Speakers for the 2021 NightScaper Conference

Speakers for the 2021 NightScaper Conference, May 10-12, in Kanab, Utah. The largest and most comprehensive "Astro-Landscape Photography" conference ever assembled—40 speaker experts and 'legends' from 9 countries! Twelve returning speakers from our 2019 conference (with all new programs), and 28 new speakers.

A complete program schedule is now available. Make your conference reservations now!

DISCOUNTS: Many of these speakers are offering discount coupon codes of up to $200 off. Check their websites and social media postings.

SPEAKERS ~ PROGRAM TITLES and DESCRIPTIONS:

Alan Dyer - Co-author of the popular guidebook, The Backyard Astronomer’s Guide, and author of the ebook, How to Photograph and Process Nightscapes and Time-Lapses. Alan will present two programs: "Chasing the Northern Lights" and "Diving into Deep-Sky Photography."

Brad Goldpaint - 2018 winner of the Astronomy Photographer of the Year and producer of the upcoming time-lapse film, “Illusion of Light." Brad’s program, “Photographing the Milky Way with Moonlight,” might sound counter-intuitive, but the results may surprise you. One of the most challenging aspects of night photography is capturing the dark, ambiguous landscape beneath a starry night.  Artificial lights and longer exposures can be used to help avoid this problem, but what if there was a natural way to bring life to your images?

Ben Canales - Ben is one of the earliest nightscape innovators. In 2011, he received international attention as National Geographic's Travel Photo of the Year. Ben's program, "Humans in Night Photos–Yourself or Others," will talk about the power of adding the human figure into a night shot, and how that can be just you or friend/model you bring along.

Yuri Beletsky - Yuri is an international astro-landscape photographer and a professional astronomer from Chile. "Living in Chile, the country famous by its dark clear skies, gives me a unique opportunity to reveal the majesty of our cosmos and to share my passion with people around the world." Yuri will do two programs: "Natural color of the night sky," and "Mastering panoramic images of the Milky Way."

Jack Fusco -  Jack was a recent TEDx speaker about nightscape photography. His upcoming conference program, "The Art of Chasing the Shot," embraces the journey of both failure and success to elevate your images and storytelling. In Part II, Jack covers "Capturing vs. Creating" – finding where your personal line gets drawn.

2nd Row:
Ron Risman - Producer and director of dozens of timelapse videos that have received national attention in advertising and documentaries, Ron's program, "9 Ways to Improve Your Astro Photography with Timelapse," you'll learn how capturing a time lapse can benefit you when you're in the field. Few night photographers actually stay out long enough to capture time lapse footage. But there are eight reasons why time lapse footage has quickly become the swiss-army knife of astro photography.

Eric Gail - Eric’s program will show you how to “Master the Power of Photoshop.” The owner and founder of the Adventure Photography Network, Eric has been color processing and retouching for Hollywood and the music industry for more than 30 years. His work can be seen on TV, online and in print all over the world. He has logged more than 40K hours in Photoshop and has taught on a corporate level.

Bryony Richards - Bryony's program, "Nightscapes and Science: what stories are your photos hiding?," will focus on some of the scientific elements of nightscape photography including: Airglow versus aurora. Airglow colors and their significance—how can you enhance airglow in your images Telling the difference between planes, satellites, meteors, comets, or iridium flares. Composition of meteors based upon color. Chemistry of nebula and how getting this right can help your color balancing!

Joshua Snow - Josh’s program, “Verge of Reality,” discusses the mindset of conceiving a vision for your imagery, and bringing it to life in post processing through creative choices, staying true to the art and dealing with the mental struggles of being an artist. Josh will help you move away from just "taking photos" to a higher level that transports the viewer into your soul.

Aaron King - Producer of the popular Photog Adventures series of podcasts, video tutorials and workshops, Aaron will do two programs: "Know your Cosmos!" (Key tips and tricks to know when and where your Milky Way Opportunity will be.) "Milky way Panoramas!" (Why something you think is hard is actually the easiest thing ever and you still only need Lightroom to do it!)

