What’s better than cursing around the bay on a warm Saturday afternoon? Cruising around the bay with a fine group of new friends who have the same interest in photography as you! The best part of all of this is that you don’t have to worry about those pesky family members nagging you to leave after five minutes!

After a short orientation in Marin City, The group loaded up into “Ap Cab” and we were off to Battery Godfrey. This iconic location looks directly across the Golden Gate bridge and is a great spot to get folks familiar with landscape photography concepts. After people started getting comfortable, we walked to another location for a slightly different angle of the Golden Gate.

Once everyone had their fill at Battery Godfrey, we made our way back across the bridge to the Marin Headlands. Our first stop was high above the bridge and city on top of Hawk Hill. This is easily one of the most impressive views of the entire bay area. It’s almost as if you’re looking down from an airplane. We then drove down the road a short ways and instructed the group to put on their longer lenses in order to frame the Trans America building in the window of the north tower of the Golden Gate bridge. This is a unique way to shoot the bridge and city that most photographers overlook.

By this point in the workshop, everyone was really starting to learn how their cameras function and getting some great shots. We drove down to Rodeo Beach and took a short hike to some beautiful sea-stacks. I love teaching at this location because it is a very active environment. You have to be ready for the surf to come in and hit your shutter at just the right time. It’s a lot of trial and error, but when you catch the waves just right the photo really comes to life. We worked this location until sunset and then hiked back to the van. As the last glimpses of light disappeared we drove up to the Marin Headlands once more and visited one of our favorite spots. Battery Spencer is the lowest point on the Marin Headlands road and offers a superb view of the bridge with the north tower seemingly a stones throw away. This was the groups opportunity to give night shooting a try. After a good while of dragging those shutters out we concluded the shoot and drove back to Marin City. The group said their goodbyes and we parted ways.

Until Next Time,

Scott, 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.

NOTE: You can see more workshop photos below the comments.