Rich with photographic opportunities, Death Valley is a superlative desert of streaming sand dunes, snow-capped mountains, multicolored rock layers, water-fluted canyons and three million acres of wilderness. Death Valley is a land of beautiful extremes. The heat, the dry, harsh environment and the seemingly desolate, ruggedness of its landscape all conspire to make this national monument an extraordinary visual experience. In the winter when the temperatures drop and the skies become moody with the promise of rain that never comes, the landscape blossoms into a heaven of photographic opportunity.

The early morning and late afternoon light plays across the tall rolling sand dunes and canyon walls in a breathtaking kaleidoscopic of golden-hued transformations that echo their North African counterparts. In the spring, explosive displays of colorful wild flowers blanket the Mojave’s desert floor and hillsides offering an unparalleled visual contrast. Everywhere there is evidence of a climate that was once much wetter. Steep canyons have been cut into the valley walls by torrents of fast running water. Bright white salt deposits were left behind after lakes evaporated and in some places have been eroded by wind and rain into jagged, eerie spires. Throughout Death Valley the absence of man’s marks on the landscape is a notable aspect of the traveler’s experience.

Allowing for people to arrive in the morning, we will begin after lunch with the first group meeting and workshop orientation, detailing the shooting locations and get to know each other. We will then depart towards our first location for a late afternoon/sunset shoot.


Each day we will gather at specific locations for sunrise/morning and late afternoon/sunset shoots. The middle of the day will be used either for additional shooting (if the sun isn't too harsh and flat) and/or image reviews and discussions about techniques.


Our final day begins with another sunrise shoot followed by breakfast and portfolio reviews, with the workshop wrapping up at noon.

The actual shooting locations and the order in which we will shoot them, will be decided a few days before the workshop starts, based on the weather and environmental conditions. Certain areas may be closed while other areas may be featured best at different times of the year. We will shoot at some of the following locations:

• For classic desert images, The Mesquite Flat Dunes, which rise nearly 140 feet off the valley floor, provide numerous wide-angle views of golden-brown sand dunes. Late afternoon light accentuates their ripples and extraordinary patterns while morning is a good time to view the tracks of nocturnal wildlife. As this is the most iconographic sight in the park, we will likely shoot this twice - once at sunrise and once at sunset.

• Dante's View: from here View one can see the central part of Death Valley from a vantage point 5,500 feet above sea level. From here Badwater Basin can be seen, which contains the lowest dry point in North America.

• Devil's Golf Course is a large salt pan, with surreal salt flats and jagged weathered salt forms. It was named after a line in a 1934 national park Service guidebook to Death Valley, which stated that "Only the devil could play golf" on its surface.

• Badwater is the lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level, this basin is a surreal moonscape of vast salt flats that reflect the sun much like snow. Contours and geometric patterns will give us a wide range of compositional choices.

• Artist’s Drive is a nine-mile loop that will take us through multi-hued volcanic and sedimentary hills and onto Artist’s Palette. Here the oxidation of different metals in the soil has created an area covered with pink, red, green, yellow and white that stands out in contrast to the brown rocks. This area is especially photogenic in the late afternoon light.

• Zabriskie Point is another breathtaking landmark. Surrounded by a maze of wildly eroded and vibrantly colored badlands, this spectacular view is one of the park’s most famous and a favorite among photographers. It is a five minute drive from Badwater and best photographed at sunrise, when the dawn light strikes the pale yellow snub of rock. This is a markedly unique vista with smooth, rolling ranges of bare, yellow rock.

• Mosaic Canyon's entrance soon narrows to a channel just a few feet wide, winding through banded, marble-like rock mixed with colorful mosaic patches of agglomerated fragments, worn smooth by the countless floods that occasionally flow through the canyon as a result of storms in the mountains beyond.

• Golden Canyon gives you have a sweeping view across Death Valley toward the Panamint Mountains. Rising nearly halfway up the steep mountain in front of the Panamints are great aprons of rocky debris that spread out toward the valley floor, partially burying this majestic range in its own sediment.

Traveling by Car: Death Valley National Park is about 220 miles north of Los Angeles, and 460 miles east of San Francisco.
Airport Information: There is a small public airport at Furnace Creek. The nearest commercial airport is Inyokern Airport near Ridgecrest, southwest of the park, with daily flights to Los Angeles. On the Nevada side, Las Vegas-McCarran International Airport is about an hour’s drive from the park’s east entrance.


• Stovepipe Wells Village Highway 190, Death Valley, CA 92328. Ph: 760-786-2387

Death Valley is generally sunny, dry, and clear throughout the year. The winters, November through March, are mild with occasional winter storms, but summers are extremely hot and dry. Summer high temperatures commonly run above 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Autumn arrives in late October, with warm but pleasant temperatures and generally clear skies. Winter has cool days, chilly nights and rarely, rainstorms. During the winter it can get extremely cold before the sun rises.

For many workshops Lorne will have sponsor partners provide products and/or product discounts to give or raffle off to workshop participants. These are always products that Lorne has tested and worked with extensively and highly recommends to his participants.

The list of sponsors will be updated frequently and can be found here.