Description
Badlands Photography Workshop Itinerary
This Badlands National Park photography workshop combines minimal classroom time with the majority of the long weekend spent in the field. You’ll learn photography exposure techniques, compositional techniques and image interpretation. There’s plenty of time for one-on-one instruction with the small group size. This is the tentative itinerary. We’ll be shooting landscapes for the most part, but if opportunities to photograph wildlife present themselves, we’ll photograph bison, pronghorn, mule deer and bighorn as well, especially when we can include them as an element in the landscape.
In May, the sun rises early and sets late. We’ll shoot most of the sunrises and sunset every day, and spend most of the day in the field. If the sky is clear, there may be the opportunity to photograph the Milky Way over the Badland formations. We will keep the schedule flexible to take advantage of these types of situations as they arise. We’ll be back in Wall for a late dinner, but our other meals will be in the park. The Badlands is a huge park and remote park, so it’s hard to easily get into town for breakfast or lunch. Be prepared to spend the entire day in the field and bring food.
Thursday
Most people will drive on Thursday and check in on Thursday. It’s a 7.5 to 8 hour drive from the Twin Cities, so if you leave at 8am, you should get to Wall in time for dinner. For those people flying. I recommend flying into Rapid City, renting a car. It’s about a 1 hour drive from Rapid City to the Wall. I’ll let you know where we’re planning on eating and we’ll have a chance to get to know each other and discuss the weekend’s itinerary.
Friday
We’ll shoot the sunrise and golden hours of light before lunch. For anyone arriving on Friday, meet at 1pm for introductions and a classroom presentation that presents techniques for successfully capturing the Badlands National Park. After the classroom session, we’ll head out into the Badlands to photograph the terrain. We’ll photography until sunset.
Saturday
The day starts early with a morning session photographing the sunrise and then head back out into the field for a full-day adventure. We’ll come back to the hotel after sunset, and you’ll have the evening free to enjoy the town or work on images.
Sunday
We assemble before sunrise in the lobby to head out for sunrise photography session and stay in the field until noon. The workshop ends at 1pm for those people trying to leave on Sunday. If you’re staying until Monday, we’ll stay out until sunset. You receive access to a private Facebook group to share your photos.
The Weather
The weather is perfect in the Badlands in May. Highs average 72°F and lows average 46°F. Rain storms can and do happen in May. It is the second wettest month in the park with an average of 2.75 inches of total rainfall.
Lodging Partner
The Days Inn in Wall, South Dakota is hosting this workshop. For workshop participants, they’re offering a discounted room rate of $65 per night starting on Thursday night. We will use their conference room for the workshop classroom and presentations. We will also meet there each morning before heading out for the sunrise. Room rate is not included in the workshop fee.
When you make your reservation tell them it’s a “Bryan Hansel” room. Days Inn phone number: 605-279-2000
Required Photography Equipment
Camera: A SLR-style digital camera, mirrorless interchangeable system or a point and shoot that allows you to manually set your shutter speed and aperture is highly recommended.
Lenses: A variety of lenses ranging from 18mm to 200mm — longer is better for the full moon — I suggest 300mm. Most of the time, you’ll use something in the 24mm to 120mm range, but the other focal lengths are useful. A macro lens or close-up diopters are handy if we come across any fossils. We’ll mainly shoot landscape, but if we have a chance to shoot wildlife, we’ll get pictures.
Filters: A polarizing filter (example
Other Suggested Equipment: Bring a tripod, shutter release cord your camera’s manual, a USB thumb drive, waterproof camera bag and a laptop computer.
I’ll send out a full equipment list a month before the workshop.
