Big Sur Photography Workshop, December 8, 2012
Back in January 2011, Sea to Summit Workshops’ first Big Sur outing was a memorable one…for all the wrong reasons. The moment we hit the parking lot, the rain started and never let up. We had wind, too. Despite the challenging conditions, we made the most of it, even if there was more talking about [...]
Death Valley Photography Workshop, November 2012
Stupefying. If you were to ask me how conditions were for our latest Death Valley workshop, that is how I’d answer you. Amazingly, insanely stupefying. We got our first inkling of what was to come the day before the workshop actually started. Jim and I went out scouting and ended up at a little-known salt [...]
California Coastal Workshop Recap – November 2-4, 2012
Our annual California Coast weekend workshop once again hit the coast with a great group with participants from the bay area, southern California, the east coast, and the great white north, Canada. After an introductory meeting and slideshow Friday night, we started Saturday morning with a colorful sunrise overlooking one of the best stretches of [...]
Santa Cruz Photography Workshop, September 22, 2012
With a great group of students and wildly varying conditions from brilliantly blue skies to moody fog, our latest Santa Cruz workshop was a great success. Our photographers learned a huge range of skills: everything from shutter speed and aperture interaction, to wave timing and capturing water motion, to advanced composition and filter theories. Many [...]
Santa Cruz Photography Workshop, June 23, 2012
It was a blustery day in June when Jim and I met six excited photographers for an afternoon of seascape photography. But we were missing someone. Where was our seventh student? Just then: a text and a phone call. Oh no, Alice’s car had died on the way here! Normally we like a little drama [...]
Filter Guide for Landscape Photography: Polarizers
Here at Sea to Summit Workshops, we often get asked for advice on which filters to purchase…and rightfully so! There are a myriad of photo filters on the market from UVs to Polarizers, NDs (neutral density) and GNDs (graduated neutral density), red filters, blue filters, and even gold-n-blue filters. But for landscape photography, there are [...]
Santa Cruz Photography Workshop, April 1st, 2012
Landscape photography and dramatic weather often go hand in hand. But when the rain was coming in sideways with howling winds just hours before our March 31st workshop, we decided to reschedule for 24 hours later. But if there isn’t a saying already, definitely “don’t trust the weatherman” certainly should be one that landscape photographers [...]
Big Sur Photography Workshop, March 3, 2012
Pizza, photography, and spectacular Big Sur scenery. Does a day get any better than that? Our latest sold-out workshop in Big Sur had everything you could ask for in a day of seascape shooting, except of course any clouds or drama in the sky. But it’s hard to complain about that when you’re overlooking the [...]
Santa Cruz Photo Workshop Wrap-Up, February 11, 2012
One of the talking points on our Santa Cruz workshops revolves around ocean safety. Another involves the dynamic nature of the ocean and all the wonderful ways it can be rendered with a variety of camera techniques. We also talk about the challenges unique to seascape photography. Well, the ocean made sure Sea to Summit [...]
Behind the Lens: Four Mile Beach Seascape
Step behind the lens to see how this compelling seascape photo was made. Josh Cripps runs through his thoughts on how he created this image before, during, and after he pressed the shutter button.
6 Steps to Better Seascape Photos
Here at Sea to Summit we’re pretty well respected for our seascape images, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that our coastal photography workshops, like Santa Cruz and Big Sur, are among our most popular. The ocean can be a surprisingly tricky place to shoot and budding photographers want to know what steps they [...]
Santa Cruz Coastal Photography Workshop: Blue Skies and Happy Photographers
It’s been great to see more and more women join our workshops as time goes on. Photography seems to be a male-dominated hobby and I’m really enjoying seeing that tide turn as more and more ladies get into it. On our latest workshop we had an exactly even split between men and women, beginners and [...]
Death Valley Photography Workshop, The Desert Landscape
11/11/11: Sea to Summit Workshops held its first annual Death Valley Workshop and couldn’t have had a better group of enthusiastic photographers. A big “thank you” to all in attendance: Sterling Hein, Graham Sher, Genevieve Arseneau-Nicklin (our three Canadian constituents), Francis (I’m usually the youngest) Peña, Mikko (don’t look at my camera) Varpiola, Mark Dodge and [...]
Big Sur Coastal Photography Workshop: “Adundant Sunshine”
As a landscape photographer, I check the weather…a lot. I have my favorite webcams and radar websites to track storms and cloud movement; many of these sites are on our Resources Page. As a workshop instructor, of course I wish the weather would cooperate and would be optimal for students to experience great light and [...]
California Coastal Photography Weekend Workshop
Seascapes, seascapes, and more seascapes! Can you ever get enough seascapes? We definitely put that question to the test on our recent 2-day Central California Coastal Photography Workshop. From sunrise to sunset it was non-stop seascapes. And despite the early wake-ups and long days, our students were as excited as could be as we drove [...]
Santa Cruz Seascapes Photography Workshop – July 23, 2011
Seascape photography is always a challenge. Salt water and electronics simply don’t like each other. The misty air can wreak havoc on lenses and filters and sand and salt are the arch enemies of a smooth functioning tripod. So why do we do it? Because we love it! And as we found out on our [...]
Big Sur Coastal Photography Workshop – June 11th
Big Sur doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to weather and Sea to Summit workshops. On our last Big Sur workshop we were practically drowned by the torrential rain. So this past Saturday when Jim, I, and our students pulled into the parking lot at Pfeiffer Beach under sunny skies, we thought luck was [...]
Santa Cruz Seascapes Coastal Photography Workshop – April 30th
As photographers it’s no question that we’re subject to the whims of the weather gods. And sometimes it seems as if they must have an incredible sense of humor. Back in February, one of our Big Sur workshops was deluged by 6 hours of driving rain. While we still had a good time and learned [...]
Santa Cruz Seascapes Coastal Photography Workshop – April 8th
A very cool thing about teaching a private group workshop is that all the students already know each other. On our most recent workshop Jim and I taught a group of photographers from Apple, and these guys were laughing and joking with each other from the get go. I think the fact that we were [...]
Santa Cruz Seascapes Coastal Photography Workshop – March 12th Write-up
Nothing better than teaching a group of eager, excited students, especially when you have great conditions! After encountering mist, drizzle, a full-on downpour, and even a tsunami warning on our last few workshops, Jim and I finally got to teach in nearly perfect conditions: nice warm sun early on in the day gave way to [...]
Santa Cruz Seascapes Coastal Photography Workshop – Jan 29th Write-up
Summer in the middle of winter. That’s how the weather was in Santa Cruz towards the end of January: sunny and 70 for days on end. As a sunshine-lover I’d normally think this was great, but the crystal clear skies had me worried that Jim and I would see only boring, bland conditions for our [...]
December 11th Coastal Photography Workshop Write Up
Seems like only yesterday we announced Sea to Summit Photography’s first coastal photography workshop. Well time just flies and before Jim or I knew it it was December 11th and we were meeting our first 8 bright-eyed and bushy-tailed victims, er, students. The group arrived on time (30 minutes early in fact), keen to learn [...]
Jim Patterson
Josh Cripps