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Saturday, November 14, 2026

Spring Arches Workshop

 

Milky Way from inside Double Arch. © Royce Bair

This Arches National Park "Nightscape" Workshop is led by Royce Bair and Robert McKendrick - April 5-9, 2027 - limited to only 6 participants.

Iconic Landscape.  Arches National Park contains over 2,000 documented natural stone arches, giving it the highest density of natural arches in the world. We plan to visit the most iconic of these arches and natural monuments. We get more requests to conduct workshops here than any other national park.

30 Years of Experience.  Robert and Royce have over 30 years of combined experience in photographing Arches National Park and the surrounding area. We know this area!

Why in April? April 5-9 is the week after Easter and the annual Jeep Safari—the park's most visited time of the year. An April schedule allows us to be in the park long before the crowds arrive, avoiding entrance lines. Additionally, our April night schedule typically avoids interference from other photographers. April is one of the most beautiful times of year for both nightscape and daytime photography in the park. Temperatures are beginning to moderate in April, with average daytime temperatures of approximately 71°F (22°C), and overnight lows near 42°F (6°C). By comparison, summer daytime temperatures in the park often exceed 100ºF (38ºC).

Balanced Rock © Royce Bair

"Garden of Stars" © Robert McKendrick

Milky Way pano over "Fins" in Devil's Garden © Royce Bair

Double Arch © Royce Bair

North Window © Royce Bair

Delicate Arch © Royce Bair

SUNRISE and SUNSET Photography.  Although our focus is on nightscape photography, we plan to guide you to the best spots for twilight and "Golden Hour" photography.

Workshop photographer in "Windows" region © Royce Bair

Landscape Arch © Robert McKendrick


"Arches Sunset" © Robert McKendrick

"Mirror Image" at Balanced Rock © Robert McKendrick

"Gossip Sundown" © Robert McKendrick

Workshop group at twilight / N. Window Arch © Royce Bair

Turret Arch framed by N. Window Arch © Royce Bair

"Fins" in Devil's Garden © Royce Bair

Locations OUTSIDE the Park.  Because Arches National Park no longer allows artificial lighting, we also plan to offer photographic Low Level Lighting opportunities to nearby locations outside the park, if time permits.

"Heaven and Earth" / Castle Rock © Robert McKendrick

"Etheral Beauty" / Looking Glass © Robert McKendrick

Fisher Towers © Royce Bair

POST PROCESSING Instruction.  Our workshop also provides both group and personalized digital post processing instruction to help your images come alive!

Post processing instruction provided © Royce Bair

Typical Daily Schedule.  This schedule gives each person at least 8 hours a day for personal and sleep time, albeit it is broken into two four-hour periods, this is because spring Milky Way photography* has to be done between the hours of 2:30am and 5:30am.

  •  6:00pm - Golden hour / sunset photography
  •  8:00pm - Return to Moab for dinner
  •  9:00pm - Dinner, sleep and personal time
  •  1:45am - Leave for Milky Way photography*
  •  5:30am - End Milky Way photography* and travel to sunrise location, rest in cars
  •  6:30am - Begin Blue Hour, sunrise and Golden Hour photography
  •  8:45am - Return to Moab
  •  9:30am - Breakfast, sleep and personal time
  •  3:15pm - Post processing instruction and individual help
  •  5:15pm - Leave for sunset photography

Skill Level:  Intermediate to advanced

Fitness Level:  Easy to moderate*

Terrain:  Flat walkways to uneven*

*The trail to Delicate Arch is 3 miles roundtrip, over uneven terrain in some areas, and an elevation gain of about 700 feet. All other locations within the park are fairly easy, with flat walkways. We will provide an alternate location for those not wishing to include Delicate Arch on their itinerary of shooting locations.

TUITION:  $2,400.00

These spots will go fast (many of our workshops have sold out in only a few days). There is a deposit of $900.00 to hold your spot. Full payment is due at least 60 days before the workshop. You may cancel by February 4, 2027 and receive a full refund. You may cancel by March 4, 2027 and receive a 50% refund. There are no refunds after March 5, 2027.

To REGISTER for the workshop, eMAIL ME and I will send you an invoice for $900 to secure your workshop spot. You can use this same email to ask any questions. 

