A New Mexico Badlands BackCountry 4x4 Astro-Panorama Workshop Itinerary

~An Alien World - Spring~

A 3 Night, 4 Day, 4x4 adventure Deep into the Wild and Remote Badlands of New Mexico and its Otherworldly Landscape

Mission

The title of this workshop understates how truly martian like this ancient landscape feels. The energy, the silence, the vastness of it. Its definitely a place unique to itself. Walk amongst fallen petrified trees that once stood next to dinosaurs. Meander through valleys of hoodoos, and formations like you've never seen. This area changes almost daily. The wind, snow and rain are constantly reshaping this landscape. Join me on this 5 day adventure in this landscape photography playground with 4 other students for a backcountry EXPERIENCE! this workshop focuses on the winter AND summer milky ways and Panoramic images!

We are helping attendees source capable and equipped vehicles if they do not own their own. We will be camping the entire workshop. You can camp however you'd like, in a tent, in your truck or suv, your rooftop tent, or just divvy up under the stars, your choice! If you would like help finding a suitable vehicle, please let us know. High clearance and AWD, or 4x4 reccomended

Since we will be camping and a 4x4 vehicle is required, what better way than to rent an overland vehicle! You can sleep on or in them, but if you prefer old school camping, you can do that too! You can rent an overloading or suitable 4x4 vehicle from places like Outdoorsy.com, Turo.com, ColoradoOverlander.com (services the SW), or Southwestoverlander.com. Which I recommend over Enterprise or the like. albuquerque is the nearest International airport and there are plenty of options for vehicles there as well as Durango, or maybe even Farmington, Las Vegas, Denver! Due to the limited size of the groups I do not qualify for discounted rates but the daily rental is comparable to that of a hotel room.

Lodging: Camping

Where: This workshop will be based out of Farmington, New Mexico

When: April 14th - 17th, 2026

Limited to only 5 Students

Total Cost: $2399.99

Deposit: $1000.00 @ Time of Booking

Itinerary

•1 Week ahead of the event we will have a "Pre-Workshop" Zoom class to discuss finalities, concepts, techniques and to get you familiar with the type of images we will be working on!

•Evening Day 1: We will begin by meeting at a TBD location in Farmington, New Mexico on Tuesday April 14th, 2026 at 12pm. From there we will gather for a briefing, a 4x4 discussion, chat a bit and strategize for the first evenings location, arriving very early to ensure time to travel for varying driving experience levels and to set up camp. Once we have setup camp and situated ourselves for the night we will then set out to capture the sunset, blue hour and stars.

•Morning Day 2: The Following morning we will rise bright and early for the Milky Way. After capturing Sunrise, yours truly will prepare camp breakfast. we will move to a new camp each day

•Evening Day 2: Will follow the previous evenings itinerary.

•Day 3: Will follow the previous days Itinerary

•Morning Day 4: The Final Sunrise, following the above Itinerary

- End at 10am, after breaking camp.

Group, Terrain & Weather

Five

Desert

Mild/Chilly

Vision & Focus

Capturing the endlessly barren beauty of this epic place

This workshop is aimed at capturing the desert in its many forms, and in its diverse Light by Day and Night

Our focus will be:

Panoramic images of the late winter Milky Way and the rising summer milky ways
Capturing Blue Hour images for Blending, for the BEST Astro Results
Discovering Composition, Learning how to master visual flow with little to work with
Creating and crafting a visual narrative, Telling a story with your image
Choosing the most engaging and thought provoking compositions to enhance that story
Learning what technique or process best captures those elements
Stacking images for focus, How, When, and Why!
When and How to Properly Bracket and Exposure Blend
How to put it all together in Adobe Lightroom, Helicon Focus, Starry landscape Stacker and Adobe Photoshop
Various Techniques for Dodging & Burning, and Shaping the Light
Color theory and its Immense power in Post Processing