At the Dark Skies Glamping Pod, situated in a remote area of Dumfries and Galloway, we’re now running photography holidays. Stay in our luxury off grid glamping pod, set under some of the darkest skies Scotland has to offer, whilst learning the art of landscape and night sky photography.

I’ve been leading photography workshops within the mountainous areas of the UK for around 8 years. My passion is for mountain landscape photography and astrophotography. I hold the UK Mountain Leader award, which enables me to lead groups within mountainous areas of the UK, teaching people about the fundamentals of landscape and astrophotography. Teaching photography gives me a great deal of pleasure, whether a client is struggling to get to grips with all the functions on their camera, or they need help in composing a pleasing image, it’s satisfying knowing that they’re going home with new found skills and techniques to further their photography.

This image was taken from the summit of Ben Lomand in Scotland during sunrise, after a cold wild camp just below the summit.

I’ve now decided to offer photography holidays based at our glamping pod here in the Scottish Borders. The pod is set in beautiful surroundings, with an array of photographic interest in the area. Guests have exclusive use of the pod, whilst being taught photography principles based on the customers needs. We look into the exposure triangle, correct focusing, framing an image for a pleasing composition, editing images using software such as Lightroom, and much more. During the photography holiday we will visit some of the many archeological and scenic sites in the valley, practicing the techniques and methods being taught. One such site would be the Neolithic stone circles, which we can shoot during sunrise, sunset or even at night for some astrophotography.

The photography holiday consists of 3 nights stay in the dark skies glamping pod, and 3 days of photography tuition. Arriving early on the first morning, we’ll get you settled in to the pod and have a quick chat about your requirements, experience and any areas of photography that you need help with. Over the next 3 days we will visit many of the photographic sites within the valley to practice the elements being taught. The days will consist of around 6 hours of teaching and practicing at various locations, before returning to the glamping pod to process images using Adobe Lightroom. Some days may consist of heading out shooting for a few hours in the morning, then a few in the evening for sunset or the night sky. The course will relaxed and flexible, so we can make the most of the weather and your time. During the downtime when we’re not out shooting or processing images, guests can relax and unwind in our luxury glamping pod, and beautiful surroundings. My aim is to send guests home with some new skills and techniques to really push their photography to the next level, and have some great images to take home from their time here.

Our photography holidays are offered on a self catering basis, but guests will get treated to breakfast, lunch or dinner on a couple of the days at our local community hub and cafe. The price for the holiday and photography tuition is £475 for individual photographers, and £50 per head thereafter, up to 4 people. For groups of 4 people we can hire out our 2 berth caravan as well, for no extra charge, to give guests more space. Non photographers are welcome to come along too, if they’d like to relax whilst their partner or friend is out on the course. Or they can come along and visit the sites with us. To book you can check our availability below, then send us a message saying you’d like the photography tuition on your chosen dates. You can visit our photography holiday page on our website here, Photography Holidays