
My Alaska Photo Treks 2015 Denali National Park photo workshop/tour was a success. 9 participants enjoyed a total of 8 nights and 7 days on this unique workshop. The workshop was co-led by my business partner, Dan Bailey. We stayed one night in Anchorage and then a night just outside the park entrance at the exclusive Tonglen Lake Lodge, a wonderful intimate setting with great food and wine. We spent the first 2 nights in a classroom setting where I taught several lessons and ended with a field demonstration at Tonglen on how I approach making a landscape image from concept to shooting it using hyperfocal for maximum depth of field. We then drove into the heart of the park and spent the next 4 nights at the remarkable Camp Denali. This is THE very best location for photographers— the most spectacular view of the Mountain and this is the only lodging the park service allows to take their guests back into the park. And because we were one group of 11, we had our own dedicated bus and could stop nearly wherever we wanted. That’s the beauty of this photo workshop/tour. The Camp Denali staff was awesome and the food most spectacular.
Sadly, our first three days were cloudy with some rain. But some interesting photos (fast moving rain squall curtain, the red tundra, berries and lichen, and more) were still had and Dan and I gave hands-on lessons for each participant as they wanted/needed.
A fast moving rain squall runs across the McKinley River bar on our first day out.
Our last two days in the park were met great with views of the mountain, bears and caribou.
After After leaving the park, we stayed in Talkeetna where the Mountain and Alaska Range were out in full force for a sunrise shoot. See the panorama below. The next day we spent driving through Hatcher Pass where we were able to shoot great mountain, fireweed, and stream photos.
If you are interested in attending the 2016 workshop, please be sure to send me an e-mail ASAP and I’ll keep in touch on the dates of that. As of now, we anticipate it being August 24th ish. The itinerary may change to make it a bit shorter trip.