3rd Row:
Christine Kenyon - A popular writer on nightscape photography, Christine's program, “Come Along on a Virtual Nightscape Adventure,” will take you on a nightscaper adventure; executing a plan, from concept to completion. Through immersive multimedia you will be transported "virtually" from the conference room to the field.

Wayne Pinkston - Co-founder of the Low Level Lighting method for landscapes, Wayne will present an extensive step-by-step program on how he does his unique artificial landscape lighting, showcased with his amazing nightscape panoramas.

Russell Brown - A live performance of the 'Russell Brown Show' is not to be missed! As Senior Principal Designer at Adobe Systems Inc. and an Emmy Award-winning instructor, his ability to both teach and entertain has endeared him to audiences around the world. His program, "The Wonders of all Things Mobile," pushes the boundaries of mobile phone technology to capture long exposure night photography.

Miles Morgan - A professional airline pilot, based in the Pacific Northwest, Miles' unique style of twilight photography is proof that there is much more to nightscapes than just capturing the Milky Way! You'll discover this in his program, "Finding Variety in Night Sky Photography.”

Bettymaya Foott - Bettymaya is the Director of Engagement for the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA). A fellow nightscaper, her passion for saving our night skies from the encroachment of light pollution is contagious! Her program, “Save the Stars,” will both enlighten your understanding and move you to action.

4th row:
Matt Dieterich has been passionate about astrophotography since 2005. Using telescopes to capture images of the night sky was his entry in astrophotography. In 2015 Matt went to work for Mount Rainier National Park as an Astronomy Ranger. Over the years, his YouTube Channel helped others learn astrophotography. Last year Matt served as Artist in Residence at Craters of the Moon National Monument. Matt's current career focuses on installing telescopes for astronomers and astrophotographers all around the world.

Marc Toso - Marc's website and program, "Ancient Skies," focuses on humanity’s relationship with the night sky. Marc will discuss archeoastronomy, how night photography intersects science, culture and religion and how learning about and appreciating the night sky can ultimately teach us about ourselves, our origins and humanity’s place in the universe.

Roger Clark - A planetary and NASA scientist, with over 300 scientific papers to his credit, Dr. Clark's programs will cover "Natural colors in the night sky," and "Post processing to preserve star and nebula colors."

5th row:
Gavin Hardcastle (aka Fototripper) is a British landscape photographer that moved to British Columbia and has become popular through his Fototripper YouTube Channel. Because of Canadian quarantine restrictions, Gavin's program will only be presented virtually (currently, about 75% of our speakers are planning to present their program in person at the conference).

Mike Shaw - Author of two books on astro-landscape photography. Mike’s program, “Astronomy 101 for Nightscapers,” will give you a crash course with fun facts about the Earth’s place in the Solar System, Milky Way and Universe, and how the Earth’s daily and annual movements give you ever-changing views of the cosmos. You’ll also explore the lesser photographed features of the Earth’s night atmosphere.

Eric Benedetti - Eric's program, "Tracking Mounts: Increasing Accessibility to Astrophotography and Nightscapes," will help dispel the myth that people need to spend thousands of dollars on things like Full Frame cameras, highly expensive and specific lenses, and other equipment that the photography community considers the norm!

Wenjie Qiao - Sony World Photography National Awards Winner and author of Planit Pro, an app utilized virtual viewfinder to plan landscape photos precisely. Wenjie’s program is about “Planning Night Photography in an Easy Way”. It will not only cover the Milky Way, but also every aspect that you can possibly plan in the starry night. You will find out how his creative planning ideas can also be part of your night photography workflow.

Ryan Smith - Ryan will help your define your vision as a photographer and as a businessperson. He will do three programs: "Photography, the perfect Side Hustle" - Tips for making your passion pay it’s own way. "Photographer or Artist" - Defining your own personal vision that’s best for you. "Photography Life is a journey, not a competition" - Enjoying the craft without “playing the game.”

6th row:
David Swindler - Creating high-quality panoramic images at night is much more difficult than during the day. David's program, “Creating Extraordinary Night Panoramics” will discuss his best tips and tricks to putting together the perfect night panoramic image from shooting to post-processing.

