#305 Desert Light – Arizona Landscape June 16-21, 2025 Photo Safari

The American West offers exotic vistas and terrain including canyons, mountains and rock formations. Photograph unspoiled views of some of the most beautiful scenery anywhere. Put your lens in front of the dynamic swirls curves and texture of rock formations eroded from eons of wind and water at Lower Antelope Canyon. Shoot ancient Native American rock drawings (petroglyphs). This is the high plains desert at its best! The Navajo Indians use the word horozo, to “walk in beauty”. You will see and walk in some of the most spectacular beauty this corner of the world has to offer.  We will not only walk in beauty; we will fly in beauty. Your trip includes a sunrise hot air balloon ride over picturesque Sedona, Arizona, and photographing Oak Creek Canyon also in Sedona, AZ. Our two-state excursion starts in Page, Arizona, about six hours south of Las Vegas, Nevada and about three hours north of the Grand Canyon a mere 13 miles south of the Utah state line right on the Colorado River. Horseshoe bend is here. Drive through Monument Valley and photograph the iconic rock formations known as the mittens. Visit ancient Indian ruins and an extinct volcano, both located on the edge of the Painted Desert, just east of Flagstaff. Photograph giant Saguaro Cactus at Organ Pipe National Cactus Monument south of Tucson and a Milky Way night sky photographing opportunity there as well. While in Tucson, we must also spend some time at Saguaro National Park. We also plan to visit one of the famous Spanish Mission churches for some church architecture. We could not possibly go out west without visiting the Grand Canyon National Park. (They don't call it the "Pretty Good Canyon") All camera formats are welcome. Our instructor(s) are well versed in digital, medium and large formats cameras. Learn the principles of composition used by landscape photographers and painters. The American West provides spectacular images for Black and White and especially for photographers looking to shoot with Infra-Red Cameras. We will provide instruction on Panorama photography, HDR (High Dynamic Range photography) and focus stacking, Infra-Red and Astro Photography. Bring your portfolio and laptop for evening group critiques. We anticipate most students to fly in to Phoenix, AZ. on Friday.  This workshop is appropriate for photographers and even painters who may paint from their photos once they get back home. Airfare, lodging and ground transportation is not included. Lodging suggestions will be provided upon registration so you can book at the same place as your fellow students and instructors. We will have a Friday evening pre-trip student meet and greet to arrange car pooling and lodging a few weeks before departure. A few weeks after we return, we will have a Friday evening post-production (editing) session or image review for all included for students attending this photo safari.