Albert Bronson — Texas

Course: Vegas to Zion: Dusk to Dawn

When I saw that RMSP was offering a night photography workshop in two iconic locations - Las Vegas and Zion National Park - I couldn’t resist. I always wanted to photograph the lights of the Las Vegas Strip, and Zion was one of my favorite national parks. When I found out that the itinerary included The Neon Museum, a graveyard for classic Las Vegas neon signs, I was hooked.

The workshop was led by Tim Cooper and Gabriel Biderman, a great pair. I knew Tim to be an excellent teacher from other RMSP classes, and Gabriel's major photographic interest was night photography. Both instructors ably shared their expertise. In addition, Gabriel brought along a case of Lensbabies for the workshop participants to try out - a great accessory for the bright lights of Las Vegas.

The workshop turned out to be the ideal vehicle to re-sharpen my photography skills after a two-year layoff working on a project unrelated to photography. The daylight hours (starting at a reasonable time in the morning) were spent in the classroom reviewing the basics of night photography and looking at the previous night’s output. As the sun was setting, we headed out to shoot. We followed the same schedule in Zion, but the atmosphere was much lower key.

Vegas to Zion was a lot of fun. Tim and Gabriel did a great job reinforcing what I already knew about night photography and taught me a few new tricks. Of course, seeing the work of the other workshop photographers was just as helpful as hearing from the instructors.