I’m a couple of trips behind on these trip reports. Back in June, I lead a photograph workshop to Devils Tower and the Badlands National Park to photograph the night sky. We had excellent conditions and shot the Milky Way over the Tower and over Badlands formation.

The group was fantastic and everyone was fun to be around. It’s always fun to visit the parks after dark, because as the park service says, half the park is after dark. If you are interested, here’s the description for the Badlands and Devil’s Tower Night Photography Workshop.

The trip started at Devil’s Tower with two nights at the tower photographing sunset and the night sky. I think the best way to photograph sunset in the monument is to photograph the tower from the western side looking east. The warm sunset light bathes the tower in golden or orange light if you are lucky. We were lucky and found a puddle in which to photograph the reflections of the tower. The Sacred Circle of Smoke sculpture is also fun to photograph at sunset.

During the first night, I helped the group get Milky Way pictures and during the second, we did star trails. During star trails, you end up standing around waiting 30 minutes to 1 hour for the image to complete. It’s a good time to chat and tell stories.

Once in the Badlands, we worked on taking panoramic images of the Milky Way over Badland formations and juxtapositioning the Badlands formations with the Milky Way. In some areas, we used low-level lighting to illuminate the formations.

The sunsets in the Badlands always feel and look sublime. It’s one of my favorite places to photograph the sunset and often you get a sunset that is 360 degrees around you. We had one of those on the last night. Every direction in the sky was colored red, orange or yellow.

One of my favorite parts about workshops is the people. Not only do you get to learn but you learn while hanging out with great folks. This group of no exception. I was sad to leave when it was over.