Not necessarily at Passport Series locations, which are hosted in national parks. There are 63 national p[arks in the U.S. alone. We believe there is not enough time to go the the same places over and over. We want to explore, and to bring new opportunities to you—especially for lesser-traveled hidden gems. Each location is an experience unique to that time and place and especially that group of people. However, we do revisit some parks; each year we hold a vote among our alumni to see where everyone might like to go again.

Gosh no! The educational component of our workshops is night photography (and some associated topics). But we know everyone wants to see these beautiful places in daylight too. So for every workshop, we make sure you’ll have time for some daytime sightseeing and photography. That might come in the form of group daytrips or scheduled free time, or we might get to the night-shoot locations in time for sunset, etc.

It’s also often possible for attendees to get to our shoot locations hours earlier, if they so choose. Every workshop location is different, so the strategy can be different too. For our photography tours, particularly international ones, you can expect to be out a significant portion of the day, in addition to night.

Many of our workshops and tours are intended for any photographers who are comfortable with their equipment, and with capturing raw files in Manual exposure mode. Night photography experience is not explicitly necessary.

Those who have extensive experience shooting at night will find our workshops challenging, stimulating and inspiring.

However, some of our workshops are intended for intermediate or advanced night photographers. If that’s the case, it will be indicated on specific workshop pages.

It varies by workshop, but we’re not the type of program that does dusk-to-dawn. That’s OK for 1 night, but not for 5 consecutive nights—it’s just not healthy.

We run each tour and workshop at the time of year when it’s best for the type of dark-sky photography we want to do for that location and experience. We make sure that we’ll have at least a few hours to shoot in those conditions, and then we call it a night, so that we can get an OK amount of sleep and do it again the next evening.

However, you’re all adults and you’re welcome to shoot as long as you want. The instructors may need to get some sleep so they can be coherent for the group the next day, but anyone may shoot as long as they, or their camera’s batteries, hold out.

We do not tell our attendees what to photograph, and we won’t line you up in a row to all shoot the same thing (unless it’s helpful to get some people on track). Instead, we encourage you to use what you have learned to create your own unique images, and to let us guide you through the process should you desire.

We do not teach you to do what we do, but rather how to develop your own night vision.

Both! As desired.

For workshops with classroom time, obviously that will include group instruction. We also might do demos for the group on-location, either for everyone or optionally for those interested in a particular topic.

While in the field, the instructors will demonstrate their own techniques and will also work with participants one-on-one to make sure everyone gets the most out of the workshop.

Definitely not!

We put time and care into choosing night-shoot locations that are large enough to very comfortably accommodate the group. Our locations have generous room to explore, so everyone will be able to spread out and not get in one another’s way.

This also helps with environmental impact, a matter we take quite seriously.

There is no strict curriculum and our instructors will tailor each workshop to the conditions and landscape. Nonetheless, you may learn any or all of the following: 

• light painting

• controlling the ratio between ambient and added light

• star points / Milky Way exposures

• star trails / long exposures

• blue hour and black hour blends

• night portraiture

• post-production

• PhotoPills

We firmly believe in helping you develop your own personal vision for night photography and look to help you create unique images that have deep personal meaning.

We put a lot of effort into making modular and constructive learning—meaning you will get the building blocks to assemble all the skills needed to execute great photography, while also working on how to find the best visual opportunities and apply your own “fingerprint” to the scene.

We also spend a lot of time in discussion. Questions are encouraged, as well as a curious mind and a willingness to take creative risks. We'll help you grow into a new understanding of your capabilities, as well as that of your gear.

No. National Parks at Night (NPAN) is not affiliated with or an agent of the National Parks Service (NPS). We are an independent group of photographers and educators who deeply appreciate and admire natural beauty. We choose to explore as much of this as possible in as many places with a select group of night photography enthusiasts.

However, we are authorized to work within the national parks. We always obtain the proper permits and permissions for our night locations, whether in a national park or elsewhere.

Not often, but we always put a note in the section indicating when the update happened. We reserve the right to make changes anytime without notice (that's a legal disclaimer), but keep in mind we are customer-first and will always strive to provide timely notice to our customers and list members when appropriate.