Who we are
National Park Photography Expeditions operates as an authorized permittee of the National Park Service, offering training and workshops within the Park Service & BLM lands. NPPE provides workshops and classes that teach our students landscape photography as a medium in fine art.
How it all began

Founded in 2015, National Park Photography Expeditions (NPPE) is an Art Photography Company dedicated to teaching expressive and subjective landscape art. In our first year, the company enrolled 12 students in two different national parks and today teaches approximately 120 students per year in 15 national parks and Bureau of Land Management Sites. In 2018 NPPE added our mentor program for art photography and is proud to applaud students whose work is now published and exhibited in online as well as brick and mortar galleries throughout the United States. 

Directed by our founder Bob Killen a National Park Service Artists in Residence and Adobe Certified Instructor  NPPE continues to expand its program with additional parks and public lands locations. The company is a financial supporter and member of the Mojave National Preserve Artist Foundation, a California Limited Liability Corporation, and operates as a National Park Service Commercial Use Authorized Photography Education Provider. 

THE NPPE WAY

If you want to advance your photography to a level of significant personal expression, then you came to the right place. So slow down, relax and let us share how our Masterclasses and First Horizon Workshops can help you grow and succeed.

Our Workshops are a 3 or 5 day full immersion programs that teach a capture to post-production workflow to create fine art landscape photography. We are not a photography tour provider; we are a visual arts, photography education program. Thus, you will spend significant time at each location with your instructor to develop a deep understanding of your subject and theme and learn to complete your vision in post-production.

Our workshops are small, intimate, collegial, and instruction is hands-on.  Within your class, you will share ideas and experiences with fellow photographers who will become lifelong friends. We know that you will benefit tremendously from our guidance, advice, lectures, demonstrations, and reviews as we help you take your photography to the next level.

OUR METHOD

Our fine art landscape photography classes each use a three pronged approach to help you achieve your goals. Be it our “First Horizons” workshops or our “Master Class” series of instructions, and in part, our “Mentor Program”, they all approach your growth in our proven method for your success.

IN THE FIELD

You will work in selected backcountry locations and learn landscape art visualization, creative approaches to sky and ground compositions, light atmospherics, and our’ work the scene-work the camera’ methods to capture and express your subjective thoughts and feelings. We provide lectures and instructions for the application of documentary, narrative, and navigation landscape art approaches.  Masterclass students capture grand scenic, intermediate, and detail compositions with professional methods such as Stack Focus, Dynamic Range Capture, Lens Choice, ND Filter applications, ETTR, Landscape Gear Management, and more.

IN THE CLASSROOM

In the class conference room, you will learn an end-to-end post-production workflow with Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop to increase your work’s emotional range. You will learn foolproof methods with an instructor by your side to develop raw images, image segmentation, Lightroom luminosity and color techniques, color grading, tone principles, insights into landscape thematics, and how to create images that are ‘beyond the lens.

AT HOME

Upon your return home, you will receive 5 hours of online post-production training. This is a one-on-one program to help you complete selected images from the Field and expand your ability to visualize the final image. You may also extend your one-on-one training for an additional fee.

ONE HOUR:
$65
FIVE HOUR BLOCK:
$300
MEET THE NPPE TEAM
BOB KILLEN

Art collectors in twenty countries own Bob Killen’s fine art images, and he is one of the most highly rated, and sought after, Adobe and Fine Art Photography instructors in America. Bob combines his backgrounds in commercial photography, content development, and marketing processes, with state-of-the-art digital technology to create thematic images that explore western Americana with a vision that is beyond record. His principal work is to connect viewers to the desert landscape and a call for significant creative interaction with our obsession to abandon structures, places and things across a shared American landscape…

Study the science of art. Study the art of science. Develop your senses – especially learn how to see. Realise that everything connects to everything else.

— Leonardo da Vinci —
Our Endorsements
Are you ready to join us?

Click below to find which class best fits your schedule and your favorite National Park location. If online registration isn’t your style, you can always call us at +1 (866) 97-PHOTOS. We’re always happy to help.

scales of justice
CANCELLATION POLICY
  1. Due to limited class size, we request that you cancel at least 30 days before a scheduled class. This gives us the opportunity to fill the class. You may cancel by phone or by email. If you have to cancel your class, we offer you a credit to your account. You may use these credits towards any future class. However, if you do not cancel prior to 72 hours prior to the class, you will be subject to a loss of deposited payment for the class. NPPE has the only right to be flexible with this policy and will make determinations on a case by case basis.
  2. Cancellations made 30 days or more in advance of the class date, will receive a 100% credit. Cancellations made within the 30 day period will incur a 20% fee with the balance applied as a credit to the account. Cancellations made within 72 hours to the class will be subject to a 100% loss of registration fees paid.