Lodestar Photo Tours

Let us be your lodestar

Don’t put your camera away when the sun sets!
Learn how to shoot night sky landscapes in our guided tours.

Book a tour

Let us be your lodestar

Don’t put your camera away when the sun sets!
Learn how to shoot night sky landscapes in our guided tours.

Book a tour

Let us be your lodestar

Don’t put your camera away when the sun sets!
Learn how to shoot night sky landscapes in our guided tours.

Book a tour

Let us be your lodestar

Don’t put your camera away when the sun sets!
Learn how to shoot night sky landscapes in our guided tours.

Book a tour

Let us be your lodestar

Don’t put your camera away when the sun sets!
Learn how to shoot night sky landscapes in our guided tours.

Book a tour

Let us be your lodestar

Don’t put your camera away when the sun sets!
Learn how to shoot night sky landscapes in our guided tours.

Book a tour

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Expert Guidance

Benefit from expert-led tours and workshops, where seasoned professionals guide you through the intricacies of capturing the celestial wonders, ensuring an enriching experience.

Unforgettable Experiences

Embark on unforgettable journeys under the stars, where each tour promises not only stunning photo opportunities but also a profound sense of wonder and connection to the universe.

Accessible Learning

Whether you're a novice or seasoned photographer, our tours cater to all skill levels, providing tailored instruction and support to help you improve your technique and unleash your creative potential.

Discover the Cosmos Through Your Lens

Our mission: Capturing and sharing the night sky’s beauty, inspiring wonder and connection to the cosmos. We make night sky photography accessible and enjoyable for all with Lodestar Photo Tours, offering guided instruction and support for photographers of every skill level.

We’ll take you to dark sky locations to photograph stars, the Milky Way, the moon, planets and other astronomical phenomena with beautiful foreground subjects to make your photos different. We will guide you through the process of night sky photography concentrating on composition, technical matters, equipment tips and image processing. You’ll finish the week with a solid foundation in how to visualize, plan, compose and execute great night sky photos. You’ll be able to edit and process the images to get your final results.

Our Approach

Tailored instruction for all skill levels: From beginners to seasoned photographers, our tours cater to diverse needs and interests, ensuring personalized learning experiences.
Enhance artistic vision and technical skills: We focus not only on technical proficiency but also on nurturing creativity, encouraging participants to develop their unique photographic style in capturing the night sky.

Our Principles

Accessibility: We strive to make night sky photography accessible to everyone, regardless of experience or equipment, fostering an inclusive community of stargazers.
Education: Our expert-guided tours and workshops provide valuable insights and techniques, empowering photographers to improve their skills and capture stunning celestial images.

Our Mission

Capture and share the beauty of the night sky: We aim to immortalize the mesmerizing spectacle of stars, planets, and celestial phenomena through captivating photography.
Inspire curiosity and connection to the universe: By showcasing the wonders of the cosmos, we hope to ignite a sense of wonder and deepen people’s appreciation for the vastness of space and our place within it.

Meet your instructors

The tours are led by photojournalist Stan Honda and Chirag Upreti. The New York-based duo will outline a systematic approach to the process that will benefit all subjects that you photograph.

Stan and Chirag specialize in creating natural views of the sky and landscapes. Emphasis on composition will make your photos stand out from the crowd. We’ll concentrate on utilizing single images to tell the story you want to tell. Minimal processing techniques will produce realistic looking scenes, approaching what you experience in nature.

Gallery

Journey through our visual tapestry – where moments transcend time and memories find their eternal home.

Testimonials

Very nice talk last night. I think this weekend has truly changed my life, or maybe shaped my last quarter. I couldn’t fall asleep thinking about locations and potential compositions near and far. Rene told me this morning I had an artistic awakening and I think she was right. Thank you for the handouts and thank you for sharing a touch of your knowledge.

Thank you so much, Stan, for your workshop. I learned so much from you – in fact I wrote another teacher and now friend as much as I could remember about your organized ISO/f-stop/shutter speed approach, as it’s something I very much want to inculcate in my brain. There is so much else I learned, too.

I devoured everything you wrote/video and I now see it so much clearer. Thank you so much for all your help. This amount of one on one time you dedicated to me wasn’t expected, but is truly appreciated. My brain fog issue makes ‘book learning’ really hard to focus on, so the video really plowed through that fog.

Lodestar Photo Tours