August 15, 2010 9:40 PM

I had an exciting weekend where I took a photography workshop! It was a Father’s Day gift from my wife and kids, and since Father’s Day was a couple of months ago, I was very anxious for this weekend to come. The workshop was held by the Aperture Academy (www.apertureacademy.com) It was an incredible time, where I spent Saturday afternoon/evening (1pm to 9pm) taking great pictures of the San Francisco/Marin Headlands area. The other people taking the workshop are great people, and great people who share similar interests, such as photography, just makes for a great day.

We encountered awesome weather during the workshop. No fog interrupted our afternoon shoot. We started at Baker Beach, where we took our first photos of the Golden Gate Bridge. I also took the time to take water shots of the crashing waves, where I ended up getting my tripod and feet wet. We also ran into some fully nude people, as Baker Beach is one of the only beaches in the Bay Area where full nudity is legal.

From there, we went on to Fort Point. After being in the Bay Area for 10 years, this was my first visit to this historic landmark. The Fort had awesome architecture to photograph, and it had a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, and San Francisco’s cityscape. I learned more about composition at this stop.

We then went off to Sausalito (another first visit for me) where we stopped to warm up with some hot coffee and eat some dinner at the Taste of Rome Caffe. Great little place right by the marina. This is where the weather wasn’t as cooperative. We headed out to Rodeo Beach to take pictures of the sunset, but the cloud cover prevented us from seeing the sun at all.

Finally, we headed up to the Marin Headlands to take some night shots of the Golden Gate Bridge. What a breathtaking experience to see the bridge at twilight. An even better experience is to capture the moment on film (digital film in this case).

I used Manual on my camera for all of my shots, which is a first for me. I had a great time on this trip, and I recommend others to take a workshop like this. Here is the link to the blog of our trip. Here are some of the pictures I took too.

http://www.apertureacademy.com/photography-workshop-sf-aug14-2010.php

~rb