From Milky Way to Star Trails: Photographing Nightscapes in Yosemite
Instructor: Rick Whitacre
2025 Date: June 18 - 21
Focus: Field and Digital Darkroom
Medium: Digital
Join Rick Whitacre in this 4-day workshop designed to get you to the right place, at the right time, so you can capture your stunning nightscapes of Yosemite. Enjoy learning from an excellent local instructor who delights in teaching, while gaining an inside perspective on the Valley's wonders.
Overview
Join us for a 4 day photographic workshop; Photographing The Milky Way And Star Trials With Yosemite’s Iconic Landscapes. With little light pollution, Yosemite National Park boasts some of the best locations in the world to photograph at night. With over a decade of practicing and teaching night photography, Rick Whitacre will share his intimate knowledge of night photography techniques and the best locations in Yosemite to capture compelling images. Iconic Yosemite locations become fresh and new when combined with Star Trails and the Milky Way to give you unique compositions.
SUMMER 2025 – June 18 - 21
Workshop Details
| Photographing Nightscapes in Yosemite | |
|---|---|
| INSTRUCTOR | Rick Whitacre |
| FOCUS | Field / Digital Darkroom |
| MEDIUM | Digital |
| LEVEL | Intermediate to Advanced |
| ATTENDEES | 8 |
| TUITION | $1400 |
This four-day workshop is designed for the intermediate to advanced photographer. Due to the advanced digital darkroom techniques used, you are required to be proficient in using Adobe Lightroom’s Develop module, as well as have a thorough understanding of layer methods in Adobe Photoshop.
With little light pollution and access roads that lead to the high prominences of bare granite, Yosemite National Park boasts some of the best locations in the world to photograph at night. With a decade of night photography knowledge and experience in this national park gem, Rick will get you to the right place, at the right time, so you can capture your stunning nightscapes of Yosemite. From the Milky Way, to Star Trials, and Stars As Points Of Light above Yosemite Icons, you will come away with an extraordinary and varied array of night images from your week out amongst the stars.
Emphasis will be on bringing you to several prime locations to teach the art of capturing images at night. Rick will demonstrate how to use apps to visualize your night photograph prior to going to the location. There will also be a discussion on equipment and photographic setting choices that offer the foundation for attaining the best RAW images for dark sky night photography. A handy PDF with chronological steps will be given to download onto your mobile device for use in the field as a reference.
This workshop offers a blend of field and digital darkroom experience. Evening and night hours will be dedicated to field sessions, with morning and afternoons devoted to learning how to optimize and assemble your RAW images using a blend of Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop.
Concepts include:
Stars and Sensors: How our cameras ‘see’ light in the digital age, especially star light.
Tools of the Night: From Lenses and Cameras to accessories – all the tools you need for a successful night of shooting.
Composing in the Dark: Tips you need for creating visually engaging, technically proficient night compositions.
Sharp Stars: A comprehensive guide on obtaining sharp focus in the darkest of environments.
Night Performances: How to make your night captures ‘sing’, using a blend of Adobe Lightroom and advanced Photoshop blending techniques.
Due to the extreme low-light conditions this workshop will encounter, you are also required to have a full-frame SLR or mirrorless camera and lenses with apertures of 2.8 – 1.4 or lower to gather enough light onto the sensor. A questionnaire and list of products will be sent to you in advance of the workshop to ensure you have the appropriate gear.
Some locations will be near roadsides, while others require a 1-mile round-trip hike on unpaved, uneven surfaces at night. You MUST be in good physical condition to participate in the workshop.
Typically, field sessions begin around sunset and might last into the early morning hours, with morning and afternoon time spent indoors on digital processing and final image assembly. The goal is to have you leaving the workshop with one or more finished night images you are proud to call your own!
About the Instructor
Rick Whitacre’s passion is to create photographs that grab the viewer’s eye and compel them to explore the image in more detail. Rick became interested in photography in 2009 while preparing for a journey to New Zealand. He voraciously read everything he could find and practiced making pictures whenever possible. Rick expresses in his photographs the awe and inspiration he feels when viewing a scene. He loves the outdoors, especially unspoiled wildernesses and therefore has specialized in scenes from national and state parks. With great dedication and passion, Rick’s landscape photography has matured to include stunning night skies photography which he feels helps to convey the expanse and magnitude of our natural world.
Rick’s images have been selected for the Yosemite Renaissance Exhibitions merited with Second Place, People’s Choice and Honorable Mention awards. His night images have been shortlisted 4 times in the Astrophotographer of the Year Awards at the Royal Observatory Greenwich. Rick has also been chosen for an Astronomy Photo of the Day (APOD).
Rick’s website is: www.whitacrephotography.net
Workshop FAQ
Find answers to your questions about our Photography Workshops in our FAQ. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you need additional help. You can reach us by email at photoed@anseladams.com or by phone (650) 692-3495.
Clothing / Dressing for the Elements
Physical Limitations Statement
This workshop may involve some walking and hiking around uneven, hilly, and rocky locations that may present a challenge to some attendees. The gallery workshop team requests your individual judgment to abstain from workshop activities that may be beyond your capabilities.
Although the workshop instructors will try to accommodate all attendees, please be advised that the gallery relies on your abstinence should you feel that a site location may not be safe for you.
Cancellation Policy
The Ansel Adams Gallery Multiple Day Workshop Cancellation Policy: We rely on your confirmed attendance to make important arrangements for the workshop. If you need to cancel, please inform a gallery representative in writing no fewer than 60 days prior to the first day of your scheduled workshop for a partial refund of your tuition that reflects the 10% non-refundable administration charge. Refunds cannot be made for cancellations initiated within 60 days of the first day of the scheduled workshop, or for no-shows, for any reason.
If you are concerned with the possibility of cancellation, please consider purchasing travel insurance.
Workshop registration is NOT transferable.
In the extremely rare event that The Ansel Adams Gallery needs to cancel a workshop, the gallery will refund your full tuition. However, The Ansel Adams Gallery will not be responsible for non-refundable airline tickets, car rentals charges, lodging reservations, or any other expense outside of the workshop tuition.
Lodging reservations made through Yosemite Hospitality - Aramark are fully refundable 14 days in advance of the scheduled first day of check in.
It is recommended not to purchase airline tickets or make non-refundable deposits on lodging that cannot be canceled 14 days prior to the initiation of the workshop event.
The Ansel Adams Gallery highly recommends travel insurance to help with an unfortunate travel event.
This pre-workshop information may be emailed to the education coordinator at photoed@anseladams.com.
