Starry Nights, Cape Cod

  • Limited to 7 participants.

  • Four Hour Field Shoot.

  • Two Hours of Instructional Videos.

  • Printed Course Material.

  • All skill levels welcome.

  • Physical activity : Moderate Walking.

  • Workshop Type: Milky Way / Dark Week.

  • $225 per person.

Summer Night Skies on the Cape

Cape Cod offers stunning subjects that come to life after dark, illuminated by lighthouse beams, flashlights, and starlight.

This workshop experience is perfect for anyone looking to expand their creative portfolio and skill set while enjoying what the National Seashore has to offer under night time conditions. Should we be blessed with starry skies, the locations we visit will provide excellent alignments of the Milky Way band. If the clouds roll in, our subjects will still provide great composition opportunities under dark conditions meaning you'll walk away with great images, new skills and happy memories either way.

During this workshop presentation, you'll learn this and more:

1) The ideal camera settings for high ISO photography.

2) Light painting - Using light to allow for single exposure shooting in dark conditions.

3) Basic astronomy, the seasonality of the night sky and how to incorporate the night sky into your composition.

4) Focusing in the dark.

5) Tracking vs. stacking and noise reduction techniques and ideas.

6) The best cameras and lenses for astro-landscape photography.

7) Post production tips and ideas to think about as you create your shots.

8) Understanding how atmospheric conditions can affect your shoot, even on what looks like a clear night.

9) Recording aurora and meteor events.

Gear Considerations
Workshop Gear Requirements

1) A DSLR or Mirrorless camera that has the ability to shoot at ISO settings of 3200 and higher.

2) A shutter release cable with intervalometer capability for longer exposures and star trails.

3) A very sturdy tripod. VERY STURDY. Chain store tripods, amateur video tripods and cheap kit tripods are not permitted in this workshop.

4) A wide angle lens (near the 12mm-24mm range) with a required aperture ability of at least f/2.8.

5) One or more flashlights. Preferably, one with a very low power setting for seeing the back of your camera and a brighter one for walking.

6) Two fully charged batteries.

7) Two memory cards.

8) Bug spray. Should you need to rent a lens or camera, I recommend Borrow Lenses.

Who Can Take This Workshop?

While all skill levels are welcome, this workshop is for attendees who are completely comfortable adjusting their camera's settings - specifically your manual mode and ISO, aperture, time and white balance. It's okay to not know why to change those settings prior to our event, just how. A night photography workshop is not the best time to just be learning to navigate your camera and will not result in the best experience for you or other attendees. For this reason, camera-specific hardware tutoring is not offered at this event.

Accessing the shoot locations will require walking on sand and nature paths for up to ten minutes with photography gear. You should be in reasonably good physical health.


This event is limited to 7 participants.

Hi, I'm Tim! I love photographing Cape Cod at night and have made it my business to know how to do it and where the best locations are at the right time of the year. I've hosted over 120 group workshops and 500 private tours. My book Cape Cod Nights : A Photographic Exploration of the Cape and Islands After Dark was released in 2013 and is available to order at your favorite book store.

I offer these events so you can have a unique and memorable experience and learn something along the way while getting great images! You'll meet some like-minded people in a safe and fun environment.

Hope to see you out there, after dark!