Colin D. Young Photography 2023 Landscape and Nature Photography Workshops
I will be leading five photography workshops in 2023. Each will have a different focus and location, but they will all be intimate affairs, limited to only 6-8 participants each. Photographers of all skill levels are welcome. Whether you are a beginner just getting to know your new DSLR or mirrorless camera, an amateur looking to elevate your craft, or a seasoned photographer who just wants to explore the secrets of the Colorado Rockies or the red rock canyons of Utah, you will get something out each of these photo workshops.
Arches & Canyonlands Winter/Spring Workshop March 2-6, 2023 Moab, UT
Bryce Canyon Magic Light May 11-15, 2023 Tropic, UT
Arches at Night Workshop June 12-16, 2023 Moab, UT
Autumn Color in Rocky Mountain National Park Sept 24-28, 2023 Estes Park, CO
San Juan Mountains Fall Color Workshop Oct 2-6, 2023 Ouray, CO
Spend a fantastic weekend exploring Arches, canyons, ancient rock art, the Colorado River, iconic movie and TV locations, and some of the best light for landscape photography in the world. The weather is cool and lovely in early March, with the snow-capped LaSal mountain peaks making a great background.We will visit a wide variety of great locations in Arches National Park and Dead Horse Point State Park, plus locations in both the Island in the Sky and Needles districts of Canyonlands National Park.
Explore the wondrous hoodoos of Bryce Canyon and the unique slot canyons of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument on a 5-day photo workshop is Southern Utah, home to some of the best light for landscape photography in the world. This workshop sold out in 2022, so book your space soon!
Arches National Park has been designated as an official International Dark Sky Park. Spend 4 nights learning techniques to photograph the Milky Way against a wide variety of fascinating rock formations, including the largest collection of natural arches in the world. This workshop always sells out, so book soon!
Spend 5 days exploring glacier-fed waterfalls, alpine lakes and night skies from 12,000′ in rugged Rocky Mountain National Park. We will explore the Wild Basin, Glacier Gorge, Dream and Emerald Lakes, Trail Ridge Road, and other lovely locations inside and outside the park, high in the Rocky Mountains.
October 2-6, 2023 – Ouray, Colorado – New Workshop!
Based in picturesque Ouray, Colorado, we will visit a variety of great locations in the San Juan mountains for fall foliage, combined with classroom work to better your photographic craft. Locations will include, but not limited to: scenic highways, forest streams, aspen groves, mountain lakes and epic mountain overlooks, in areas near Silverton, Ouray, Ridgeway & Telluride, Colorado.
All of these photography workshops are designed for photographers of all levels and skills, whether you are a newbie with a new DSLR or mirrorless lens, or an experienced pro that wants to get great advice on locations when visiting a bucket list national park or two. Please be sure to Contact Meif you have any questions regarding any of these workshops.
I grew up in the 70’s listening to Casey Kasem on Saturday afternoons, so I’m a sucker for a good old Top 40. In that vein, in lieu of an end of the year newsletter, today I posted my personal best photos of 2017 in my annual Top 40 Photographic Hits from 2017 Gallery. See details below on my Top 40 Sale!
Once again, my travels took me to some pretty amazing places in 2017: two visits to Moab, Arches & Canyonlands, my first experiment with underwater photography coral reef off Roatán, a huge summer camping trip out west to five national parks, Autumn trips to Vermont and North Carolina, plus a special trip to Antelope Canyon and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
Moab, Arches, Canyonlands & Bears Ears
Snow-covered remnants of an Anasazi tower ruin on the rim of Mule Canyon in the Cedar Mesa area of Bears Ears National Monument (Jan 2017)
As I have every year since 2011, I spent a few weeks in Moab, Utah, exploring the photographer’s paradise that is Southeast Utah. We are really lucky to own vacation rental property in Moab, so that has become a second artistic home for me, typically in the off-season. In January I made a brief foray into the newly formed, and more recently endangered, Bears Ears National Monument. I have only begun to briefly scratch the surface of the thousands of natural and cultural wonders to be found within the boundaries of the Monument, and look forward to exploring more in the years to come.
The president has issued an order abolishing two of our most cherished public land areas: Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments, potentially exposing 2 million acres of unique wilderness, and 10’s of thousands of cultural sites to drilling and mining. I have created a Endangered Monuments Gallery. It highlight some of the beautiful historical and natural resources that are now endangered by losing protection as National Monuments. I promise to donate 25% of all sales from this gallery to Utah Diné Bikéyah or the Natural Resources Defense Council, to support legal challenges in defense of these unique areas.
Underwater and Overwater photography in Roatán, Honduras
A school of blue tang crossing the reef near the Iron Shore off Roatan’s West Bay Beach. (April 2017)
I got to make my first open water dive, and played a bit with some underwater photography on our April trip to West Bay Beach on the island of Roatán, Honduras. Unlike its larger cousin in Australia, the coral reef off Roatán is alive and well, and full of marine life!
I captured this photo from a platform on a cliff above the reef. I was originally shooting wide angled shots of the extensive reef and turquoise waters, but when I looks at screen, I noticed a dark shadow that moved from one photo to the next! Sure enough, there was a school of Blue Tang swimming nearby, so I quickly swapped my lens for a telephoto and captured the shot above. The swirls of refracted light in the water remind me of Van Gogh’s Starry Night. Plus it’s a photo of Dorys!
