Lighthouses of Michigan
Short, tall, freshly painted or weathered, the 129 lighthouses of Michigan cover over 3,000 miles of lakeshore! We’ll start on the western shores of Lake Michigan and then make our way to the Cheboygan area before crossing the Mackinac Bridge into the rugged and wild Upper Peninsula. Along the route we’ll employ multiple techniques, capturing these beacons with the Milky Way or surrounded by star trails and multiple beams of light.
Workshop Details
MAIN WORKSHOP
August 24-30, 2025 — Sold Out, Join Waitlist Below
This is a 7-night, 7-day workshop. Your adventure begins on the morning of August 24 and ends after our night shoot on August 30.
$3,395. Register below.
Skill level
Participants should have a firm grasp of the basic principles of photography and of their cameras, and have a comfortable understanding of night photography fundamentals.
Group size
14, with 2 instructors — 7:1 ratio
Add-On: Pictured Rocks
August 31-September 1, 2025
This is a 2-day, 2-night optional add-on available only to attendees of the main workshop. More information below.
$1,095. Registration information will be sent to attendees of the main workshop.
Group size
14, with 2 instructors — 7:1 ratio
NPS website
Workshop Leaders
Registration
Hoping to get a spot? Sign up below for our no-fee waitlist.
| • Deposit of $800 is required to reserve your spot at the workshop. |
| • Balance of $2,795 is due on May 27, 2025. → Pay balance here. |
| • You may choose the “Pay in Full” ticket if you desire to pay all at once. |
| • Last day for a cancellation request is May 26, 2025. (see cancellation and refund policy) |
| • The workshop fee does not include lodging, food, airfare, entrance fees, or transportation to or during the workshop. |
The Lighthouses of Michigan Experience
Ready for a road trip adventure that will span 500 miles and include more than 10 lighthouses (or 14 if you join the add-on)?
We’ll kick things off with 2 days and nights along the western side of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. The lighthouses at Point Betsie, Big Sable Point and Little Sable Point all offer exquisite Milky Way alignments as we embrace the end of summer and longer cooler late-summer nights.
Next stop will be Cheboygan, where we’ll spend a night photographing at Old Mackinac Point and the Mackinac Bridge, which connects the Upper and Lower Peninsula and spans the convergence of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.
Continuing along the northwest side of Lake Huron, we’ll listen to the legends of Old Presque Isle Light and aim our cameras at the other dramatic lighthouses: New Presque, Forty Mile Point and the Cheboygan Crib and River Front Range.
Then our final destination will await: Paradise. We’ll head up to heaven, the Upper Peninsula, and base our operations out of Paradise, Michigan. This rugged region looks across the way to Canada and sits along our last lake, the biggest one, Lake Superior. Point Iroquois, the Whitefish Light and Museum, and Crisp Point are all on our radar.
All in all we’ll spend 7 days and nights in three different hotels as we chase the lighthouses of Michigan. We have timed this workshop during new and crescent moons. This will expand the opportunities to plenty of dark skies as well as, hopefully, auroras! This part of Michigan is above the 45th parallel, the halfway point between the equator and north pole, and is prone to plenty of aurora activity!
The Pictured Rocks Add-On Experience
TK
Note: This optional add-on is available only to workshop attendees. You will receive a link to purchase a ticket (if desired) after registering for the main workshop.
What You Should Know
This workshop caters to knowledgeable photographers with an intermediate or higher skill set. Participants should have a firm grasp of the basic principles of photography and of their cameras, and have a comfortable understanding of night photography fundamentals. We will be happy to offer advice and answer questions about both day and night photography, but the focus of the formal education will be how to photograph lighthouses under dark skies.
If you would like to join us on this trip but are unsure whether you have adequate night photography skills, we can offer pre-event tutoring to get you ready for your adventure with us. Additionally, a few of us have written books that may be productive pre-trip reads.
What You Will Learn
We hope to push you to step outside your comfort zone—to test the limits of what you and your camera can do. Photographing lighthouses at night is challenging and rewarding. We’ll challenge you to capture a variety of different interpretations of each of these beacons of the night.