What's Included:

  • In-field instruction
  • Group and personal post processing instruction during the workshop
  • One group meal

What's Not Included:

  • Travel to Moab, Utah
  • Transportation during workshop
  • National Park entrance fees
  • Lodging
  • Additional meals
  • Alcohol
  • Travel insurance
  • Health or medical expenses

LODGING Options:  Lodging and meals are NOT provided for this workshop. However, we have reserved a 4 bedroom AirBnB apartment (with 3.5 bathrooms) and lots of common area for relaxing and studying. This will be our home base for group instruction and camaraderie. Lodgers can also prepare meals (if they wish) in the full kitchen. Our apartment is just south of the Moab Golf Course, and is less than 6 miles (12 minutes) from downtown Moab.

Living room at our AirBnB rental apartment

The first three (3) workshop participants who sign up for the workshop will be allow to stay in bedrooms 1, 2, or 3. Bedroom #4 is reserved for the instructors. The cost of each 5-night stay in one of the three bedrooms of your choice (first come basis) is $1,030.72 ($206.14/night with taxes and fees included). This will be billed separately to you, if you choose this option.

Other Lodging Options for the other three workshop participants:

Image GALLERY.  Here are some additional images from the park and surrounding area:

"Gossip Stars" © Robert McKendrick

"A Balanced Sunrise" © Robert McKendrick

Inside Looking Glass Arch © Royce Bair

"Desert Sentinels & Snowy Peaks" © Robert McKendrick

Last rays at Dead Horse Point © Royce Bair

"Sky's the Limit" © Robert McKendrick

Ancient petroglyphs at Wolfe Ranch © Royce Bair

"Orion in The Garden" © Robert McKendrick

Delicate Arch © Royce Bair








































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Saturday, August 8, 2026

Nightscape Photography Resources

Cropped from a horizontal (landscape) image captured with my GoPro Mission 1 Pro (use my NIGHTSCAPER10 discount code to get 10% off any GoPro purchase).

Here are some resources for the astro-landscape or "nightscape" photographer. Many of the items listed here are free resources:

NightScaper Facebook Group
I started this moderated group in 2015. There are now about 200,000 members posting their favorite astrophotos. You can lurk (view only) or join and participate (post and comment). In order to join the group you must agree to the group's rules and answer two questions. Correctly doing those requirements gives you automatic membership approval, and you can begin commenting on posts within the group. In order to post images you must identify the image category (such as single exposure, blend, stacked, tracked and etc.). How you took the photo (EXIF) and backstory are also helpful, but not required. All this information helps to make the group a generous wealth of information.

My Patreon account offers scores of free tutorials and information pages on nightscape photography. Membership is free; however, supporting members (for as little as $1/month) get additional levels of information and they are able to communicate directly to me, enabling them to ask specific questions.

My Instagram account not only features my work but showcases hundreds of other nightscapers from all over the world. The account currently has over 450,000 followers. My collaborating artists typically provide plenty of BTS and technical information about their images. Additionally, you can join my broadcast channel, Nightscaper Lounge, and receive more behind-the-scene information and tips on astro-landscape photography.

Here's my free tutorial website on LLL or Low Level Lighting, complete with the equipment I use and tips on how I set up the lights. There's also a video.

Star Trail CleanR is a free automated AI tool built by Bruce Herwig and Claude Code to remove airplane and satellite trails from individual night-sky frames before you stack with StarStax (or other star trail creation tools) into a final star trail image. It saves hours of manual retouching in Photoshop. Free for Mac, Windows and Linux.

Star trails stacker or a single image stacker: Drop in a folder of frames. Satrelle locks onto the stars and builds your shot two ways: flowing star trails or a tack-sharp Milky Way. Every pixel is light you actually captured. No AI fill. No fake skies. No cloud. Download the software directly to your computer. Free for 7-days. Limited version (stack up to 200 images) is free forever. Mac only.

In my opinion, Sky Guide is one of the most elegant star constellation finder apps ever created. I've owned this app since 2014. Unlike other apps that use computer simulated images of the night sky, Sky Guide actually uses real night sky photography (views generated from 137,000 images)! From these views of the night sky you can tell the app to move forward or backward in time and view the night sky from where you are standing—as you point your iPhone or iPad in that direction. Absolutely beautiful augmented reality. You control what constellation overlays you see, if any. Warning: this app can be downloaded for free, and then it will ask you to upgrade to the PLUS or PRO versions, with various monthly or yearly subscription plans, some costing up to $59.99/year or a PRO lifetime membership of $249.99. Don't do it! Just stick with the free version or pay the one-time $2.99 and brag to all about how smart you were to get such a great app at such a great price! You don't need all the bells and whistles, just the basic app.

Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. In 2009, when it first came out, Stellarium was the only software available for night sky planning. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye or binoculars. Freely downloadable for Linux, Windows and Mac. Nowadays, I find it more convenient to use the free online web version. A free mobile version is also available for both Apple and Android (linked from the webpage). Although Stellarium Mobile does not provide the depth of features available from PhotoPills or Planit Pro, it is free and still provides good nighttime augmented reality for your nightscape planning.

This is the light pollution map I recommend in my ebook on page 58. The atlas uses a new expanded color scale by David Lorenz that is considered by many to be more accurate and provide
greater utility than previous light pollution maps that used the Bortle Scale. The units listed for each color are magnitudes per square arc-second. The white and light gray are somewhat comparable to the old Bortle Scale 9/8. The red shades are comparable to Bortle Class 7, orange shades to class 6, yellow shades to class 5, green shades to class 4, blue shades to class 3, medium and dark gray shades to class 2, and black to Bortle Class 1 (to compare these last shades of gray and black, you may need to adjust the opacity slider on the right side of the atlas. The layers menu on the top left allows you to go between street and topo version, and go back in time to see how light pollution has increased in an area.

Although my newsletters are mainly about astro-landscape photography, be prepared to learn anything that will help increase your creative abilities as a photographic artist!

"Creating Natural NightScape Photographs" is a free 90-minute seminar I presented with the help of my friends, Ralf Rohner, Manish Mamtani, Eric Benedetti and Clarence Spencer. It was given on March 14, 2017 before a group of 240 people. Although the information shared is somewhat outdated for advanced nightscapers, beginners and intermediates will still find it quite useful.

Halcyon gives week-at-glance forecasts for golden hour color, fog, astro, and storm drama—with 0 to 100 scores. This is a free web app that installs like a native app (to your smartphone or to your web browser), so no app store is needed. Halcyon will sit on your home screen like any app, and it keeps working offline with whatever it last fetched. Once installed, you can save your regular spots and the six tabs (sunrise, sunset, stars, fog, storm, aurora) will score each of them for the week ahead. The Milky Way calendar is under the calendar icon. All of its astronomy is computed on your device, so it works anywhere on Earth for any year. Developed by Rajesh Jyothiswaran.

Milky Way Tonight
Milky Way Tonight gives you weather, dark sky ratings, moon phase, and galactic core timing—all calculated hour by hour for your exact location. Every tool. One app. This is not a free app. It was built by Jack Fusco and costs $7.99. PhotoPills ($10.99) and Planit Pro ($9.99) have been around for about a decade, so why would you want to pay for another photo planning app? I purchased Milky Way Tonight because I like its elegant simplicity and it gives me additional info, like weather, that the other two don't provide. Update: clicking on "Sky View" (bottom) will give you access to night augmented reality, as well as other unique features like Core Alignment. Expect video tutorials on some of these cool features in the near future.

PhotoPills, Sky Guide, Stellarium and Milky Way Tonight, do a good job of nighttime augmented reality planning—letting you see how night sky objects align with your earthly foreground features; however, you have to be standing at your location to visualize this alignment. They are not as accurate in helping you visualize that alignment from a different location, such as while you are planning at your home, months in advance. This is where Planit Pro really shines. It can build a model of your foreground (like this one of Shiprock mountain in New Mexico) and tell you where you need to be standing in order to capture the Milk Way on any given date and with what lens! Because Planit Pro has a bit of a learning curve, I suggest you view these free how-to video tutorials by the amazing Mike Shaw. Mike can also custom plan your astro alignments for you, if you'd like that convenience and his expertise.
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Saturday, December 14, 2024

Free Milky Way NightScapes Photography Lectures


 Free Milky Way NightScapes Photography Lectures for Camera Clubs and Local Photography Groups.


Next presentation at:

Sedona Camera Club

Christ Lutheran Church, 25 Chapel Road, Sedona, AZ 86336

Feb 23, 2026 • 6:00pm • In-person

(One-time visitor's fee of $5.00 if you're not a club member)


Although I've been paid handsomely to give dozens of presentations over the years at photography conferences throughout the world, I often "give back" to our photography community with free lectures to local photography groups and camera clubs.

