Big Sur is by far one of the most beautiful coastlines in the world and one of my favorite locations to photograph in California. The jagged coast, abundant sea life, herbal scents, and massive waves are just a few of the many qualities that Big Sur has to offer. Aperture Academy’s Big Sur workshop starts in the Carmel Shopping plaza. Here we conduct a brief orientation before heading south on highway 1.

The first location on our itinerary was a beautiful collection of Cala Lillies in Grapatta State Park. I gave a brief photo lesson to those who were new to photography and then instructed the group to focus on the large picture as well as the more intricate details in the scene. We worked the Cala Lillies pretty hard before heading to our next destination which was the incredible McWay Falls. This waterfall has to be one of the most beautiful waterfalls in the world! The group quickly got to work at framing up the waterfall with their wide and mid range lenses and after a bit of time we headed back north for sunset. Our sunset shoot was at Soberanes Cove in Garrapata State Park. There, the group practiced using long shutters to blur the waves that were crashing on the beach.

Once the sun had set, we drove to Bixby Bridge for one more shoot. There we shot long exposures to capture streaks of light from car headlights. We shot until blue hour had faded into night and then packed up and headed back to Carmel to conclude the workshop.

Until Next Time,

Mike and the rest of the Aperture Academy Team

P.S. If you'd like to join us at one of our workshops, you can find the schedule/sign up here.

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