Home»Moab UT Photo Workshop

In May/June I traveled to Moab UT to attend a Timelapse Photo Workshop hosted by Ron Risman. Ron is an east coast photographer who has been in the photography business for over 25 years and now specializes in timelapse and motion control photography. Ron is a great instructor who brings to the workshop a wealth of photographic knowledge coupled with experience in about any type of timelapse, motion control or lighting systems. In addition, like most of us...he fell in love with UT and the southwest. The typical day would start in the morning with post production software techniques and equipment review. Later in the afternoon the class would travel to some of the Moab's best photographic spots. Since most visitors to Moab visit the scenic spots during the day... the class usually would have the areas to ourselves in the late afternoon and evenings. Once the equipment was set up, we would wait for the sun to start setting. Ron, thinking outside the box, insured that everyone had a canvas folding chair since once the shooting starts, the cameras will take hundreds of photos for the next four or five hours and there is little to do but enjoy the stars.

On the way to Moab, I stopped at Devils Tower in WY to watch the climbers, then headed to Grand Junction to visit a good friend that I worked with in Denver and Germany. We took a day long side trip to the Colorado National Monument. From there it was on to Moab, where before the class started I was able to photo some rafters on the Colorado River outside of Moab. The next series of photos are still images from the class. After the class I traveled back to Natural Bridges National Monument which was not only Utah's first National Monument, but on March 6th, 2007, due to the lack of man made light pollution, the monument became the first International Dark Sky Park certified by the International Dark Sky Association. The closest town to the park is Blanding on the CO border which is 50 miles away. I visited the park in the afternoon and hiked down into the canyon to view the bridges. I returned to Blanding and around 10 I headed back to the park hoping to get some night images only to find that clouds had moved into the area obscuring the stars and eliminating any chance of any milky way images. Hoping the clouds might disappear, at midnight I took a few light painting images. The clouds remained so I headed back to Blanding. The last photo was taken while the class was hiking into a remote area to set up for a night of shooting. Will from NM started having chest pains and his condition was worsening. Luckily Ron the instructor had just purchased a satellite phone and was able to contact 911. In a short period of time a mountain rescue EMT arrived and shortly after that a helicopter. Will was medavaced to Grand Junction where it was found he had a clot moving towards his heart. Will was stabilized and recovered. He was lucky since we were some distance from the vehicles and even further distance from where cell coverage was available.