Tag Archives: adventure

Travel, Workshops and Events

2025 Northern Lights Expedition and Workshop tour – now taking bookings.

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aurora1_1.8.1-1024x576 2025 Northern Lights Expedition and Workshop tour - now taking bookings.

With another years tour completed and the Aurora seen on 3 out of the 7 nights I have decided to open up bookings for my 2025 tours a bit earlier than usual to help people wishing to come plan ahead and also spread any payments over a longer period.

Next year I will be running 2 tours, both will go to the same place and do most of the same activities. But I have decided to offer two different variations.

The first tour is an adventure tour for those wanting to see the Aurora (Northern Lights) and enjoy the experience of staying with a Sami family in cabins up on the arctic plateau in Norway. Although there will be people available to offer advice and guidance on filming or photographing the Aurora there is no formal photo or video training on this trip. This trip is not a workshop, it is a chance to experience a different way of life in an amazing location. It is suitable for anyone that is reasonably fit and healthy with a sense of adventure. You don’t need to be interested in photography.

A7-first-night1-1024x684 2025 Northern Lights Expedition and Workshop tour - now taking bookings.
Captured on the first night at the cabins in 2018.



The second tour will be a photo and video workshop tour. It will be based at the same cabins and do most of the same activities as the adventure tour but in addition there will be classes from 10am to 12 noon day on shooting the Aurora, using log gammas for video, colour grading with DaVinci Resolve. After each class you will be expected to go out and shoot some video or photographs of that days activities or you will be given a shooting assignment for the afternoon. Then the following day your work will be critiqued and ideas and suggestions on how to improve what you have shot will be given. The aim being to help you improve your shooting skills over the course of the week. This tour is best suited to those with a keen interest in video and photography.

For more information go here: https://www.xdcam-user.com/northern-lights-expeditions-to-norway/

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Storm Chasing and Video Production Workshop.

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alister-and-supercell-300x225 Storm Chasing and Video Production Workshop.
Shooting a Supercell Storm

Just a reminder that I am running a documentary production workshop between the 7th and 15th of June. Based out of Denver, USA this will be an amazing adventure, road-trip and intensive workshop all rolled into one week. Only 3 places remain at just $1,500 USD per person, plus accommodation. Please see this page for full details. This year is a La Nina year, so we can expect more storms and tornadoes than on average years. May and June are the peak months for severe storms in the USA. We have seen in the past week the power of these storms. One important note is that the storms that killed so many people last week were travelling at 50 to 60 mph across the ground. One of the reasons for chasing in June is that the storms tend to move much more slowly, often only 20 mph so there are far more opportunities to stop and shoot. In addition the weather systems move onto the wide open plains of Colorado, Nebraska and the Dakotas giving incredible vistas.

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Ultimate Documentary Production workshop. (3D as well if enough interest)

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alister-and-supercell-300x225 Ultimate Documentary Production workshop. (3D as well if enough interest)
Alister Shooting a Supercell Thunderstorm

I’m planning on running a Documentary production workshop and 3D workshop based on a Storm Chasing trip to the USA from the 4th to the 12th of June. The trip would be an excellent chance to really put your documentary skills in to practice and learn more about your cameras and workflow shooting a short film about the violent weather that hits Tornado Alley every spring. We can even shoot in 3D if that’s what people are interested in. I can provide a PMW-F3, lens kit and EX1R, but hopefully you would bring your own cameras and I can teach you how to get the most out of them. depending on the weather each day there would be a classroom session or practical on location session covering everything from sound and interview techniques, to camera setup and shooting tips. Will will do a lot of timelapse, make use of cache record (if you have it) and work in some very challenging lighting situations. Each member of the group will be given different roles to play as part of the “crew” each day so that they may gain a better understanding of the difficulties of each role. At the same time the idea is that each person will also create their own personal short film about our storm chasing adventure. With luck we should see incredible thunderstorms, giant hail and maybe even a tornado or two (I’ve been storm chasing for 12 years, it’s my speciality). The cost for this comprehensive and very exciting workshop will be $1800 USD per person for a place on the course. In addition to that each student will be responsible for their overnight accommodation. Typically we will stay in hotels/motels that cost approx $100 USD per night, so you should budget for approx $800 for accommodation bringing the total to $2600. We will depart from Denver, Colorado so you will have make your own travel arrangements to/from Denver. This will be a real educational adventure. The previous trips I have run to Norway for the Northern lights, Arizona for lightning and Tornado Chasing have been great successes with many people returning for more. We will spend a lot of time on the road, visiting many parts of the Mid-West. It will be fun and you should come away with improved video skills, a great short film, and amazing stories of adventure and excitement. Please use the contact form if your interested. Places are limited.