This creative landscape workshop will immerse you in the beauty and wilderness of Alaska’s Arctic Brooks Range for 5 days and 4 nights. Among the mountains, forests, tundra, and sweeping river valleys you’ll have the opportunity to learn new photo techniques, discover your own photographic creativity, and make images during the peak of autumn color. On clear nights we will hunt for the northern lights, and with luck will have the chance to photograph the lights dancing over reflecting rivers, lakes, and over the dramatic mountains. With the guidance and instruction of professional photographer David W. Shaw you’ll take your photography to a new level, and experience one of the most beautiful spots in Alaska. Clean and warm accommodations in the community of Wiseman, and tasty food provided.
Dates
20-24 August, 2023
$2800/person NO single supplement.
$500 Deposit secures your spot!
Trip Overview
When it comes to photography in Alaska, no season compares to autumn. And no place in Alaska shows off fall quite like the Brooks Range. During the final days of August, the colors of these mountains reach their peak, and the landscape becomes a mosaic of orange, red, maroon, green, and yellow. Termination dust, the first snow of winter, may tinge the mountain tops white while the valleys are lined with ribbons of rivers and streams.
This creative landscape workshop will get you out and away from the crowds, where you can dedicate yourself to improving your photography while making images of the wilderness. Creative exercises, led by David W. Shaw, will get you thinking about composition, light, motion, story, and the way our cameras can (and cannot) record a scene.
At night, we will keep our eyes peeled for northern lights, and explore the mountains on foot, and by vehicle during the long autumn days.
We will be based in the community of Wiseman, in the central Brooks Range. For four nights we will stay in comfortable cabins while the nearby Koyukuk River flows past and dramatic mountains, lakes, and colorful forests offer great photography subjects.
And we will wander farther abroad as well, at least one day we will drive north over Atigun Pass and down onto Alaska’s north slope, where the landscape and photography experience differs entirely from the south side of the mountains. There, tumbling streams and reflective lakes can fill our lenses.
Take your photography to a new level while discovering a wild and beautiful part of Alaska!
Itinerary
Day 1
At about 9am we will depart Fairbanks and start the drive north. The drive from Fairbanks to Wiseman takes about six hours, but we will make frequent stops for images and a picnic lunch next to the Yukon River.
The Dalton Highway, known to locals as the “Haul Road” is extremely scenic as it winds through the boreal forest and up and down steep hills as we approach the Brooks Range.
We will arrive at the isolated community of Wiseman in the afternoon in time to relax for a couple of hours before venturing out to make images in the evening light, and keep our eyes peeled for the northern lights.
Day 2-4
Our daily activities and destinations will be driven largely by the weather. Within a short drive of Wiseman are many great photo spots, including lakes, open tundra, jagged peaks, rivers, and open valleys. We will choose which to explore based on the light. If conditions are right for a good sunrise, we will start the day early, heading out to make images for an hour or two before breakfast and then venture out again for most of the day to make images and work on photography skills and technique.
Hikes of up to 4 miles will be an option, and these can carry us into even more remote areas, and away from the road where we can experience the Alaskan wilderness in a very real way.
Day 5
We’ll make a mid-morning departure from Wiseman as we head back toward Fairbanks, arriving back in town in the mid-afternoon, in time to catch evening flights home.
- 4 Nights at Boreal Lodging, Wiseman, Alaska
- All Transportation from Fairbanks
- Meals and Snacks
- Guide Services
- Photography Instruction
- Assistance with other reservations
- Airfare to and from Fairbanks, Alaska
- Hotels in Fairbanks
- Alcoholic or specialty drinks
- Tips for Guide (optional)
Cost
5 day/4 Night Photo Workshop: $2800/person
See Payment and Cancellation Information page for more information.
The ability to walk a mile or two over rough, uneven trails will greatly enhance your experience and allow you to participate in all workshop activities. There may also be optional hikes that could extend up to four miles to reach unique and new photo locations.
Long days too, are the norm, and we may be away from the lodge for up to 12 hours or even more if the day’s photography is excellent.
This is an intensive landscape workshop, for enthusiastic photographers who really want to improve their images.
$500 Deposit secures your spot!
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Brooks Range in the Autumn
