If you are looking to take your photography to the next level, a workshop might be just what you need.

Ancient Bristlecone Milky Way PanoramicA series of vertical shots stitched together in Lightroom. [F 2.8 @ 30 seconds, ISO 2000]

When I first started seriously taking pictures, I attended a lot of workshops that ranged from 1 day to 1 week in a variety of locations. My motivation was to improve my skills and learn more about these locations. After I gained some confidence, I started taking trips on my own and I didn't really look back, until recently. 

I heard about a night photography workshop in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest and I signed up immediately. I've been doing night photography for a while now and I've shot at the Ancient Bristlescones several times so my motivation to attend had changed a bit. I'm always looking to learn something new but I also wanted to see how others approached their night photography shots. Plus, its fun to shoot alongside people who truly love photography as much as I do. 

The workshop leader, Joe Fischer, is a natural teacher and a joy to shoot with. All of the information he provided up front and his approach to night photography was almost identical to mine so it was very easy to jump in and start creating images. He had arrived prior to the participants and scouted several bristlecones that would make good compositions for both star trails and the milky way. That was quite luxurious because I am accustomed to arriving at a location, then launching into scout mode. When I arrived at this workshop, I fixed lunch then took a short nap. This was a good thing because I was going to be up very late. 

Shortly after I arrived, other participants began showing up and I heard a familiar voice. It was my old friend Truman! I was so excited to see him because he is enthusiastic, fun to shoot with, and he takes stunning images. These are the kind of people you want to surround yourself with if you are looking to improve. They will set the bar high enough that you must continually stretch yourself to reach it. 

I did not know any of the other workshop participants but quickly found they were as enthusiastic about night photography as the rest of us. 

We started off by setting up for a star trail shot with an Ancient Bristlecone that Joe had scouted earlier. 

Ancient Bristlecone, early eveningThis was one of the set ups I did for my star trail shot.
[F 2.8 @ 30 seconds, ISO 800]

Then we headed up to "the gnarly tree" on the Discovery Trail of Schulman Grove to get some milky way shots. There was a large group of photographers up there that night. It was quite a photo party. Joe is very good at collaborating with other photographers - something I am a bit shy about, but having seen how effective it can be, I will be more assertive in the future. 

Gnarly treeThis tree was light by a constant light source provided by one of the many photographer's shooting that night.

[F 4 @ 30 seconds, ISO 1600]   Gnarly tree[F 4 @ 30 seconds, ISO 1600]

After we finished up, we headed back to retrieve our cameras at the star trail shot. 

Ancient Bristlecone Star TrailThis was created by stacking a series of images to create star trails.
[F 2.8 @ 30 seconds, ISO 1000]

Then we shot a series of trees that were all near each other on a hillside. These ended up being some of my favorite shots. At about 2:30, I was super pooped and ready to head back to camp to squeeze in a few hours of sleep before sunrise but Joe was still going strong. I can't keep up with this guy!

Ancient Bristlecone Milky WayA single image from the series of vertical shots I used to create the panoramic.
[F 2.8 @ 30 seconds, ISO 2000]   Ancient Bristlecone Milky Way PanoramicA series of horizontal images stitched together in Lightroom to create a panoramic of the Milky Way arching over a bristlecone
[F 2.8 @ 30 seconds, ISO 2000] Ancient Bristlecone Milky Way silhouette[F 2.8 @ 30 seconds, ISO 2000]

I stumbled out of bed before sunrise and headed back up to the bristlecones to see if there was anything worth shooting. There wasn't much of a sunrise in terms of exciting clouds but I got a couple of detail shots with the nice warm light on the tree trunks. 

Sunrise on ancient bristlecone[F8 @ 1/60 seconds, ISO 160]   Sunrise on burned bristlecone[F8 @ 1/60 seconds, ISO 160]

On my way down the hill, I grabbed some flower shots. I still don't know what these are, but they were fun to shoot. 

Flower blooms[F 16 @ 1/45 seconds, ISO 100]

The workshop was for one night, but Joe and one of the other workshop participants, Bob, and I ended up meeting up at Mono Lake the next night. That was a nice little bonus!

Tufas, sunset[F 16 @ 1 seconds, ISO 50]   Tufas, sunset[F 16 @ 1 seconds, ISO 50]

I took some shots of the lake as the sun was getting lower in the sky.

Pirates Ship, sunset[F 16 @ 1/6 seconds, ISO 100]   Pirate's Ship, sunset[F 16 @ 0.7 seconds, ISO 100]   Pirate's Ship, sunset[F 16 @ 1.5 seconds, ISO 100]   Pirate's ship, post sunset[F 16 @ 6 seconds, ISO 50]   Pirate's ship, post sunset[F 16 @ 8 seconds, ISO 50]

And a few shots of the moon setting while I waited to start my star trails and milky way shots. 

Mono Lake tufas with moonsetA shot of tufas at moonset, using my headlamp to light up the foreground.
[F 16 @ 30 seconds, ISO 800]   Mono Lake tufas with moonset, color lightI was experimenting with the different colored lights on my headlamp while shooting these and liked how the red and blue lights came out on this one.
[F 16 @ 30 seconds, ISO 800]   Mono Lake tufas and moonsetThere was some clutter at the bottom of these tufas so I faded the light so the bottom would be in shadow. This took a lot of attempts to get it right.
[F 16 @ 30 seconds, ISO 800]

I worked with Bob and another couple to light the tufas so we could all capture star trails and milky way shots.

Mono Lake Milky Way panoramicA series of horizontal images stitched together in Lightroom to create a panoramic of the Milky Way arching over Mono Lake
[F 2.8 @ 30 seconds, ISO 2000]   Pirates Ship Star TrailThis was created by stacking a series of images to create star trails.
[F 2.8 @ 30 seconds, ISO 2000]  

I finished with some Milky Way and Tufa shots. 

Mono Lake tufas and Milky Way[F 2.8 @ 20 seconds, ISO 3200]       Mono Lake tufas and Milky Way[F 2.8 @ 20 seconds, ISO 3200]   Mono Lake tufas and Milky Way[F 2.8 @ 20 seconds, ISO 3200]

All in all, a great trip and a fun workshop! I'd recommend a workshop with Joe to anyone excited about photography, regardless of the skill level. 

Happy shooting!!!