Unfortunately, due to low registration numbers, this event has been cancelled.

Invest in yourself by trying your hand at this exciting facet of photography or polish your current photography skillset by adding Astrophotography to your repertoire.

Learn secrets of photographing the night sky with the personal guidance of Mackenzie Local, professional Astrophotographer & Astronomy guide, Joseph Pooley.

There is no better place in the world to learn Astrophotography than Lake Tekapo in the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve.

Together we will spend two (2) nights of concentrated tuition in the field, optimising your cameras manual settings for night time imaging, as well as identifying and framing up some of the most captivating regions of the night sky.

This workshop is ideal for anyone interested in Astrophotography, whether you are a beginner wanting to get started, or you are already experienced in Astrophotography and wanting to expand or refine your skill set.

The workshop content can be steered by the requirements of attendees, so it will be directly beneficial for everyone involved.

The workshop will include the following:

• A comprehensive PowerPoint presentation on Astrophotography fundamentals.
• Discussion on camera equipment, settings, composition and night sky targets.
• Discussion about location planning, weather, safety & etiquette.
• Fundamental Astrophotography tuition in the field.
• Tuition of more advanced techniques such as stacking or panorama.
• Insights to equatorial tracking and deep sky Astrophotography
• Post processing using Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop and free stacking software.
• Attendees will be given an informative document for future referral after the workshop.

During the course of the weekend, we will visit two or three locations for shooting Astro images including the world famous Church of the Good Shepherd.

During May, the Milky Way core can be seen rising in the East, so we will try to position ourselves to shoot in this direction.

There will be an optional group dinner on the second night at the Blue Lake Bar & Eatery (at your own cost).

In the event of bad weather we will spend time learning in more depth about finer points of planning, capture and processing Astro images such as star trails, stacking and stitching panoramas.

We can provide image files to practice on.

In addition there are some great options for shooting landscapes during the day such as the flanks of Lake Tekapo, Lake Alexandrina, Lake Pukaki, or Aoraki Mt. Cook (if you fancy a day trip).

Please note shared accommodation (2 people per room) at the Tekapo Ski Lodge is included in the registration fee.  The registration fee does not include any food. Food for the lodge is BYO.

Fee: $415