Two-Night Astrophotography Workshop Borrego CA
Join me in exploring the incredible dark sky community of Borrego Springs, CA where you will learn how to create amazing photos of the Milky Way in as little as one session without wasting your time, energy, gas, money, and opportunities. In this beginner to advanced two night workshop I take you through the basics of astrophotography and how to plan/execute, and edit your photos. We visit several easy to access locations that are ideal for capturing the Milky Way with unique features to the area. There is minimal walking less than 1/10 of a mile from parking to each location. This is a great workshop for beginners with a maximum of 8 participants so that everyone can get personalized instruction. Some basic understanding of how to operate your camera is ideal. You do need to bring your own DSLR/mirrorless camera, tripod and lens. This workshop covers two nights of astrophotography in the field and two editing sessions in the day following the workshop . The workshop include accommodations at the award winning oasis of La Casa del Zorro located in the heart of the dark skies of Borrego. Workshops are dependent on weather and might need to be postponed and rescheduled due to unforeseen circumstances. Notification of postponement will happen a minimum of 24 hours before the workshop begins.
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Two-Night Astrophotography workshop May 3rd-5th
Location: Borrego Springs, CA
Accommodations: Two nights at La Casa del Zorro included
Photography level: Beginner to Advanced
Group Size: 8 persons maximum
Astrophotography techniques: Single exposure, stacked image, panorama, and editing
Activity level: Minimal walking from parking locations to photo sites
Gear required: DSLR/mirrorless camera body, tripod, lens, computer with photo editing software.
Borrego Springs Dark Skies
Borrego Springs is an amazing gem of Southern California. It is a certified dark sky community surrounded by the Anza Borrego Desert State park. Being located INSIDE California’s largest state park it is a great location for hiking, camping, off roading, and adventuring. The area is a short drive from San Diego, Los Angelos, and Palm Springs. There are many places to stay, dine, and shop in the area. It is famous for the 130+ metal sculptures created by Ricardo Breceda spread out in all areas of the community. They are ideal for daytime scavenger hunts and night time milky way photos.
Workshop Itinerary
Pre-Meeting
Evening of the workshop we meet for a half an hour lesson at sunset to dial in our settings, get to know the night sky, and get familiar with the group . This will be a chance to go over some basics on the science of astrophotography and how to capture images of the night sky. We will go over workshop agenda and ways to get to know your gear before we head out in the dark in order to maximize image capturing! This is also designed so that participants can get to know each other and feel comfortable working together once we meet in person. Workshops are intended to be learning experiences AND fun!!!
Workshop in the field
Night 1: In the field we will meet right at sunset to orient ourselves and the locations we will be visiting. The entire experience is designed to capture the Milky Way in the protected dark skies of Borrego Springs, a dark sky community. There are over 100 metal sculpture set up in the area which make perfect subjects for shooting the nights sky. From dinosaurs to big horn sheep, they are all fun to find and shoot. We spend the first hour at one of the metal sculptures with some daylight in order to set up our gear, tweak settings, and have some space. From there we move onto two to three other sculpture locations where we will follow the path of the Milky Way as if passes through the night. All locations are meticulously scouted and planned to have the best alignment of the Milky Way while giving participants time to compose and play with their photography.
Night 2: We will visit more off the beaten path locations and capture the more natural landscapes of Borrego., We will cover more advanced techniques of astrophotography such as stacking, focus stacking, and panorama techniques. We will be facing on fine tuning our techniques, composition, and overall style in the field.
Post Processing
Planning and capturing Milky Way photos is only half the fun. There is a lot that you can produce and ‘pull’ from a properly captured milky way images through editing. Post-processing editing will be included in this workshop following both nights of shooting. We will cover basic techniques for getting the most out of images. Having your own computer is highly recommended as well as photo editing software such as Lightroom or Photoshop. This will be conducted in the morning following the workshop in the comfort of La Casa del Zorro.
What to bring
A mirrorless of DSLR camera
Shutter Release or Intervalometer (some models have this built in)
Wide angle lens from 12-24 mm with an aperture ideally less than f2.8
A study tripod
Extra batteries
A headlamp
Comfortable and durable clothing and shoes that will protect you from desert terrain
A computer and photo editing software such as Lightroom or Photoshop.
A great attitude ready to learn!
Your Instructor
Chris Olivas will be the workshop leader of this Borrego Springs astrophotography workshop.
He is a professional astrophotographer and science educator. He is an expert in planning and capturing all kinds of image styles from nightscape wide field images, star trails, tracked images, and even deep-sky imaging. He is a science educator and brings a tremendous amount of knowledge and understanding of the night sky to the workshops. He is also extremely patient and loves to help people push the limits of their gear and their own creativity.
He has a true passion for preserving the environment especially in the real of dark skies. He is a volunteer and advocate with the Dark Sky International organization who’s mission is to preserve the dark skies around the globe.
He is also an award winning photographer featured in Sony Alpha, National geographic your shot, Forbes, National Park magazine, photo pills, and recently was shortlisted for astrophotography of the year in the Royal Greenwich photo competition.
Terms and Conditions
Please review these terms and conditions