Utah Astrophotography Workshop
July 2026. I attended a three day astrophotography workshop in Capital Reef National Park led by Hunter Page. We had a great time. I learned a lot about blending foreground and sky images (taken on the same evening from the same location to expose for different elements, moving stars, dark foreground etc…) into one image. These are a few of my favorites from that trip.
If, you’ve chanced upon this page and are interested in this type of Utah workshop, visit my friend Hunter’s website. He offers group tours, private day tours, and multi-day workshops.
Our group sets up on the first night in Cathedral Valley in Capital Reef National Park.
Bentonite Blues
Near the Mars Desert Research Station in the Utah wilderness there is a landscape of dusty, sandy valley floor strewn with anciently deposited limestone boulders and sedimentary towers. Surrounded by giant bentonite clay hills, it is otherworldly and exceptionally dark on a moonless night. It’s just the place to capture the milky way in relationship to a seemingly off-world scene.
Desert Wake
Referred to as “little Egypt,” this area of wind shaped sand dunes near Hanksville, Utah ebbs and flows, overtaking scrub brush and piñon pines. Suffocating then releasing them in a continuing cycle of death and rebirth.
This image is made from one long exposure using a “light painting” technique to illuminate the tree and the dunes for a few seconds. It takes several tries for the light to hit just right, at just the right amount, but when it does it is insanely cool.
Lavender Mars
Way out in the desert of south central Utah you’ll find a landscape so strange and foreign that the non-profit Mars Society set up the Mars Desert Research Station there. Mountains, bentonite mounds, valleys, dry washes, limestone outcroppings and boulders, all make for an off-worldy scene. Add in Utah’s incredibly dark skies during milky way season and the results are magical.
After hiking to the peak of a huge bentonite mound overlooking a canyon and a meandering dry wash, we hung out for a couple of hours while the milky way rose and crossed the southern sky.
This image uses a couple of blending techniques of images taken consecutively from the same spot. 16 images were taken of the sky and blended together to reduce star movement, digital noise, and increase the effective exposure of the “clouds” in the milky way. A longer exposure was taken for the foreground. The resulting photos were then individually processed and finally, blended together to present this final scene.