2025 Colorado Fall Color Photography Workshop

Chasing light and golden aspens in Colorado!

Learn to capture images like a pro and make images that stand out as unique. This is a uniquely-crafted experience high in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado that is so much more than just a photography workshop; it’s an immersive adventure!

Brief Fall Color Workshop Overview:

Where: Gothic, CO, and surrounding areas.
When: Wed Oct 1st through Fri, Oct 3rd (3 full days).
Capacity: Limited to 8 people and 2 instructors

Cost: $1925/person – includes lodging, food, & 4×4 transportation, and airport shuttles.

($350 deposit + taxes to reserve your spot)

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High Altitude Adventure

J Smilanic – owner of WNC Photo Tours – was born and raised in the mountains of Colorado and is no stranger to the Rocky Mountains. This workshop adventure was designed to give participants the true feel and experience of autumn in a remote setting of the Colorado Rockies!

If you’ve never experienced fall in the mountains of Colorado, this is a must-do for photographers!

Our base camp will be in rustic cabins situated in a secluded valley surrounded by giant mountains. We’ll be renting 4×4 vehicles to take us into the heart of the mountains and do some proper exploring! Gothic is just a few miles from Kebler Pass which has the largest grove of Aspen trees in the world!

There are abundant wildlife photography opportunities in Gothic, too, including a herd of elk, moose, wild foxes and bears.

Have you ever heard of Gothic, CO? Probably not. It’s a desolate town nestled amongst giant mountains just outside of Crested Butte. The only structures in Gothic are truly rustic cabins that will serve as our lodging. Wildlife outnumber the humans here 🙂

We have teamed up with Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (wildlife preservation) to rent a cabin at this unique location. Our cabin is the least rustic option, with central air and heat, two kitchens, two bathrooms, and plenty of lounging space!

Full Workshop Details

Highlights:

3 Full days and nights in the Colorado wilderness
New shooting locations each day
4×4 excursions into the remote mountains
On-site chef
Wildlife Opportunities
Daily lesson plans, designed to challenge you as a photographer

Our style:

First of all, our workshops are for ALL LEVELS OF EXPERIENCE! You should not at all feel intimidated to join us! Truly. As with all of our workshops, we put a preference on creating an overall experience versus a traditional photography workshop. That is not to say that we do not teach — during the workshop we spend a lot of time with customers who are trying to grow their photography craft. But first and foremost, we want to provide you with an experience that you won’t forget, and we excel at this.

What’s included:

Lodging
Food (Breakfast & Dinner)
Transportation
Getting you to and from the airport

What’s not included:

Gear
Flights

Itinerary:

WNC Photo Tours will be offering group shuttles / rental cars from Denver International Airport on Wednesday, October 2nd to Gothic. We’ll all be sharing 3 vehicles during the duration of the workshop. Of course you have the option of using your own transportation to meet us in Gothic which is 4.5 hours from Denver.

On the night of September 30th, we’ll all convene in Crested Butte and have dinner together, getting to know each other and discussing the exciting details of the following three days! We’ll retire to the cabin the night of the 30th and the workshop will begin on the morning of Wednesday, October 1st!

Each day we’ll shoot sunrise and sunset, with a little downtime in between.

We want to remain flexible and shoot when and where the conditions best serve us so we won’t be laying out an exact itinerary for the workshop.

The workshop will end the night of Friday, October 3rd, we’ll stay one more night at the cabin. For those who need it there will be a shuttle offered back to Denver to get participants back to the airport on Saturday October 4th.

The Team

J Smilanic

Owner/Founder

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Matt Williams

Guide Superstar

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The WNC Photo Tours Team has a combined 25+ years of experience as photographers and over 2,000 hours instructing people about landscape photography!

What you should know

Don’t be intimidated!!

All skill levels are welcome at our workshops. Can’t stress that enough! The less you know about photography the more you will walk away with, and the better the experience will be for you, so don’t be shy. Photographers are generally pretty nice people 🙂

Lodging

The cabin we reserve has 7 bedrooms with two beds each. Each customer shares a room with another person. The cabin is large with two stories and plenty of lounge area.

Food

This year we are bringing in some help to cook breakfast and dinner for the whole group in the cabin! We will do our best to meet your dietary needs and dietary restrictions. Each person will be responsible for paying for and packing their own lunches each day.

Conditions

Colorado can get downright cold during fall! We would not be at all surprised to see snow during the workshop (We’re secretly hoping for a little snow). You’ll want to bring plenty of warm layers including hats and gloves.

Activity

Between the altitude and some hiking, you should be in decent physical shape to participate in this workshop. On one of the days of the workshop we will be doing a 2-mile hike on top of other activities.

Payment/Cancellations

All of your initial deposit (18% percent of total price +tax)(~$350) is non-refundable. Full payment must be made by July 31st, 2025. Any cancellations within 60 days of the workshop will not receive their payment back as it is very difficult to fill the space on that short of notice. If we are able to fill your spot, we will provide you with a full refund, minus the initial deposit. If an emergency arises we will do our very best to work with you as we understand things can happen.

More details will be made available to those who book the workshop. We can’t wait!! Hope to see you out in the Rockies 🙂

Questions? Email us!