Action Photo Tours

Who runs it and where

Action Photo Tours runs its own photography day tours and multi-day workshops, with the tagline "By Photographers, For Photographers" and the stated mission "To Help YOU Capture YOUR Best Images!" Its founder, David Swindler, is an award-winning landscape and wildlife photographer based near Kanab, Utah; the team page says he trained in chemical engineering, worked in the semiconductor industry on optics and photolithography, and left that job in 2014 to follow photography full time. It lists recognition for him from the International Photography Awards, the Siena International Photo Awards, International Aerial Photographer of the Year, the Sony World Photography Awards, International Landscape Photographer of the Year and National Geographic.

Day tours run in southern Utah and northern Arizona around Kanab, where one reviewer says the group met its guide at the company's office. The workshop menu is much wider, with Southwest, Northwest, Southeast, Alaska and international workshops grouped by landscape, wildlife, night and aerial photography. Prices are in US dollars.

Southwest day tours and prices

The Arizona and Utah page lists each day tour with a per-person price and length. The Wave, White Pocket Sunset, Alstrom Point Sunset, Toroweap Sunset, Zion (sunrise or sunset), Bryce Canyon Sunrise, Coyote Buttes South Sunset and the full-day Slot Canyon tour are each $325 per person for 8 hours. The half-day Slot Canyon tour is $165 for 4 hours, Grand Staircase Escalante runs $165 to $325 for 4 to 8 hours, and Night Photography is $425 for 6 hours. White Pocket Overnight and Toroweap Overnight are $695 per person and include outfitted camping and night photography. Custom tours start at $325 per person per day, and a "Traveling as a Single?" section is aimed at solo guests.

One reviewer explains why a guide helps at White Pocket: the drive is an hour on paved highway and then another hour on a very bumpy back road that needs a four-wheel-drive, high-clearance vehicle.

Multi-day workshops

The Arizona and Utah page presents multi-day workshops as "Immersive Photo Adventures," and neither it nor the homepage lists their dates or prices. The reviews it shows give a sense of the range: a 5 day Marble Canyon workshop in Arizona with drone and still photography, based at the Cliff Dwellers hotel; a Level Up Moab week in Utah; a Death Valley workshop from March 15 to 20, 2026; Milky Way workshops in the Bisti Badlands and White Pocket; Mount Rainier, Glacier National Park and the Palouse; the southern Oregon and northern California coast; wild horses in Utah; the southern plantations around Charleston, South Carolina; and trips to India and Patagonia.

Instructors and how the days run

The team page introduces a larger team than the founder alone: instructors Kevin McNeal (a Washington State landscape photographer who was grand winner of the landscape category for Nature's Best Magazine, was selected for the Smithsonian National Museum of History and contributes to Outdoor Photographer), Ryan McGinty (who lives in the Palouse and studied at Brooks Institute of Photography), Wendy Casey (a Utah-based landscape and wildlife photographer since 1982, with a passion for wild horses), A.J. Rich, Shane McDermott, Josh Miller (who writes the "Chasing Light" column for Outdoor Photographer), Kevin Dobo (based in Kanab, with a focus on monsoon storms) and Sarah Shumaker (who specializes in night skies), plus an operations and logistics manager and a client relations director.

The profiles show what each instructor teaches. A.J. Rich, with more than 25 years as a photographer and art director, covers focus stacking, panoramas and exposure blending. Shane McDermott has led photo workshops for over ten years and guides guests through RAW processing afterward. Sarah Shumaker teaches Milky Way work and Lightroom and Photoshop, Wendy Casey runs hands-on sessions on Manual mode and collaborative post-processing, and Josh Miller, a credentialed teacher, has shot assignments for National Geographic and the Sierra Club. Operations manager James Surveyor previously ran the Moenkopi Developers Corporation of the Hopi Tribe for thirteen years. A reviewer on the India trip adds that David sent the group detailed instructions for the steps before the flight.

The homepage lists "Small Groups. Expert Prep." among its reasons to book, without giving a number. Reviews, the company's selection shown through a review widget, describe the pace plainly. One says "it's not for the faint of heart," with starts well before dawn, late nights with a break in the day, and hikes to the locations, along with lessons in focus and exposure bracketing and in Lightroom and Photoshop. Another says guide Shane McDermott was "very easy going and willing to help us in anyway we needed." Others describe flexible schedules timed to put the group in the right place at the right time, and Ryan McGinty's profile says he checks weather apps for sun, rain and cloud predictions to choose locations.

The site does not state fitness requirements, accessibility arrangements or dietary provisions for the overnight and multi-day trips.

Booking and terms

The menu links to Terms and Conditions, an FAQ, a What To Expect page and a contact page, but the day tour and team pages do not state deposits, payment methods or cancellation windows. A Loyalty Program offers "Save 10% on Tours and Workshops!" without its conditions on the page, and gift cards come in any amount, never expire, can be used on any tour or workshop, and are confirmed by email. A free ebook and email tips list is offered on the homepage.

Reviews, gaps and who it suits

The review widget says "Trusted by Over 900 Reviews" and shows an overall 4.9 from 969 reviews drawn from Google and Tripadvisor. The site also highlights a 2023 client photo contest, client galleries and a national TV appearance.

The main gaps are the dates and prices of the multi-day workshops, group sizes, and the booking terms, all of which sit behind other pages or a direct enquiry. Action Photo Tours suits photographers of any level visiting Kanab, Zion or Bryce who want a guide for places like The Wave, White Pocket or the slot canyons, and serious hobbyists ready for early starts and long days on a multi-day workshop. Travelers after an easy sightseeing drive will find the schedules demanding.