The December 9, 2023 Aurora Photography Workshop was the twelfth workshop of 2023 at the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge. Throughout the year we held night sky photo workshops every month as part of our educational initiatives at the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge in association with being the headquarters of the Keweenaw Dark Sky Park.
Four guests attended the workshop, all of which were staying at the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge. We have noticed over the past year that guests are booking their stay to attend the workshop and take advantage of the Lights Out! The Lights Out event at the Lodge is a three-to-seven day event where the Lodge turns off all the street lights and other lights to increase one’s stargazing experience.
Nate Bett was the instructor for the class. Nate has a diverse background in photography including attaining an MFA from Parsons The New School For Design in 2012, working for Canon cameras at trade shows and teaching photo classes at NMU.
The Night Sky Photo Workshops are broken into two segments: an inside presentation and an outside, hands-on portion. This night’s class started at 7:00pm and Nate launched into a digital slideshow covering topics like: preparations for a night sky photo shoot, Aurora basics, camera settings, and picking good locations.
Saturday was an interesting day in terms of weather in December at the Lodge, as the temperatures were near 50 degrees. As well, it was overcast throughout the day with rain mixed into the activities. The evening cooled off, offering some snow, but no open skies for stargazing and night time photography. So the attendees and Nate were not able to spend time outside after the inside lecture. However, attendees were able to spend time with Nate asking specific questions about cameras and night-time photography — specific to taking photos of the beautiful Northern Lights.
Our next photo workshop will be held during the new moon in January, on January 12th:
- Stargazing: Northern Lights Photography Workshop, January 12, 2024
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