No. We have your room at The Ranch, Death Valley reserved for you.

Despite its name, Death Valley is one of the most photographically diverse locations in the world. We’ll photograph all of the top spots within an hour drive of Furnace Creek including some of the world’s most famous dunes, badlands and salt flats.

You’ll want a DSLR or mirrorless camera and a tripod. We’ll share detailed equipment recommendations before the event. A laptop is suggested so you can work on your images during the post-processing and critique sessions.

We will send an email to registered attendees before the event and ask you who you want to work with, what you want to learn and the locations you want to photograph. Our team will take this information to create your personalized schedule for the event. One of the benefits of attending our conferences is being able to work with and get to know a variety of instructors, with a diverse range of styles. It may not be possible to go in-the-field with the same instructor every day, but everyone will be able to work with their top instructor choices and photograph their top locations.

Some of the field sessions will have almost no walk. You get out of the car and start shooting from the overlook. Other excursions require a hike through the dunes or salt flats. We will describe the field session difficulty in the session descriptions before you choose your field sessions.

The average high in Death Valley is 67 and the average low is 40. There is very little precipitation in Death Valley even in January.

Photography enthusiasts and pros. All levels of passionate photographers are welcome. Just be ready to eat, sleep and drink landscape photography for five days.

This is a hands-on, immersive photography experience. We’re not going to bring you all the way to Death Valley to sit in a classroom watching something you could watch in bed on Youtube. Over 5 days, you’ll learn new techniques in the field while shooting with some of the world’s best photographers. There is classroom time available to practice post-processing and to get feedback on images, but you’ll be in the field most of the time. There are plenty of options available each day for you to create a schedule that matches your interests, inside and outside the classroom.

You bet! Throughout the week we will eat meals together, hang out in the evening and photograph together in small groups. There will be plenty of time to ask questions and hang out with your favorite photographers.

Of course! They are welcome to join us for the group presentations at no charge. The in-the-field teaching excursions are limited to ten people and are reserved for conference attendees only. A meal pass will be offered at an additional charge so that they can join us for group meals. If you are sharing a room with them, you must purchase the single occupancy ticket.

You can view all of the events you’re registered for by logging into your Out of Chicago account. In the upper right corner of the website, go to “my account” and “my conferences”. You should see your conference listed there. If it is not, please email us at support@outofchicago.com.

You can read the refund policy here.