Sonoma Coast
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Overview
Characterized by the ebb and flow of tides and fog, California’s sleepy Sonoma Coast features light, atmospherics, and landscape as fine as the region’s famous pinot noir. Dramatic headlands, sea stacks, and beaches are sculpted by the Pacific waves and the action of tectonic plates along the San Andreas Fault. The rugged beauty here offers unending opportunities for passionate photographers. This advanced workshop is geared for photographers who are fairly comfortable with the fundamentals of photography and digital workflow, and who seek higher-level mentorship.
Instructors Jeff Foott and Jerry Dodrill will lead eight field sessions to explore remote coves, sea arches and tidepools, coastal ridges and steep canyons filled with redwood forest. They will share insights that will help you to refine your creative vision, composition skills, and field techniques, understand the practical implications of human visual cognition, explore ways to use the element of time to expand your creative horizons, and help find ways to add greater purpose and meaning to your photography.
Our basecamp at historic Timber Cove Inn, located on a headland with dramatic views of sea stacks and surf, serves as an excellent position from which we will set off for a range of photographic objectives from Bodega Bay’s bluffs and sand dunes to the Russian River, Fort Ross, and the sculpted tufoni sandstone formations and wind-sculpted bishop pines at Salt Point. We will visit mysterious Bowling Ball Beach and the historic Point Arena lighthouse. Special features of this workshop include a field session in a scenic ridge-top old-vine Zinfandel vineyard, and a private wine tasting dinner with a local wine maker.
Acclaimed outdoor photographer Jerry Dodrill has spent the last fifteen years living and photographing along the Sonoma coast, chasing light and storms, and seeking out the exceptional opportunities offered by this little-photographed landscape. The Sonoma Coast is a photographer’s dream come true in contrast to the restricted access and crowds of more heavily trafficked destinations further south. The subject matter and freedom to explore the coastline is exceptional, and photographers are able to pursue their creativity without distraction.
Instructors
Jeff Foott
- Having had the good fortune to work and play in nature most of my early life, it became obvious to me I had to spend my life outside. After ...
Jerry Dodrill
- Jerry Dodrill has been an award-winning professional photographer and highly regarded photography teacher for more than two decades. A protégé of the late legendary adventure photographer Galen Rowell ...
Gallery
Pricing
Highlights
- Two top instructors and a small group limited to ten participants
- Splendid weather for photography on the coast
- Eight field photography sessions
- Constructive group critique sessions
- Includes excellent single-occupancy lodging, overlooking Timber Cove.
- Fine dining, including Sonoma County wines with dinners, plus a tasting dinner with a local winemaker.
- All participants will be entitled to have two free 20″x30″ prints made of their own work, by the master printmakers of West Coast Imaging
Topics to be covered will include:
- The Evocative Image – Creating compositions that evoke emotion, and stimulate imagination and impression
- The Path to Composition – photographer as visual route-finder
- Working the Scene – the active process of refining compositions in changing conditions
- Embracing the Time Factor – super-long exposures, motion blur, time-lapse, and multiple exposures
- Photography with Purpose – using personal projects to focus your creative vision
- Best practices for optimum sharpness
- Stitching for high resolution and panoramas
Accommodations
Perched in quiet isolation on a headland overlooking the Pacific, Timber Cove Inn is our base for the duration of our workshop. Its location provides easy access to our field locations. This package includes four nights of single-occupancy lodging overlooking Timber Cove itself, all meals, and adult beverages with dinner. Prorated fees are available for double occupancy and for those who do not require lodging. A variety of excellent area restaurants serve great California cuisine, local seafood, and fine Sonoma Coast wines.
Travel
Expectations
This advanced workshop offers the next step for those who feel they are photographing competently, with a good grasp on the technical fundamentals of digital cameras, exposure, and a functioning digital workflow, but who are ready to focus on more specialized development. The small group size and two gifted instructors will ensure that everyone receives one-on-one time to address their particular interests, challenges, and priorities.
In addition to a warm welcome, great amenities, an expertly managed itinerary, and superb locations, you can expect highly engaging, insightful, and effective instruction from Jeff and Jerry, both of whom have earned stellar reputations among their workshop students over the years. Jeff is a life-long nature lover and visual storyteller, which led him a long and successful career as a preeminent nature cinematographer and still photographer. Jerry had the good fortune to be mentored by the legendary photographer Galen Rowell, and has gone on to become highly respected or his work by amateur fans and professional peers alike. Add to that their upbeat good humor and thoughtful care for the needs of their clients, and you’ve got a truly winning combination.
We will meet at Timber Cover Inn on the afternoon of September 14th, and after an orientation session and check-in, we will head out for our first field photography session. We will adjourn following the final critique and discussion at around 3pm on September 18th.
Sonoma Coast
Closed