Mike Taylor - Mike and Sonia Taylor operate the freelance imaging studio out of a 19th century farmhouse in central Maine. Mike’s program, “New England Night Photography,” discusses how Maine is one of the last bastions that offers dark skies on the east coast. Behind the Scenes graphics and RAW files show how he blends long foreground exposures with the night sky.

Derek Sturman - Derek's program, "Perceiving and Portraying Reality," will present the methods by which photographers attempt to replicate an entire experience within the confined dimensions of an image. Using Photoshop, you will be able to express more of the emotion or experience from that moment than the camera is able to capture. Derek will focus on composites as well and blended images and the method of creating art that replicates an experience rather than just an exact mechanical replication of a moment.

Ross Schram von Haupt - Although camera technology has come a long way, night photography still faces a lot of complications, including noise, coma and astigmatism. Ross' program, "Techniques for Clean Night Shots," will cover several in field and post processing techniques to overcome these limitations.

Royce Bair - Founder of the NightScaper Conference, author of the eBook, Milky Way NightScapes, and co-founder of the Low Level Lighting method for astro-landscapes; Royce will present two programs: "Nightscape Ethics," and "Advanced Techniques for Low Level Lighting."

Nine more international speakers have recently agreed to present virtually at the conference:

Stefan Liebermann - Germany - Program title and description to be announced

Alyn Wallace - UK - "More than the Milky Way." Whilst the first bucket list tick for beginners is a shot of the glorious Milky Way core, there is so much more in the night sky that can be captured with a wide-angle lens. Conjunctions of planets, fireball meteors blazing across the sky, mesmerizing aurora dancing in the sky, the list goes on... Alyn will give a second program on "The Importance and Joy of Planning." The night sky behaves like clockwork, allowing you to predict the future and pre-visualise your shots. 'You don't take a photograph, you make it.'

Paul Wilson - New Zealand - Paul is well known for his amazing Milky Way panoramas. Program title and description to be announced

Michael Zayne ~ aka "blntpencil" - Australia - Michael's program will demonstrate Milky Way orientation throughout Australia's seasons.

Manish Mamtani - Boston / India - Program title and description to be announced

Amir Shahcheraghian - Iran - Program title and description to be announced

These 3 photographers will do a joint program on "deepscape" photography (deep sky objects with an earthly foreground feature—taken from the same tripod position):

• Ralf Rohner ~ aka "skypointer2000" - Switzerland
• Paul Schmit - New Mexico
• Dheera Venkatraman - San Francisco 

Five more speakers have recently agreed to present in-person at the conference:

Joyce Harman - Joyce's "Saving Dark Skies Locally," will teach you how to use your images for a good cause. Joyce embarked on a personal project to document the night sky that was still present within 60 miles of Washington DC, and educate landowners to help preserve it. Using her own images as inspiration, residents have replaced lights, she has sold many images, and has created a traveling exhibit. She will explain how you can do something similar in your own area.

Shreenivasan Manievannan - Shreeni will present two programs, "Maximizing & pushing the limits with GoPro cameras," and "Capturing Starscapes on a Budget." The first is highly recommended those wishing to see what a budget “sports” camera is capable of doing with astro-landscapes, when applying the best techniques, and the second will allow you to see what a budget camera is capable of doing with astro-landscapes, when applying the best techniques.

Jess Santos - Jess' program, "Telling Stories Using Composition," will take a look at the traditional compositions and discuss how to turn these into more unique story telling opportunities. Learn how lens choice, focal length and other compositional tools can be used to better tell a story through your night sky images.

Ken Childress - "Introduction to Making Milky Way Portraits." Ken demonstrates how to add the human element with multiple methods and simple setups for creating unique portraits under the Milky Way.

David Soldano - "Low Level Lighting Nightscapes." David will discuss his favorite tools, techniques and tips for using low level lighting to add depth and drama to nightscape images. White Balance and the different colors of various lights will also be covered. You’ll learn to determine which lights work best on trees, red rocks & people. Three excellent examples of low level lighting will be deconstructed, and David will reveal how the photographers lit the images and discuss their creative process.

A complete program schedule is now available.