Daniel Garcia leads a photo workshop in the Sandia foothills on March 22nd.
The Southwest Monsoon: The perfect time to be on the Colorado Plateau. Most mornings cumulus clouds appear as if by magic, soon exploding into towering thunderstorms that bring rain, lightning, thunder, and “petrichor”, that indescribable smell of desert rain.
We'll headquarter at a house in Flagstaff, Arizona, at the foot of the San Francisco Peaks also known as Doko’oosliid, the mountain that makes the rain. The prevailing westerly winds climb up the Colorado Plateau and, by the time they reach the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, thunderstorms begin almost every day.
We've planned this trip to take advantage of this annual weather phenomenon and no where is it more spectacular than at the Grand Canyon. We'll take you to the best places to photograph on both the South Rim and the less crowded, higher North Rim.
Because we can't control the weather, our itinerary will be flexible. Because of our central location in Flagstaff we'll be able to chase the storms over a wide range of the Colorado Plateau from the Grand Canyon to Monument Valley or south to Oak Creek Canyon near Sedona and many remote places along the way. And, if the night skies are clear, we'll go out to dark locations for astrophotography. We've planned this trip to take advantage of moonlight as well as monsoon season. The Grand Canyon and the Colorado Plateau are magical under the moon. The moon will be a week away from full which is perfect. We'll have both completely dark skies and moonlit vistas each night.
Itinerary
We'll keep the itinerary flexible so we can adjust to the weather. Your two professional photographer guides are also expert storm chasers and have the latest weather technology available. We'll talk it over each morning and then head out. However, here are likely possible days and nights.
Day One - We'll meet at our headquarter house at 9:00AM, spend a little time getting acquainted and loading our gear and head for the Grand Canyon's South Rim. Because it is summer, we'll go to the least visited overlooks at the far east end of the Canyon. If the weather co-operates we'll spend the day at the South Rim, photographing the afternoon storms, sunset, and evening twilight before returning to Flagstaff. This will be the first night opportunity to photograph so we may stay late at the Canyon, dining at one of the South Rim restaurants.
Day Two - We'll leave early for the drive to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. (As the crow flies, it's only a few miles from the South Rim to the North Rim, but it is a three hour drive. We'll do a short day hike — on level ground at the Rim — and drive to the spectacular overlooks for storm photography and sunset. We'll have dinner at the Cameron Trading Post on the way back to Flagstaff.
Day Three - Today we may go further afield and head to other places on the Colorado Plateau and the Navajo Nation where photographers hardly ever go for unique shots of storms.
Day Four - We'll be up early, in time to finish our trip with sunrise photos, probably east of Flagstaff but to be determined based on the sky conditions that morning. We'll be back in Flagstaff by noon to end our trip.
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Facts -Monsoon Chasing Workshop 2024
July 31- August 4, 2025
4 Days
Number of guests: 6
Number of instructors: 2
Included
Van transportation each day
Lodging
Teaching and guiding
Not included
Travel to and from the workshop destination (Flagstaff, AZ)
Meals
Beverages
Travel insurance
Among his last official acts, President Biden did a great service to photographers. He signed “The Explore Act” which, among other things, relieves photographers from the necessity of acquiring permits to film on federal lands. Technically, any photographer making a photograph or film on federal lands was required to have a permit if she planned on selling the photograph. That requirement, which probably violated the First Amendment — and was widely ignored — is gone now for groups of six or fewer, so long as the photography is done is places open to the public, does not disturb the public or the locale, and does not cost the federal government any money or headaches. In other words almost all still photographers and small scale videographers can thank President Biden and the bi-partisan group of legislators who moved the bill along. A thank you also to New Mexico's senior senator Martin Heinrich who was instrumental in the effort.