ZION FALL PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOPS
2023 Fall Workshop
DATES: November 6-9, 2023 (Limited to 5 photographers, 2 spaces remain)
PRICING: $1,750 + tax.
Reserving your spot: Send an email to me at info@zion-photography.com with your interest in joining. At that point I will send over a questionnaire, will build your reservation in the calendar and will send you an invoice. A deposit of $750 is required at the time of booking. The remaining balance is due 90 days prior to the workshop.
Cancellation Policy:
- 90 days out or more from the workshop start date - Full refund of the deposit minus $400
- Cancellation within 90 days to 30 days before the workshop, you will receive a $750 refund. In the event that we can fill your spot with another participant, you will receive a full refund minus $400.
- Cancellation within 30 days of the workshop is non-refundable unless we can fill that spot. If we can, you will receive a full refund minus $400.
What’s included?: Instruction and guiding. Transportation is provided to our shooting locations throughout the workshop, however airport pickup transportation and transportation to lodging arrangements are not included. Most people will rent a vehicle in Vegas (the best airport option) and we more or less caravan throughout (with some people sharing or jumping in my vehicle). An email goes out to all registered participants to introduce each other. From there, some people decide to team up to share a vehicle and/or hotels.
What ability level do I need to join this workshop?: This workshop is open to and is appropriate for every level of photographer. With Seth’s 10years of teaching landscape photography daily in the Zion area to small groups, he is well adapted to working with a wide demographic of photographers at the same time, and one-on-one.
Workshop leader and instructor
Seth Hamel - Founder and owner of Enlighten Photography
Seth has been guiding and teaching landscape photography full-time in the Zion and Bryce National Parks area for 10 years. As an avid adventurer and explorer, he has discovered numerous locations throughout these areas that are well known, as well as those overlooked. Understanding the light in Zion is one of the greatest challenges for visiting photographers. Seth has become well versed in this aspect of shooting Zion while living in Zion Canyon for the past 12 years.
With teaching and guiding many hundreds of people throughout his career, he has developed methods of assessing and approaching different photographers, their learning styles and ability levels. The rewards of seeing individuals find joy through photography is his favorite part working with individuals with that shared passion.
TIMING PEAK FALL FOLIAGE IN ZION
The timing of the change in foliage can vary from year to year. Being local residents to the area, we've found that the first and seconds weeks in November create the best odds for photographers to obtain opportunities to capture the magnificence of this special event that lasts for only a couple weeks out of the year in the main canyon. We’ve been running this workshop for the past 6 years, and fortunately (fingers crossed) we’ve always had good fortune with peak or very close to peak colors during the workshop.
ITINERARY
DAY 1: We will meet at Zion Adventure Company in Springdale, UT at 1PM. We will meet everyone on the workshop and head out for a casual stroll through Zion's scenic canyon. Along the way we will photograph the magnificent colors of the fremont cottonwood trees that line the Virgin River. As many know, typically mid-day light is not the most desirable for landscape photography. With the sun hanging lower in the sky during this time of the year, in combination with the multitude of colors we are able to shoot beautiful images using back-lighting and the reflected light on the canyon walls.
Then onto Sunset. We will photograph a beautiful view of the canyon, which for some reason or another seems to be overlooked by many so we will likely have very few other photographers in this area.
DAY 2: Arise for sunrise. We will visit one of the iconic photo locations of the park, and then move onto the more obscure.
After shooting sunrise for a couple of hours we will head into "The Narrows". The narrows is the largest slot canyon in the world. To get an idea of what this hike and experience look like please click here. Fall is my favorite time of the year to shoot the narrows for two reasons. First of all, it sees beautiful soft light that lingers for a long time, offering a shooting experience that allows you to take your time and be patient, not having to worry about out-racing the light. Second of all, the colors of the fall foliage mixed with the canyon walls and the brilliant glow of the canyon walls makes for mouthwatering images.
NOTE: Due to Zion National Park regulations, there is no guiding permitted into the "Wall Street" section of the Narrows by any photography workshop providers. Please be aware that all Narrows images you have seen on this website are in areas that we can guide you to.
After returning our rental gear from our outing into the narrows, we will start our drive up to Bryce National Park, which is 2 hours away. We will spend the night up in the Bryce area as we prepare to photograph Bryce's world-class sunrise on the next morning.
DAY 3: Arise and photograph the sunrise in Bryce National Park.
After the light has turned harsh we will make our way back to Zion. Along our trip we will make a detour to photograph a small portion of one of the most photogenic slot canyons in Utah.
On our way back through Zion National Park we will take advantage of the opportunity to see and photograph big horn sheep on the east side of the park.
We will then move on to photograph the sunset in one of the many obscure shooting locations that few know about! Prepare to "ooh and ahh" when you see you the grandeur of the park from these lesser-known perspectives of the park.
DAY 4: One more sunrise in Zion. On this final day, we will sit together after the light gets too harsh to work on production of the images we photographed throughout the workshop. The program that we will process in will be the most up-to-date version of Adobe Lightroom.
