and we can help you book hotels for the camping nights if you desire more comfort- you will have to commute and drive at night though. Three nights in hotels, one night camping next to our shooting location with everything provided for you included dinner and breakfast. We will be eating at the restaurants in the park and at our hotel, where we will also do our editing sessions.
logistics
You are responsible for getting to and from Hanksville Once at the workshop it’s easy to arrange carpools to all our shooting adventures! No 4x4 required. Salt Lake City Airport is the closest main airport, with tons of flights and rental options with a beautiful drive down to Hanksville- Grand Junction and Moab are also great option that are a bit closer but more expensive. Often we can help arrange carpools between workshop guests. Please inquire if you need assistance with logistics!
workshop cost & payment terms
The tuition for this workshop is $4,200 with a non-refundable deposit of $1,000 to secure one of the limited spots on this small group photo adventure tour. The total is $4,500 for single occupancy rooming. The remaining total balance of the workshop is due 60 days before the workshop begins but you can pay the remaining balance any time. Alumni, veterans, and public servants (police & fire) please reach out for discount.
Vibrant colors captured during twilight and night at the Artist’s Palette
difficulty
This astro + photography workshop is great for all levels of photographers and adventurers; it is great for both beginners and more advanced photographers looking to learn night photography. We will be covering all the fundamentals of night photography; planning your shot, single exposure settings, light painting, etc. as we build into more advanced concepts like tracking, timelapses, and combining images. This workshop requires decent mobility and at times requires under a mile of hiking with your camera gear on uneven surfaces.
what you will learn
Everything photography! We specialize in long exposure night photography shooting and editing techniques, however we have tons of opportunities to do landscape photography. We teach blue hour blending, star tracking, panoramas, timelapses, color theory, advanced noise and star reduction, and much more. We do edit sessions at our hotels/in restaurants and follow up the workshop with a custom editing video using the images we took.
The Milky Way galactic core looming over the desert badlands near Zabriskie Point.
group size
This workshop is limited to 6 participants with 2 instructor guides. We like to keep our group sizes small (some workshops say 10:2 student to teacher ratio is “small”, which is ridiculous!) so we can give you lots of one-on-one instruction and tailor our lessons to your individual goals and needs. These trips are astro + photography learning based but we keep our learning environment relaxed, jovial, and full of personable people ready to make awesome memories together!
overview
Join several world class astro + photographers as we tour and teach you the art of night photography immersed in the geologic wonders of Death Valley and dark starry skies of the Mojave Desert. The clear desert climate, otherworldly geology, and lower latitude blesses us with a fantastic potion of night photography fun that will get you addicted!
Death Valley Gallery
