We had a bunch of calls early Saturday Morning. “Is the class cancelled?” “Is it going to rain on us all day?” And if we’ve learned one thing over the past 10 years of doing our Marin Headlands class, it’s that the microcosm of weather that sits around the San Francisco Bay is hard for anyone to predict. We looked at various weather patterns, and it looked from our perspectives that the class would fall almost perfectly within some breaks in the storm. GAME ON!

Our class of 12 students started off first at Battery Godfrey. This little vista offers up a couple different perspectives of the Golden Gate. It gives Scott and me a chance to go over a lot of the basics of shooting in manual mode, and composition. The sky was amazing with puffy white clouds, and bits of dappled sunlight filtering through. What a great place to start! We typically spend a couple hours here getting everyone started off. 
Our next stop was Sausalito where we had a great little late lunch before heading off to Rodeo Beach to set up for sunset. We arrived to a nice warm glow of light along the horizon, and some great dark and moody clouds above. We helped the group to get set up, and capture the streaks of moving water as the surf pounded the coastline. Here we cover composition, and filter use for those who have the filter systems…we also try to go over the pros and cons to using filters and let those without them borrow one of ours and see how they work.

Once the clouds had covered up the horizon we worked with the group to try and see the beauty still available with the sky and how that might look in black and white.

Our last stop for the night was Battery Spencer, where we walked out to get one of the most iconic vistas of the Golden Gate Bridge with our camera. Clouds are all over the place, really capturing the light from the city and bridge…the images look awesome on the backs of the cameras. Scott and I help the group with compositions, and working from shooting in the daylight to night…and how that changes settings. Seeing a vista like this is always a really popular place to end our workshop. Many people don’t realize that in addition to their shots from throughout the day they’ll also get to grab a glimpse of night photography…it’s really awesome.

Everyone was eager to get home and start sifting through all their images, and continue to practice what they’ve learned throughout the day.

Until Next Time,

Brian, Scott, 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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