2026 Photo Workshop Announcements

It’s that time of year again when I devote an entire Substack post to shameless self promo of my photo workshops. I have all the dates finalized, and I’m just finishing up with hotel room blocks. I plan on releasing the photo workshops in the same way as previous years. There will be an early registration period for alumni and Facebook Subscribers (become a subscriber ($5/month) — if I could figure out Substack Subscribers, I’d turn it on and that would qualify as well).

During early registration a limited number of seats open for alumni and subscribers. A week later all the seats open for registration and any remaining seats from the early registration period transfer into the general registration.

The dates are:

• April 9: Early in the morning, registration for alumni and subscribers opens. It is password protected. The password is found in either the Facebook Alumni Group or the Facebook Subscriber’s Group.

• April 16: Early in the morning general registration opens.

The reason that I’m not giving an exact time is I’m not sure how my new ticketing platform works as far as time zones. I’m hoping it will open at 12:01am CDT on April 9 and 12:01am CDT on April 16, but this is the first year that I'm running my alumni registration through the new platform. I switched to it mid-year last year and love it. It’s called TicketTailor. If you run events, I highly recommend it. Here’s my commissioned affiliate link: Join TicketTailor.

Sunset in Badlands National Park

2026 was a tough year to plan. Originally, I wanted to ride my bike across the country. I was going to take the summer off and do it. But with the economic uncertainty, I decided to skip out on that plan. This is the second time I’ve done that. I was originally supposed to do it in 2021, but economic disaster of 2020 got in the way. Now that I have a family, taking off on the long adventures that I used to do requires a different calculation. I’m conservative when it comes to risk management and that includes economic risks as well. So, I guess it’s 2031 for a cross North America bike trip if my body can still handle it at that age. That said, I left a gap of time to do some type of bike trip. I’m just not sure what it will be.

But I digress…

A small stream in northern Minnesota during the fall.

The Workshops

Workshops are split into the same three categories as the last three or four years: Minnesota Photo Workshops, Destination Photo Workshops, and Online Workshops.

Here’s a link to the workshop page on my website: https://www.bryanhansel.com/services/photography-workshops-and-photography-courses/

With online, it will likely be my Online Lightroom Class. I didn’t finalize this, because there are plenty of spaces open on my 2025 Online Lightroom Class. I’ve only taught one workshop so far this year, and most of these seats fill after a workshop when attendees want to dive deeper into image editing.

For my Minnesota Photo Workshops, I’m running many of the same popular photography workshops that I’ve run in the past. I’ll be doing a Lake Superior Winter (which is already open for registration for 2026 and starting to get sign ups), North Shore Waterfall Photo Workshop, Northern Night Sky Night Photo Workshop, Night Skies of the Gunflint, Lake Superior Fall Color, and Shadows of November (long exposure).

I’m also adding a new Early Season Milky Way Photo Workshop in May, and I’m adding a North Shore of Lake Superior Wildflower workshop in June.

I’ll also add this: I may add a North House Folk School 1.5-day course as well. I’m not sure if I’ll be running my Hand-Drawn Map Making Course again this year or next. Interested? Let me know.

For Destination Photo Workshops, I’m running my Badlands and Black Hills Photo Workshop, but I’m moving it to the fall instead of early summer. I’m also planning a Bayfield workshop (this one isn’t fully planned, yet, so it may not open on time). I’ve run Bayfield in the past and the end of May is a beautiful time to be there. I’m just finalizing a Death Valley Photo Workshop for December. That’s my favorite time of year to be there, and I’ve run that workshop many times.

Photography Clubs: This year I’ve been running mini-workshops for photography clubs. If your club is interested in a presentation during your regular meetings, I’d love to do one. If it is in-person, I like to run a mini-workshop for club members the day after the club presentation. Due to my travel schedule, it’s best to get these on the calendar at least nine months ahead of time.

Bloodroot just opening up.

Hey, Bryan, What Are Your Favorite Workshops?

All of them. I get asked this question often, and that’s my main answer. If you had to pin me down, here’s what I’d say:

I love winter and I love Lake Superior in winter, so that’s one of my top favorite ones. I used to live in Rapid City, so the Badlands and Black Hills workshop feels like returning to a home. I love that. Before I visited Death Valley, I thought it would be cool to go there maybe once, but I fell in love with it. I’ve spent something like 200+ days in the Smoky Mountains, and if there was another park where I could do that, it would be Death Valley.

Cook County, Minnesota, which is where my night sky classes happen, is one of the darkest spots in the world. We have one of the largest International Dark Sky Association Dark Sky Sanctuaries in the world. It’s hard to beat the night skies that we have here. If I could only run one type of workshop, it would be dark sky workshops. I remember one year when we had three nights of northern lights on a five-day workshop. On the fourth night, the group asked if we could shoot something other than northern lights. That was fun! (We still shot some northern lights.)

A dock on a lake in northern Minnesota under the glow of northern lights and countless stars.

I love long exposure photography. I love flower photography. I can’t leave those out.

If you know me well, you know that I’m not a big fan of fall colors. But I’m working on it. Still, it’s hard not to love the north shore during fall, especially considering we visit some of the best overlooks in the county, a maple syrup factory, gravel roads that twist and turn, lakes surrounded with brilliant yellows and reds. It’s always so much fun to be outside during that time of the year, because the weather is usually fantastic.

See, I love them all. I wouldn’t be teaching them if I didn’t love them. When I was in high school, I had a passionate photography teacher and passionate English teacher. When I was in college, I had a passionate religion teacher and passionate fiction writing teacher. After college, I’ve taken classes from passionate woodworkers, print makers, watercolorists, haiku poets, and more.

You could tell that they loved what they taught, and when I was starting out teaching photo workshops I decided that I was only going to teach subjects that I was passionate about. I’m lucky that I get to do that.

I hope that you will check out my 2026 Photography Workshops, and thank you so much for making my professional life so rewarding. I can say that teaching photography has been a dream and the best job that I’ve ever had (and I’ve had some great jobs, such as being a sea kayaking guide, a park nark, and a trash collector). Thank you.

Spring leaves near Bayfield, Wisconsin.

Until Next Time

I’m off to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park for a photo workshop soon, so there will be new photos from my favorite national park soon. I’m so excited to get back there again! Thanks again for reading today, I’ll see you again in two weeks.

Until then, here’s the parting shot of waves on Lake Superior last week.

Waves on Lake Superior during a recent storm