On an unusually warm and blustery afternoon, today’s workshop began in the North Bay. The seven of us gathered briefly where we did introductions and discussed the fun that we were going to have this afternoon/evening. It was great to see familiar faces as most of the class were returning students. Our adventure then began.

Our first location was above Golden Gate Bridge at Battery Godfrey (Completed in 1895), which offers multiple striking vantage points of the Pacific Ocean and the Golden Gate Bridge. Despite the warm weather attracting large crowds and difficult parking, we all managed to find a place. We reconnected in a cypress grove with a great bridge view. Nearby was another set of trees that we could use to frame our bridge images, too. Being high on a cliff, we had great views of pelicans soaring, boats sailing and huge cargo ships passing in and out of the bay. When everyone created a variety of images, we headed back to our cars.

For the next stop, we headed over to Fort Point. The rusting old anchor chains have great texture and make a great photographic element in front of the Golden Gate Bridge. We were able to shoot many images in this area including boats going under the bridge, kite surfers flying through the air and sun rays blasting through the bridge’s iron structure.

When everybody had a huge variety of compositions, we all headed north across the bridge for another great spot with fewer crowds. The sun was still high in the sky and adding great characteristics to the images. As sunset was approaching, we did not stay long. We headed up the hill making a brief stop at the top of Hawk Hill. The iconic view from here never gets old. We them headed down the long, picturesque single lane roadway staring at the ocean and made our way to Rodeo Beach. After a short walk across the sandy beach, we arrived at the sea stacks and low tide. We were there just in time to watch the sun melt into the horizon just between the two large rocks. It was a great sight to see. After shooting the sunset, everyone turned their cameras in other directions to shoot waves, bluffs and other great scenes.

We were then off to our final location of the night. Our group of smiling photographers found a lesser used vantage point of the bridge that is seldom crowded. We were able to have the area by ourselves to capture nighttime images of the bridge with the Bay Bridge and San Francisco in the background. This spot and the growing darkness also allowed us to work on long exposure images and capturing light trails.

After we got a number of great low light shots as the fog was rolling in, it was time to call it a night. Our group returned to our vehicles, said goodbyes talked for a few more minutes about future workshops and photography. In the blink of an eye, the workshop was already over. Time well spent and our group of tired photographers hit the road to go rest and scroll through there a haul of images.

Looking forward to seeing everyone again in future workshops.

Until Next Time,

Kevin 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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