A typical astro-landscape photography presentation, with PowerPoint slides, runs about 45 minutes to an hour, followed by up to 30 minutes of Questions and Answers from the audience. My only pay-back is that the hosting organization allow me a 2-minute advertisement about my Milky Way NightScapes eBook, which can be purchased online (often with a special discount code for members of the hosting organization).

Typical Presentation Methods to Your Group. Your Choice Between:

  • Zoom option 1: You provide the live Zoom connection. You are free to record the presentation and share it later to members who could not attend. Cost: No charge from me.
  • Zoom option 2: I provide the live Zoom connection. I will also record it and post it to YouTube, where your member can access it after the live Zoom meeting. Cost: No charge for my presentation; however, there is a fee of fifty dollars to help pay for Zoom and uploading costs.
  • In-person: I will come to your club or organization and make my presentation. Cost: No charge for my presentation; however, you must pay for my round trip transportation costs from Salt Lake City, UT USA; and lodging costs in your city.

Email to inquire about my available dates or to ask questions: orida70@gmail.com 


Here are a few recorded examples of presentations I've given:


Promoting Your Camera Club

Royce promoting a camera club lecture via a local TV show in Florida

When I come to your area, I often help promote your local organization or camera club. Here, I'm on a local TV program in Florida promoting a presentation I'm going to give that weekend at a local camera club. My lecture was free to camera club members. The club charged a nominal fee to the general public—helping to bring in money to support the club's future programs. I also use my domain name "NightScapeEvents.com" to link up to the club's website or any other local astrophotography event I'm trying to help promote (that domain name goes to this blog page when there is not a current event scheduled).

Royce promoting a local event in Seattle, WA via a KING5 TV interview



Image Critiques - Portfolio Reviews - Judging

When I do photography lectures I’m often asked to do image critiques as well. This is where each of the club or group members can submit a few digital images beforehand and have me critique the images in front of the whole group. The group usually benefits just as much as the photographers being critiqued.

More than nightscapes: In some gatherings I’m asked to do competition judging or portfolio reviews. In all cases, these images cover a wide variety of subjects and genres. That’s because I’ve not only had experience in nightscape photography, but I’ve spoken and judged multiple times for the Professional Photographers of America (and Canada), the PSA, and for the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP).

My professional photography career has spanned over three decades in magazine, commercial, industrial, portrait and fine art photography. Besides being a full-time photographer, over the years, I've also been the CEO of a stock photo agency, a fine art printing company and an art gallery.


Royce has been doing magazine and commercial photography for over three decades.


Here are some of the places where where I'm already scheduled to appear:

  • Mar 6 • 7:00pm • via Zoom
  • Albuquerque, NM USA
  • Enchanted Lens Camera Club
  • enchantedlens.org
  • Membership required


  • March 11 • 6:30pm MDT • via Zoom
  • Fort Collins, CO USA
  • Fort Collins Digital Camera Club
  • fcdcc.com
  • Membership required



  • March 27 • 6:30pm PDT • via Zoom
  • Los Angeles, CA USA
  • Professional Photographers of Los Angeles County
  • pplac.org
  • Membership required


  • April 8 • time to be announced • via Zoom
  • Paso Robles, CA USA
  • North Country Camera Club
  • Facebook group page
  • Membership required


  • May 6 • 7:00pm • In-person
  • West Jordan, UT USA
  • SL County Library - Viridian
  • thecountylibrary.org < register here
  • FREE to the public


  • June 4 • 7:00pm PDT • via Zoom
  • Scotts Valley, CA USA
  • Community of Digital Artists
  • CODAsantacruz.com
  • Membership required

  • August 11 • 7:00pm EDT • via Zoom
  • Statesville, NC USA
  • Iredell Photography Club
  • Facebook group page
  • Membership required

  • Feb 23, 2026 • 6:00pm MST • In-person
  • Sedona, AZ USA
  • Sedona Camera Club
  • sedonacamera.club
  • Non-members can enter with a $5 visitor's fee


What people are saying about my lectures:

"Wonderful presentation last night. I learned a lot of inside info that I haven't encountered before. Thank you! Could you please pass on the mini flashlight brand and model for that 1-lumen mini light you showed?" - TomM

"Thank you very much for your presentation last night. I and, I'm sure, the rest of the club members appreciated your in-depth information. I'm going to spend some serious time sorting thru my notes..." - Keith Hill












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