Big Bend Astrophotography Workshops - 2025 Recap
Starting something new always comes with a quiet knot in your stomach—especially when you’re inviting people to travel across the country to trust you with their time, money, and creative hopes. We weren’t sure how they would go… would people follow our teaching? Would they like our shooting locations? Would they be happy with the images they created? All considerations my partner in crime, Ben Sassani, and I kept in mind as we carefully planned for our inaugural night sky workshops in the Big Bend for 2025.
Our first workshop was October 16-19, late in the core milky way season for Texas. Our group of 7 participants came from far and wide - Florida, St. Louis, Massachusetts and of course some Texas folks. The primary goal for this group was learning how to focus in the dark… arguably the most difficult part of astrophotography.
This group was rewarded with an absolute STUNNER of a sunset the first night at Sotol Vista. The billowing clouds produced lightning in the distance over Mexico, and while the gorgeous sunset most photographers dream about was incredible, all of us were a little concerned that the cloud cover could wreak havoc on our milky way imaging later in the night. But alas, as soon as the sun was completely gone from the horizon, the clouds began to dissipate and the brilliant Texas night sky made its appearance!
The next evening was just as fruitful for this group while photographing at the Terlingua Ghost Town Cemetery. Gorgeous golden light painted the unique headstones memorializing the lives lost in this far away remote town. This evening participants were dialed in and had a new level of confidence around focusing their cameras in the dark that had me tickled pink! And to think just the DAY before so many struggled with this concept!
On the last evening of the workshop we met at a location with an abandoned car and old trailer - a quintessential scene for West Texas astrophotography. At this point in the workshop you could tell they GOT IT and were eager to find unique compositions, use some fun props (Gus the goose!) and even try some new things like plopping their cameras on my star tracker. The group were making creative decisions on their own. The key takeaway from this group was the FUN we had and the incredible images this group were able to produce! For our first workshop, I would say it was a smashing success!
Our second workshop was December 12-14 around the Geminids meteor shower. Promising to be the best of the year with 150+ meteors per hour during the peak Saturday night, we knew this workshop would be a bit different due to the fact that we weren’t chasing the milky way, but rather playing a game of chance in catching some of those incredible fire balls racing across the sky!
The key takeaway from this group was just how magical a shared experience like a meteor shower can be. As a society we have become quite insulated - Door Dashing food so you don’t have to leave home, curbside pickup, Netflix/Hulu/Amazon streaming so you don’t have to go to the movie theater. These shared experiences are something we shouldn’t lose sight of and forget about. Sitting under the night sky with this group on the deck of my property for HOURS watching what was the best meteor shower I have ever witnessed is surely cemented in my brain as a core memory. I am grateful for that time with this awesome crew.
As I write this the group is still combing thru their images, but some preliminary previews of their work has been so inspiring!
What these two workshops reinforced for us is that this isn’t just about astrophotography—it’s about slowing down, showing up, and sharing something rare together. Looking to 2026 I am so excited to share that Ben and I will be hosting 2 more astrophotography workshops in the Big Bend! March 14-17 for those gorgeous milky way panoramas & September 9-13 for late milky way imaging. We are already scheming fun locations for these shoots and I can’t wait for the lessons learned and the people we will get to meet in 2026 doing this crazy awesome thing - astrophotography!
If you’ve been on the fence about attending an astrophotography workshop, consider this your sign—we’d love to have you under the stars.
www.bigbendworkshop.com
clear skies & happy shooting 🤠