National Parks Grand Tour Camping Trip
Iceberg Notch and the Ptarmigan Wall, Glacier National Park, Montana (June 2017)
This was a trip I had been dreaming about and planning for many years. This summer we packed up our camper-trailer and drove West from NY on a long summer camping trip to the Mountain West. We visited 5 national parks in North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado, 4 of which were new to me! We first camped at Many Glacier Campground in Glacier National Park, where we had camped in a tent 10 years earlier. This time the mid-June snowpack kept me from hiking to some of the higher elevation places I had hiked to before, like Grinnell Glacier, but the waterfalls were glorious in their Spring melt, and I managed 9 or 10 hikes in 8 days, the last of which was an awesome ranger-led hike to Iceberg Lake, which was just beginning to thaw (right).
Right Place, Fourth Try
Occasionally as a photographer you get lucky – right place, right time. Most of the time it takes careful planning, some amount of luck, and often a certain amount of stubbornness. In our 8 days in Glacier, I visited various parts of Swiftcurrent Lake four different evenings to shoot the sunset. Each of the first three afternoons, the clouds looked to be setting up nicely for a lovely evening, only to have the sun sink behind a think bank of clouds that filled in over the mountains to the West. Finally, on a windy and bitterly cold evening, I parked my tripod on the deck of the Many Glacier Hotel, and captured the image below
Colorful sunset clouds over Grinnell Point and Mt. Gould on Swiftcurrent Lake, in Glacier National Park, Montana. (June 2017)
Magic in Yellowstone
The vivid rainbow colors of the Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming (July, 2017)
While I don’t necessarily recommend visiting Yellowstone for July 4th week, nonetheless I experienced some serious Yellowstone magic on my first visit (the trick was to get up early to beat the crowds!) I have never seen so much wildlife: bison, pronghorn, elk, ospreys, even a lone wolf. The wildlife was outdone only by the natural wonders of Yellowstone: geysers, huge waterfalls with rainbows more predictable than the geysers, and a seemingly infinite variation of thermal water features. My favorite was the Grand Prismatic Spring. Ever changing in colors and moods, it was truly one of the most vibrant things I have witnessed in nature.
Autumn Color in Four States
A colorful collage of Autumn leaves reflected in the ripples of the West Branch of the Little River in Stowe, Vermont. (Oct, 2017)
It was a challenging Autumn for photographers. A weirdly cool stretch in late August followed by a hot September played havoc with the trees. It was not the best fall foliage season. Nonetheless, I was able to capture some interesting fall color shots, on a foggy mountain lake in the Catskills, on the Little River outside Stowe, Vermont, surrounding waterfalls near Highlands, NC, and in Neon Canyon in Grand Staircase- Escalante National Monument in Utah.
Antelope Canyon Swirls of Light and Stone
Twisting, striated layers of red sandstone walls of Upper Antelope Canyon, Navajo Tribal Park. (Oct, 2017)
To be honest, I had been avoiding Antelope Canyon. We’ve all seen the vivid shots in magazines and coffee table books – breathtaking. I had visited other slot canyons, and loved the experience and got some great shot. I had buyers come into my art fair booth to request Antelope Canyon. So why my reticence? I had heard stories and read accounts about how overcrowded and dusty Upper Antelope Canyon could be, with herds of tourists in the narrow canyon. I envisioned huddling over my tripod in the dark, trying to protect my gear from dust, and rushing to get a shot off before the next wave of tourist came around the corner. Well, I am glad I finally went, and I am sure I will visit many more times in the future. Our guide on the photo tour did a fantastic job of keeping the crowds away, and pointing out the changing light, and I came away with several keeper images that I imagine will be nest sellers at future festivals. Only two images made the best of 2017 list, but there easily could be five. Truly a wonder of the natural world. Just, wow!
I could go on and on about each of these 40 photos. I will go into more detail about some of these images and adventures in blog post to come, but let’s get to the exciting part – the sale!
Top 40 Hits of 2017 Sale – all sizes and formats 25% Off!
During the bleak winter period, I always like to share a bit of color to brighten everyone’s day. To make this event even brighter, for the rest of January all of my Best of 2017 images are on sale!Matted photo prints, canvas gallery wraps, and glossy aluminum prints in all sizes are all 25% OFF! This sale only applies to my Top 40 Photographic Hits of 2017Gallery. So come on in and take a look. Even if you don’t buy anything now, let me know which ones you like best, especially on social media – I love feedback!
No codes necessary!
Choose you favorite(s) from the website, click the “Add to Cart” button below the photo, and choose a size and format from the drop down menu.
Sale ends 11:59pm EDT Wed, Jan 31.
Please Leave Me Feedback!
As I try to figure out which of these Best photos of 2017images might be most interesting to my buyers in the coming year, it is crucial that I get some feedback from my fans and fellow photographers. I would love to hear from you, either by leaving comments here on the blog, leaving comments on the website page of your favorite photo, or on my Facebookor Instagram feeds, where you will find most of these images from post over the past year.
I hope you enjoy your trip through my 2017 that was.
