Experience the magnificence of Big Bend National Park through your lens with me during my BIG BEND Landscapes and Night Skies Photo Tour 2024.
By day we’ll create photographs of beautiful Chihuahuan desert landscapes. And by night we’ll shoot for the stars in this super dark spot!
LIMITED TO SIX (6) PARTICIPANTS ~ FOUR (4) SPOTS LEFT ~
*** We are an Authorized Permittee of the National Park Service. ***
This huge national park provides plenty of photographic fodder and we’ll take advantage of it during my BIG BEND Landscapes and Night Skies Photo Tour 2024 as we find creative ways to highlight some of its famous sites as well as some of those not-so-well-known.
With its unique geology, Big Bend provides lots of turns, twists, grooves, and ridges to make our lenses happy. Diversity abounds here, from 500 million-year-old formations, to evidence of the shallow sea covering this land some 135 million years before, to the dunes at Boquillas Canyon, which remain under perpetual construction.
Once it grows dark, we’ll photograph these über-dark skies and learn light painting techniques.
With a Bortle rating of 2, Big Bend’s night skies rank nearly pristine, which will allow us to generate some amazing nighttime imagery. The scale ranges from 1 (pristine night skies) to 9 (strong light pollution).
ITINERARY:
PLEASE NOTE: This is an estimated schedule and we’ll do our best to stick to this itinerary, but certain conditions may necessitate changes. Good photographic experiences and plenty of chances to photograph the natural environment will be our goals at all times.
- MARCH 6 (Wednesday):
Meet at 7:00 for our first meal together – dinner at the Starlight in Terlingua ghost town. THIS dinner is INCLUDED in the price of your tour (remaining meals are self-pay). Following dinner, plan on a light painting lesson and an evening of light painting and night photography under the stars. - MARCH 7 (Thursday):
Early-morning landscape shoot. Expect to hike to our shoot location before the sun rises. ~ Optional expedition across the border to Boquillas, Mexico for lunch. Evening photo shoot. - MARCH 8 (Friday):
Early-morning landscape shoot. Expect to hike to our shoot location before the sun rises. Optional mid-day hike or other activity. Evening landscape shoot. Night photography. - MARCH 9 (Saturday):
Landscape shoots at locations TBA (but will likely necessitate a short hike before the sun rises). Plan for a shoot at a desert mountain overlook or possibly Santa Elena Canyon overlook (if not sooner in the tour). Tour ends following shoots. Thanks for joining me!
WHAT YOU CAN LEARN ON THIS TOUR:
- How to master manual exposure (& when it’s better than priority exposures)
- How & when to do silhouettes
- Landscape photography composition & metering tips
- Light painting techniques
- Night sky photography
- How and when to apply HDR techniques
A note about instruction on my photo tours:
Since skills levels vary so much on photo tours, I tailor my teaching to individual needs. Please do not be shy about telling me what you need.
WHAT’S INCLUDED:
- Three nights and two full days of photography fun, including instruction & guidance by award-winning nature photographer, Jeff Parker
- Instruction in light painting & night photography techniques
- Two (2) night time photo shoots
- Three (3) evening (dusk) photo shoots with Jeff’s guidance & instruction
- Three (3) morning (dawn) photo shoots with Jeff’s guidance & instruction
- Water & snacks
- Park entrance fees
- “Welcome Dinner” at the Starlight Theatre (meal & beverages included)
WHAT’S NOT INCLUDED:
- Lodging
- Meals* (except “Welcome Dinner; it’s included)
IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT FOOD: Due to its vastness, availability of stores and restaurants in the park is slim. Therefore, you may want to bring a cooler filled with some food items for yourself. - Transportation (we will rely on carpooling to get us to our photo shoot spots in the park)
LOGISTICS, EQUIPMENT & SUCH:
GETTING THERE:
The two closest major airports are Midland-Odessa (about 3 1/4 hours drive) and El Paso (about a 5-hour drive).
The code for the Midland-Odessa airport is MAF (officially: Midland International Air and Space Port). It is located approximately midway between the cities of Midland and Odessa.
The code for the El Paso Airport is ELP (officially: El Paso International Airport).
Amtrak stops in Alpine (80 miles away). Visit this site (VisitBigBend.com) for some great, detailed info about how to best get to the Big Bend Region.
The closest car rental is in Alpine, but they don’t have much selection. If you need to rent a vehicle, your best bet is to get one in Odessa/Midland or El Paso. You will not need a 4-wheel drive or even a high-clearance vehicle. That said, you don’t want to rent a sports car, either. Your basic sedan will do the job just fine.
PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS:
A couple of our morning shoot locations will necessitate about a 15-30 minute walk in the pre-dawn darkness. You’ll need to be able to do so carrying your gear. The walks are not terribly strenuous, but they may challenge some. If you have any concerns please do not hesitate to email me with questions.
SUGGESTED EQUIPMENT:
Wondering what sort of photography equipment you might need on a trip like this? Here’s the EQUIPMENT CHECKLIST (PDF) I send out to participants as we prepare for the tour.
Make sure you have a way to easily carry your gear during our short morning hikes to shot locations.
NOTE: You certainly don’t need to own everything on the checklist to get good shots in this photogenic national park! It’s a list of recommended equipment. If you have any questions about the minimum lenses, etc. that will get you though, don’t hesitate to ask! That said, night photography is a major part of this tour — and what makes Big Bend NP so special — so you WILL definitely want a good tripod.
ARRIVAL:
Please plan to arrive by 7:00 pm on Wednesday, March 6, 2024 for our Welcome Dinner in Terlingua (dinner & drinks included in your tour).
Bring along your gear as we’ll do night photography right after dinner.
FOOD:
Your Welcome Dinner is included in the price of your tour, but all other meals are self-pay.
On that note, due to its vastness and isolated location, availability of stores and restaurants is slim. Therefore, I highly suggest you bring some food items for yourself. For those driving to the tour, bringing an ice chest would be a good idea.
LODGING:
When joining me for my BIG BEND Landscapes and Night Skies Photo Tour 2024 I recommend you stay in the park if possible (this requires procuring reservations FAR ahead of time). You can CAMP or stay at the Chisos Mountains Lodge (listed below).
The next best choice would be Terlingua/Study Butte & we’ve listed some lodging options there as well. The closest place with “chain” hotels is Alpine –80 miles away– so we haven’t included that info (too far to drive for the purposes of this tour).
We DO NOT endorse any of these in particular; we’re merely providing this list as a convenience to you:
- Chisos Mountains Lodge ~ located in the park; rooms fill quickly, especially in the spring so book early!
- Big Bend Casitas (Far Flung Adventures) ~ in Terlingua
- Big Bend Resort & Adventures ~ in Study Butte (this is where I usually stay – it’s not the greatest, but it’s a place to sleep & is affordable.)
- La Posada Milagro ~ in Terlingua
GENERAL INFO / SIGN UP:
- DURATION: 3 days, 4 nights
- DATE: March 6-9, 2024
- SPACE FOR: Six (6) photographers ~ FOUR (4) SPOTS LEFT ~
- DEPOSIT: $500
- PRICE: $1295
- PAYMENT DUE DATES: Remaining balance (after paying your deposit) due 60 days prior to start date of tour.
CANCELLATION POLICY
Please read our Cancellation Policy before purchasing.(Follow the provided link or go to link under “MORE” on sidebar to the right.) Thanks!
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF RISK:
At the start of any tour we lead in a U.S. national park, we’ll ask you to sign this Acknowledgement of Risk. We encourage you to review it before signing up.