TOPICS COVERED WILL INCLUDE:
balancing the exposure of a bright lighthouse lantern in a dark environment
timing a lighthouse flash with an exposure
compositional concerns with lighthouses and seascapes
controlling perspective distortion in the field and in post-processing
creating a “beam” effect—in-camera and in post
star trails with a lighthouse
and more …
This workshop will have both field and classroom instruction, but more of the former, as we will have more-casual travel days in between stops. Each participant will have the opportunity to work one-on-one with Gabe and Chris in the field.
Night Conditions
Logistics & General Info
Travel
We’ll be covering over 500 Michigan miles on this adventure workshop. We advise flying into Traverse City, the Cherry Capitol Airport. For your return you’ll have the option to either drive 3 or 5 hours back to Traverse City (depending on whether you join the add-on), or you can return a one-way car rental at Marquette Regional Airport (2.5 hours from the end point of the main workshop, or 10 minutes from the end point of the add-on).
You are responsible for arranging and paying for your own transportation.
Nearby Airports:
Traverse City (TVC) — 1 hour, 15 minutes from Manistee (our first stop), and 3 hours from our last stop (of the main workshop)
Marquette (MQT) — 2 hours, 30 minutes from the last stop (of the main workshop)
Rental Car
You will need a rental car.
There is no need for four-wheel-drive.
If you are interested in carpooling or sharing a rental car, let us know and we will try to connect you with another attendee looking for the same.
Lodging & Food
You are responsible for arranging and paying for your own meals and accommodations.
Lodging
We will stay at three different hotels along the route.
You are not required to stay at the official workshop lodging, though doing so does make it easier to meet with the group each day.
Info and group codes will be sent soon after registering.
If you are interested in sharing a room, let us know and we will try to connect you with someone like-minded in the group.
Food
Our stops in Michigan have abundant food options.
We will have access to all things cherry. Cherry pie, cherry cookies, cherry ice cream, cherry sauce, cherry juice, cherry coffee, cherry tea …
We encourage eating two meals per day—a good breakfast and a great late lunch.
When on the night shoots, you may wish to bring snack food or a sandwich and plenty of water.
Weather
Expect daytime highs in the 60s to 70s F, lows in the 40s to 50s.
Recommended Attire
Pants and short-sleeve shirts for daytime, pants and long-sleeve shirts for night.
A sweatshirt and medium-weight jacket will likely be useful, and a base layer might not be a waste of packing space. Layers are good.
Comfortable and protective shoes are recommended for getting around. The only long hike is on the add-on, but we will be on sand and rocks most nights, so quality trail shoes or hiking boots would be optimal. Waterproof is even better.
Exertion Level
The exertion level of this workshop is Easy. (See more about our classifications.)
No vigorous activity will be required during the workshop, but please consider your physical abilities prior to registering. There won’t be any long hikes, but we will be doing short hikes on unmaintained trails, and you should be comfortable carrying your own equipment over uneven ground in the dark.
Considerations
IMPORTANT: We encourage reading our FAQs page for more information about skill and gear requirements, and other information that pertains to all our workshops.
If you have questions, please contact us—we're happy to talk it over with you.
Loving Michigan, Loving Lighthouses …
“I’m a bicoastal guy, and it’s always been my normal to spend time with family along the coasts and spot those sentinels of the sea.”
I love Michigan.
I was invited to teach a night photography class at the Glen Arbor Arts Center in 2021 and have become addicted to lake life since then. Summer is not complete until I head to Lake Michigan and explore the everlasting lakeshore, hike through dunes, eat too many cherries, pontoon the smaller lakes and stamp more lighthouses off in my passport.
The people are incredibly warm and welcoming, and the towns, historic buildings, landscapes and lighthouses are just epic.
Then there is the lighthouse love affair. I’m a bicoastal guy, and it’s always been my normal to spend time with family along the coasts and spot those sentinels of the sea. When National Parks at Night hosted our first Summit, it was based around the Fire Island Lighthouse. It united so many people who were curious about photographing the lighthouse at night, when the beacon truly came alive!
At that time, Chris and I discovered that we shared a deep passion for lighthouses—both their history and of course photographing them. We’ve explored and offered workshops around Cape Cod for several years, which only stoked the fire for us to explore more around the world. When we realized that Michigan has the most lighthouses of any state, we knew we needed to get cracking!
