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Showing posts with label tutorials. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tutorials. Show all posts

Monday, May 2, 2022

Private Night Photography Workshops by Royce Bair



Private Night Photography Lessons in the Field. For years I've done up to 10 group workshops a year. These 5-day group workshops typically cost about $1,995 (or about $400 a day). In 2019, I went into semi-retirement, doing only one group workshop a year (my group workshops often fill up in 48 hours or less). For the rest of the year, I only do private workshops. Private instruction allows greater flexibility for teaching and offers many additional opportunities for my clients! We can sometimes do as much photography in two or three nights than you can do in a group situation during four or five nights. Of course, we can also do as much daytime photography as you want (depending on how much sleep you require).

One of the biggest advantage of a private workshop is that my time is shared only with you and the friend(s) you choose to attend with you (I cannot tell you how many times I have seen one "bad apple" in a group workshop try to monopolize my time at the expense of others in the group).

Private instruction is only a little more expensive than a group workshop, but it can actually be equal to or less expensive, when you invite a friend or two to share the costs. A maximum of three photographers are allowed in a private group (you and up to two of your friends). Let me illustrate...

Day rate: I charge $1,200 for the first day of instruction and $950 for each additional day (some photographers book just one day). "Weather" days are $500. Here's a typical fee cost EXAMPLE for two or three photographers:

 1st Day/night .......... $1,200.00
 2nd Day/night ..........    950.00
 3rd Day/night ..........    950.00
                          ---------
   Total fee cost ....... $3,100.00
   Cost/photog (when 2).. $1,550.00
   Cost/photog (when 3).. $1,033.33
   (This is less than $345/day!)       

Definitions: A "Day/night" of photography includes up to 8 hours of my time in guiding and teaching. At least two (2) of those hours will be doing starry night photography. The daytime instruction can be in the field or in the classroom (i.e. image post processing). A tag-along spouse or friend, without a camera, is not considered a "photographer".

Weather Days: In many of the workshop I've ever conducted, there are nights where we have so much cloud cover that few stars can be seen or photographed. Although we always try to make good use of the night with "Blue Hour" photography and demonstrating light painting (or Low Level Lighting) techniques, this is probably not what you signed up for. When this happens in my private workshops, we just call it a night and rest up for better nights. If I cannot give you at least 30 minutes of starry night photography, I will charge you a flat $500 fee to cover my expenses for that day. Note: This "weather day" discount does not apply to the first day. The "weather day" discount is also NOT something I offer in my group workshops.

Travel Expenses: You will cover your own travel expenses for transportation, lodging and meals.

Locations for private workshop lessons can be any place in the world! Any workshop location within 350 miles of my residence includes my travel expenses in the first day rate fee. Examples of workshops that are within this 350-mile radius: Arches National Park, Grand Teton N.P., Yellowstone N.P., Zion N.P., Bryce Canyon N.P., Capitol Reef N.P., Canyonlands N.P. and Grand Staircase-Escalante N.M.

You will also cover my travel expenses for any workshop that is greater than 350 miles from my residence in Salt Lake City, Utah. I will cover my own lodging and meals. For distances greater than 350 miles, you will be charged the following travel expenses, in addition to my day rates:

 351-800 miles (car travel one 
    way): $0.95 per mile*
 Over 800 miles: Actual airfare
    charges + actual car rental
    fees (we can share this
    vehicle).
   
*Example: One of my favorite places in eastern California are the Alabama Hills, near Lone Pine. From this area, you can also visit Mono Lake and the ancient Bristlecone Pines. Google says it's 582 miles from Salt Lake City to Lone Pine —that's 232 miles over my free base distance of 350 miles. At 95 cents per mile, that would be a travel expense of $220. As for your own travel expenses, you would want to fly into Las Vegas and rent a car for driving to Lone Pine (232 miles).

Reserving your date: I charge a $300 deposit to reserve a date. You can reserve up to a six days at a time. There is a deposit fee of $300 for each day you wish to reserve. This one deposit covers all the photographers in your group. I am happy to help you with your travel arrangements and hotel recommendations.

CALL: 801-558-2701 to make your reservations, or EMAIL me at royce.bair[AT]gmail[DOT]com (to prevent spam email, I ask you to substitute the "[AT]" with the "@" symbol and the "[DOT]" with the "." character).

Final payment: I request the balance of my fees (and any travel expenses) 90 days prior to the starting day of your private workshop.

Cancellations and Refunds: You can cancel and receive a full refund (less credit card fees), up to 90 days prior to the event. If you cancel between 60 and 89 days prior to the event, I will refund all but $100.00 of the fees you have paid. If you cancel between 30 and 59 days prior to the event, I will refund 50% of your fees, unless we can find a replacement attendee to take your place. If you cancel less than 30 days prior to the event, none of your fees will refunded, unless we can find a replacement attendee to take your place. The workshop participant acknowledges that if Royce Bair cancels this event, all fees paid will be refunded. Other than this refund, no guarantee or warranty is given or implied.

Eliminating days from your scheduled event: If, after completing at least two of your reserved workshop days, it is decided that you no longer need one or more of your additional reserved days, you will be refunded up to $450.00 for each of those unused days (less credit card processing fees). Travel expenses cannot be refunded.

Extending your workshop: If we are less than two weeks away from your workshop, and you wish to extend the length of the workshop (and I can make arrangements to do so), you will pay my first day rate ($1,200/day) for each additional day. You may also be required to pay my lodging expenses for any extra days (as last-minute lodging costs are often at a higher rate).

Recommendations: Read what others have said about my workshops.


PRIVATE INSTRUCTION: In addition to private workshops, I also offer:

This is currently priced at $75.00/hour. Please text me at 801-558-2701 or email me at royce.bairATgmailDOTcom for details.


My photography expertise goes beyond astrophotography: three decades of full-time magazine and commercial photography.























Friday, September 7, 2012

Purpose and Scope of this Night Photography Blog

This blog was created for three reasons:
  1. To show the wonders and beauty of the night sky.
  2. To share as many varieties of night photography as possible.
  3. To share techniques and equipment for nocturnal photography.
Many of my posts will be how-to tutorials on the art of night photography, and I plan to provide many links and references.

To accomplish this goal, I will share not only my images and knowledge of nocturnal photography, but I will bring to this blog the vision and skills of scores of other photographers.

My definition of night photography is fairly broad. They are dusk to twilight photos that require a long exposure, or that require high ISO's for short exposures. They are photos of the the stars, planets, and/or the moon lit sky, with a land feature (i.e. "nightscapes"). They include light-painted objects and cityscapes at night.

I hope you will join me and share this blog with your friends. You can see additional night images on my Flickr group with the same name as this blog: Into the Night Photography.

"Milky Way Dawn over Grand Teton Range" ~ © Royce Bair MMXII
This photo was taken about two hours and 45 minutes before sunrise, from the Elk Ranch Flats Turnout, in Grand Teton National Park. I had several things happening in my favor this night: prismatic colors due to recent wildfire smoke and a considerable amount of airglow in the sky above the smoke. The photo was taken with a Canon 5D Mark III • EF 24mm f1.4L II lens • 15 seconds @ f2.8 • ISO 8,000. This image is part of my NightScape series. You can also watch a video tour of my NightScapes, set to music.

Royce Bair is the editor of this blog and the photographer of the above image. Here is my gallery of NightScape images. My schedule of workshops, tutorials, and other events is available here

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