Photo Tour Overview
Explore the Atacama Desert’s Martian-like volcanic ridges, surreal pastel landscapes, high-altitude lagoons dotted with flamingos, and its renowned status as one of Earth’s premier locations for viewing the night sky.
Capture the driest place on the planet during the day, with a special focus on its spectacular night skies, guided by expert landscape and astrophotography instruction throughout this immersive landscape and astrophotography tour.
Latest Tours
Photo Tour Category
Landscape and Astrophotography Combi Workshop
You will learn:
Multiple fieldwork techniques tailored to current skill level.
Beginner to advanced structured nightscape workflows, landscape photography and Milky Way photography.
Post-production (PS/LR/Siril/Plugins/PTGui/LRT Timelapse.
Why our tours are different
On this Atacama Desert workshop your guide will help your to create high-resolution panoramas and tracked images of the Milky Way, along with detailed shots of specific Southern Hemisphere night sky elements using longer focal lengths.
Our expert guides are highly experienced and dedicated to making the best of these conditions. The guide will plan a very flexible itinerary, often organising much of the trip on the fly to chase the best conditions. This way, the group gets the best chance to be in the right place at the right time.
About the Atacama Desert
The Atacama Desert, nestled along the western coast of South America, stands as one of the driest places on Earth. Its arid landscape stretches across vast expanses of salt flats, volcanic peaks, and lunar-like terrain, creating an otherworldly atmosphere that often sees it compared to Mars.
Despite its harsh conditions, the desert teems with unique life forms adapted to its extreme environment, from hardy cacti to rare species of flamingos that inhabit its high-altitude lagoons. Beyond its biological diversity, the Atacama Desert is renowned for its crystal-clear skies and minimal light pollution, making it a haven for astronomers and astrophotographers alike.
Reasons why the Atacama Desert is great for astrophotography
Clear Skies: The Atacama Desert has over 300 clear nights per year, offering consistent opportunities for night sky photography.
High Altitude: Located at a high altitude, the desert provides thinner atmosphere and less atmospheric distortion, enhancing clarity and detail in astrophotographs.
Low Humidity: The Atacama desert’s extremely dry climate results in minimal atmospheric moisture, reducing haze and improving visibility of celestial objects.
Minimal Light & Air Pollution: The remote location and sparse population of the Atacama Desert mean very low levels of light & air pollution, allowing for clearer and darker skies along with much better visibility of stars and other celestial phenomena.
Stable Atmospheric Conditions: The consistent and stable weather patterns contribute to steady atmospheric conditions, which are ideal for long-exposure photography.
Southern Hemisphere Location: The desert’s location in the southern hemisphere provides unique views of the Milky Way, the Magellanic Clouds, and other celestial features not visible from the northern hemisphere.
Stunning Landscapes: The stark and dramatic landscapes, including salt flats, dunes, and rocky formations, create unique and captivating foregrounds for night sky photography as well as sunrise and sunset.
