2024 Crested Butte Colorado Wildflower Photography Workshops

Blooming Beauty: A Exclusive Wildflower Workshop for Three Adventurers

Learn to capture images like a pro and make images that stand out.

Brief Wildflower Workshop Overview:

Each summer in the Crested Butte area, the hills become absolutely covered in wildflowers! I’ve taken the time to scout and find the best spots for these blooms and I want to share this experience with you. There will be two wildflower workshops taking place one month apart from each other. Each workshop will be proceeded by an optional Astrophotography Workshop in the same area during the same week.

When:

Late June Workshop: Sat June 29th – Monday July 1st SOLD OUT
Join the waitlist

Late July Workshop: Sat July 27th – Monday July 29th SOLD OUT
Join the waitlist

Where: Crested Butte, CO, and surrounding areas

Capacity: Limited to 3 people and 1 instructor

Cost: $1,850/person. Includes lodging, transportation, and airport shuttles*. Bundle with the proceeding CO Astrophotography workshop and save $600!

($300 deposit to reserve your spot)

Full details below! Keep scrolling.

High Altitude Blooms

J Smilanic – the guide for this workshop – was born and raised in the mountains of Colorado and is no stranger to the Rocky Mountains. This workshop adventure was designed to give participants the true Colorado feel and experience that he grew up experiencing. Sharing these experiences has become one of J’s passions in life.

If you’ve never experienced summer in the mountains of Colorado, this is a must-do for photographers!

There are abundant wildlife photography opportunities in the area, too, including moose, elk, wild foxes, tons of deer, and bears.

Why does the workshop only have 3 participants?

Well, there are several reasons, but simply because only three people can fit in my vehicle. More participants means more instructors and more vehicles that need to be rented. I don’t want to be limited in where we can go by rental vehicle policy restrictions. Some of the best locations in the area require rugged 4×4 vehicles to access.

Beyond transportation, lodging accommodations are limited in the area during the summer. I want to make sure we can find a place that people will be excited to stay at and that is also affordable. This is quite the challenge with a large group. Those who book this wildflower workshop can expect a comfortable lodging situation with a cabin feel. I am still combing through the options in the area!

And most importantly, keeping the workshop small allows me to create a truly unique experience for those involved and give each participant plenty of attention. I can’t wait to show everyone what I have in store!!

Full Workshop Details

Highlights:

3 Full days and nights in the Colorado wilderness
New shooting locations each day
4×4 excursions into the remote mountains
3 students per instructor
Wildlife opportunities
Daily lesson plans, designed to challenge you as a landscape photographer

What we’ll cover:

Planning your shoots using apps and research
Choosing the right lens and filters for the shot
Exposure Bracketing and Focus Stacking
Exposure control: how to use the exposure pyramid and exposure compensation to properly expose your image
Long exposures
Composition techniques
Understanding and using light
Various post-processing techniques and workflows, including blending images in Photoshop using layers
Different approaches to focus stacking in post production
Group critiquing each other’s photos
and so much more covering techniques ranging from beginner to advanced.

What’s included:

Lodging
Transportation
Getting you to and from the airport

What’s not included:

Food
Gear
Flights

Itinerary:

WNC Photo Tours will be offering a shuttle from Denver International Airport to Crested Butte the day before the workshop begins and a shuttle from CB to DIA the day after the proceeding Astrophotography workshops conclude. Of course you have the option of using your own transportation to meet us in Crested Butte which is 5 hours from Denver.

Each day we’ll shoot sunrise and sunset, with a little downtime in between.

We want to remain flexible and shoot when and where the conditions best serve us so we won’t be laying out an exact itinerary for the workshop.

Your Fearless Leader

J Smilanic

Owner/Founder

I have been leading tours and workshops since founding WNC Photo Tours in July of 2019. I’ve worked with – on average – a hundred people a year to help improve their landscape photography. I am very passionate about sharing these unique experiences with our customers and helping them create images they are very proud of!

What happens when you combine wildflowers, mountains, AND astrophotography?

Something Magical!

I’ll be offering Astrophotography Workshops proceeding each Wildflower Workshop at the same location! Those who bundle the wildflower workshop with the astro workshop will save $600 off the total price. There will be one down day between the wildflower and astro workshops to rest up and then the fun begins again! We will stay in the comfort of the same cabin the entire duration between the two workshops.

My goal of the Astrophotography Workshop is to simply help you create images like you see here.

Total price for both workshops: $3,100. Includes lodging & transportation.

Astro - Learn More

What you should know

Don’t be intimidated!!

All skill levels are welcome at our workshops. Can’t stress that enough! The less you know about photography the more you will walk away with, and the better the experience will be for you, so don’t be shy. Photographers are generally pretty nice people 🙂

Lodging

Lodging will be in a cabin-style Airbnb near Crested Butte and will have all of the basic creature comforts one needs. Lodging is included in the total price of the photography workshop.

Food

We will likely share meals as a group. We’ll do a group trip to the grocery store at the beginning of the workshop!

*Transportation

I will be offering a shuttle from Denver International Airport to Crested Butte at the beginning of the Wildflower Workshop and a shuttle from Crested Butte to DIA at the end of the Astrophotography Workshop, but there will be no shuttles in between. If you do not bundle the workshops you will be responsible for your transportation either to or from the airport, depending on which one you book. Once in the Crested Butte area, I will handle all transportation needs.

Dates

Early summer workshops:

Wildflowers: Sat June 29th – Monday July 1st SOLD OUT
Astrophotography: Wed July 3rd – Friday July 5th SOLD OUT

Mid-summer workshops:

Wildflowers: Sat July 27th – Mon 29th SOLD OUT
Astrophotography: Wed July 31st – Fri Aug 2nd 1 SEAT LEFT

Each workshop is 3 full days.

What’s the difference between the two Wildflower Workshops?

Glad you asked! Minimal. For the second (mid-summer) Wildflower Workshop, there will be less snow on the mountains tops but slightly better compositions to be had. Each workshop will have the same type blooms, just at different elevations. The photos displayed on this page were taken near the beginning of July.

Activity

You should be in decent physical shape to participate in this workshop. There might be some moderate hiking (no more than 1-2 miles) involved in getting to some of the more scenic spots.

Payment/Cancellations

50% of your initial deposit ($300 +tax) is non-refundable. Full payment must be made by May 1st. Any cancellations within 60 days of the workshop will not receive their payment back as it is very difficult to fill the space on that short of notice. If we are able to fill your spot, we will provide you with a full refund, minus half of the initial deposit (~$204). If an emergency arises we will do our very best to work with you as we understand things can happen.

More details will be made available to those who book the workshop. We can’t wait!! Hope to see you out in the Rockies 🙂

WNC Photo Tours is an equal opportunity service provider.

Operating under a Special Use Permit on the Gunnison National Forest.

Questions? Email us!

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What's your flavor of Colorado?

We have three different photography workshop offerings in the great state of colorful Colorado. Check them all out!